“The increased hardware power and the extended expertise we developed also allow us to have a richer and denser map compared to the first ACs, and it means for us more gameplay opportunities, more interactions between systems, more depth. It also means incredible and immersive details to treat Baghdad as one of the main characters of Mirage.” Case in point, the crowd blending system in early Assassin’s Creed games was pretty simple – look for obvious groups of NPCs and stand amongst them. The system returns in Mirage, but it will be implemented in a more realistic and natural way… “For the crowd blending for instance, we took a more systemic approach. In AC 2 you could see the pattern of NPCs grouping in their lane, it was incredible at that time, but it was a bit artificial. With the chaos and the vibrancy of Baghdad we wanted, a system like that couldn’t fit at all, so we aim for a more organic one a bit like in Unity where you blend automatically as soon you have three people in your vicinity, it’s more difficult to master and less predictable but way more immersive." Boudon also promises those early AC stealth mechanics have been updated. Classic tools like smoke bombs and throwing knives return, but you can now upgrade them in unique ways to suit your play style. While I’d love to see some actual gameplay rather than cinematics, the idea of a classic-style Assassin’s Creed made with modern tech that essentially lets you play Aladdin on the streets of Baghdad sounds pretty appealing. Hopefully, this is something Ubisoft is really committed to, rather than a throwaway. Assassin’s Creed Mirage sneaks onto PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, and Luna in the latter half of this year.
