I Barely Made It Through the Prologue: Is Assassin’s Creed Mirage Worth Buying?
Is Assassin’s Creed Mirage worth it? Are you considering spending $49.99 on the game? I bought the game at the Black Friday discount and have already been regretting buying it after going through the prologue and making it to Baghdad. For me, the prologue simply does not do a good job of serving as a hook to excite my interest. I will list all the reasons to help you make your purchasing choice.
Key Takeaways:
- Is Assassin’s Creed Mirage worth it? Let’s start with a recap of the prologue.
- You might not like the main character Basim…
- The dialogues can be dreary and boring with too much formal and positive talking.
- Expect only one effective hook during the 2-hour gameplay.
Is Assassin’s Creed Mirage worth it? Let’s start with a prologue story recap. [Spoiler Alert!]
The main character Basim is the son of an architect. After the father’s death, he is forced onto the street and lives a tough life through stealing and working for Dervis. Dervis works for the assassins but only pays Basim humbly.
Dervis will commission you to steal a ledger as your first mission. The ledger records the harbor’s shipping. The lead of the assassins, Roshan, wants to know if a chest containing the important secret of the Order has been shipped already.
Basim finished the thievery mission but he’s unhappy about being commissioned to only simple tasks. From the conversation between Dervis and Roshan, he knew that the chest was of pivotal importance. So he took the risk and went into the Winter Palace to steal the chest with his friend Nehal. But the mission went south and Nehal killed Caliph to save Basim. The failure resulted in Dervis’s place being purged and Basim had to flee with Roshan to Alamut and join the Hidden Ones.
Basim received the training necessary in Alamut. But after spotting some mercenary from Baghdad appearing near Alamut, Basim was appointed to set off to Baghdad to scout the city. This brought an end to the prologue, which will take you about 1-2 hours to play through.
A main character who has much room to grow in the hero’s arc
Basim is depicted as a young man who is desperate to get recognition based on his skills. This urge for recognition has been the core motivation driving the whole plot of the prologue moving forward. He’s eager to take commissions from Dervis regardless of its bad pay. He infiltrated into the Winter Palace with Nehal without being approved by Dervis or Roshan because he deemed this as a chance to impress Roshan. (If you’re not a big fan of a rushy and irresponsible hero, Basim in the prologue will simply not be the type for you.)
As the plot unveils, it exposes that Basim is also a very immature figure. It seems very out of place to me when Basim blames Nehal for killing the Caliph and resulting in the death of all the children at Dervis’s place. Logically speaking, it was Basim insisted on stealing from the Winter Palace, causing them to be spotted by the Caliph.
From the prologue, Basim is certainly not a hero who can gain any moral approval or sympathy. The scene of the death in front of Dervis’s place has failed to arouse any of my sympathy for Basim after he pointed the blaming finger at Nehal.
Dialogues without sparks or surprises
Whenever I choose to dive into a AAA game, I always expect to have fun in exploring the stories and enjoying the dialogue among the characters. So far, Assassin’s Creed Mirage hasn’t delivered this kind of fun to me.
Basim often claims that he has the people’s best interest in mind, which sounds like a political speech before embarking on a government officer career.
“I am merely the son of a public servant who dedicated his life to the betterment of his people…”
These lecturing words from Basim are dry and soulless. Following this claim, Basim is going to steal wallets from the “people”. The irony and hypocrisy are plain to see in this contrast.
In other scenarios, the dialogues are pretty lengthy and the language is on the formal side of the spectrum.
“I am no stranger to scrapes and bumps, but I have learned to prevent them. And so should you.” –Basim
“That sees that good men are not cast aside as my father was. And no children left wondering what tomorrow will bring.” –Basim
There are also other dialogues from Alamut. For example, you can start a dialogue with the worker there.
“Mentor Rayhan is a wise man but he speaks of this mountain as if it was destined that we build here. We have patience and follow his guidance.” –Worker
The dialogues in Alamut are suffused with positive energy. Everyone shows respect and compliance, and there is not a single bit of negative word being said from the NPCs in Alamut. However, the buildup of an Elysium can be dulling for the gameplay. Because the sparks and surprises in the dialogues require the play of irony, criticism, and humor. The lack of tension in Alamut renders the gameplay of this part a lack of excitement, which leads to the next topic I’m going to discuss.
How many “hooks” are there in the prologue?
When the hero and characters don’t provide enough attraction for me to stay focused and hooked to the game, I turned my eyes to the climatic incidents happening during this time. All in all, there are three climaxes in the prologue:
- Basim gets in touch with the relic in the chest.
- Basim witnesses the children being killed.
- Basim officially becomes a member of the Hidden Ones in the cave.
In the 2-hour gameplay, this is a sufficient amount of climactic events happening to Basim. However, of all these three, only the second climax manages to incur my emotional reaction, because I remember talking to Jasib, the boy with the slingshot.
The other two scenes are not grand or novel enough to shock. Because you can expect something might go south from stealing the chest. And the light and magic that appear from the relic is not really grand or surprising, especially if you played Assassin’s Creed before. It is a very common light effect and design from the series.
As to the ritual in the cave, it is a good design to go through a cave lit with candles. But when it leads to the moment of cutting the finger, the arrangement of the desk will bring you an anticlimactic feeling: the casual way of the mentors standing around the desk, and the messiness of the desk with many miscellaneous things on it. The environment design brings down the sublimity.
Therefore, only the second scene gave me some adrenaline rush during the 2-hour play.
Conclusion: Is Assassin’s Creed Mirage worth it?
Is Assassin’s Creed Mirage worth it? From my observation about the prologue, I won’t expect too much fun from the story, the characters, or the dialogue style. (God knows it’s a big fall from the interesting spam emails of Cyberpunk 2077 to the lecturing dialogues about patience, contributions, and serving the dark.) Is there anything in the prologue of Assassin’s Creed Mirage that can keep me going in the gameplay? I’m certainly waiting to discuss more and hoping the game will get better after the prologue. I’m happy to see a different fighting system, and I’m glad that the climbing and stealth kill in the game is so smooth. More updates will be in place as I will continue my journey to Baghdad.
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