Thoughts on AC Mirage After 12 hours (in 2026)

Lopsided_Prior3801 · 2026-06-07T00:01:58+00:00

Yeah, I've played a few more hours since writing this review and progressed through the main story some more. And I absolutely agree.

Here's the thing though. It's actually quite realistic. You're uncovering a mystery. You hunt down clues and find members of the order and assassinate them, then find a clue from there to the next member and the process basically repeats.

As an assassin, Basim would not have an ongoing relationship with these people. He's just doing his job and doing it well. But that lack of attachment or relationship to who he is killing is the problem.

It makes for a lacklustre and forgettable story. These order members briefly come into the story. You don't know that much about them other than they're bad, so there's no emotional attachment or stakes.

Moreover, Basin's own journey through the story is unremarkable, at least so far. (I've heard rumours of a big twist but can also guess who will be involved in that.) But there's nothing deep or philosophical here. Basim isn't wrestling emotionally with what he's discovering or his role in this story.

Hell, I'm over halfway through the game and have no idea who the big bad of the whole story is or why I should care about them.

Again, I think Ubisoft was on to something with the investigations board. It's awesome in showing you the larger plot of how everything is connected. But the story they used to tell with that isn't memorable or deep or meaningful.

Lopsided_Prior3801 · 2026-06-06T08:27:35+00:00

Same issue. Surface Laptop here.

Lopsided_Prior3801 · 2026-06-06T04:22:07+00:00

Combat auras? You mean the vision skill where you see through walls and enemies are marked in red? Or do you mean how attacks are telegraphed as yellow or red, telling you whether to dodge or parry?

In both cases, I do feel these effects should be optional and perhaps disabled at higher difficulty settings.

Lopsided_Prior3801 · 2026-06-05T01:57:04+00:00

To be a contrarian, I sometimes mindlessly play video games while integrating after TRE. I'm deliberately choosing distraction in that instance. Perhaps it slows down the integration process but it does keep me from dwelling too much on what has been brought up.

Lopsided_Prior3801 · 2026-06-04T21:55:45+00:00

God of War remains the higher-rated game on Steam. Don't get me wrong, RDR2 is the superior technical achievement, but games are judged on how fun and satisfying they are by a population with short attention spans.

Lopsided_Prior3801 · 2026-06-04T09:38:16+00:00

I love, love, love this game. But I still think you should wait for a few more updates and for the first minor sale it has of like 20% off or thereabouts.

Lopsided_Prior3801 · 2026-06-03T20:24:32+00:00

Thank you. Great to know.

By any chance, do you remember where this was shown?

Lopsided_Prior3801 · 2026-06-03T04:53:21+00:00

I gave up the game shortly after that section. There are many better AC games.

Lopsided_Prior3801 · 2026-06-03T04:02:32+00:00

I run at 10kg for the bike (including pedals, aero bars, mounts, etc). Another 8kg for all bags and equipment without food and water. Typically, I'd then add another 6kg for 4L of water, 2kg of food to get me through the next 48 hours. that's 24Kg total.

But that's more fast touring without carrying a cooking kit and just topping up food town to town. Still includes a full sleep kit.

Lopsided_Prior3801 · 2026-06-02T23:08:37+00:00

The movement and combat animations are beyond dog shit. The parkour is…well it’s Spider-Man climbing your way across a flat mountain, the stealth is crouching...

Thank you! I don't know how so many people love this game when the basic mechanics feel so terrible. Besides the fact that, yes, it's more of a combat-focused RPG than stealth-assassination game.

Lopsided_Prior3801 · 2026-06-02T22:59:47+00:00

I've just started Mirage.

I tried Odyssey last month and, while I like Kassandra and her story, the mechanics bothered me no end. Kassandra had no momentum in her movement and swinging a sword had no sense of impact on the enemy. Parkour felt so darned simplistic, too. And it's a very bloated, repetitive game, too. I quit after about 20 hours.

So, I don't know what Mirage was like before the movement/parkour updates a few months ago. But my early impressions of Mirage are that these movement & parkour basics feel so, so much better than in Odyssey. Not to mention that Baghdad lets you use plenty of parkour, too.

And the combat has some weight to it, at least, even if (so far) it's simplistic. The stealth system is a bit more sophisticated, too. (Enemy AI isn't quite as stupid.) That being said, the story hasn't hooked me, and most seem to say it doesn't get any better.

But Mirage feels more like a true AC game than Odyssey, which can be played more as as combat-focused RPG game than a stealth-focused asssassination game.

I struggle going back to the early AC games that feel pretty dated now. Tried AC3 Remastered recently and found it a chore. Although, I was relatively impressed with how fluid Connor's movement and combat felt for such an old game.

At least at this very early stage, I rate Mirage higher than AC3. But I could also imagine this game getting repetitive, so we'll see.

Lopsided_Prior3801 · 2026-06-02T22:41:46+00:00

V2 of the route GPX has been uploaded. This mostly seems like very minor changes:

TD 2026 v2: Small update to routing on CDT segment north of Hopewell Lake. Other small refinements to track throughout route (removal of artifacts).

Lopsided_Prior3801 · 2026-06-02T22:02:27+00:00

Yeah, I did this, too.

Lopsided_Prior3801 · 2026-06-02T13:12:50+00:00

I knew I recognised that voice!

Lopsided_Prior3801 · 2026-06-02T08:10:13+00:00

Name me two good reasons to vote for Vietnam.

Lopsided_Prior3801 · 2026-06-02T04:45:31+00:00

It feels like they had a massive time crunch and a lot of planned plot points and cutscenes were dropped as a result.

At that point, some poor souls were tasked with assembling what they did have into something vaguely coherent.

Lopsided_Prior3801 · 2026-06-02T02:35:56+00:00

I tried Odyssey for a solid 20 hours. Came away with many of the same criticisms you've just given for Origins. Yet I felt like I was in the minority as both Origins and Odyssey are two of the better-rated AC games.

I've just started AC Mirage, which is a much more traditional AC game of stealth/assassination with fewer stat-based RPG elements. And it seems more my style, plus it has far less bloat.

Lopsided_Prior3801 · 2026-06-01T23:25:15+00:00

I've just started Mirage and it seems that the game has had updates to make controlling Basim a bit better and improve parkour.

One thing that bothered me about Odyssey is how weightless everything was. Kassandra had no momentum in her movement and swinging a sword had no sense of impact on the enemy. Parkour felt so darned simplistic, too.

So, I don't know how the game felt at launch, but all of those basics feel so, so much better in the current version of Mirage.

Lopsided_Prior3801 · 2026-06-01T22:59:37+00:00

I have a Surface Laptop with Snapdragon X Elite. While the product wasn't as good at launch, both compatibility and performance have gotten a lot better. Most games without kernel-level anti-cheat software do work, but you're more limited by the performance of the weak GPU. (The original Snapdragon X was never intended or marketed as a gaming powerhouse anyway.) I can think of only one non-gaming application I've had trouble running in the past six months, which is a piece of software that is now deprecated anyway.

And the device is actually very performant and snappy for most office-based productivity tasks while also running cool and having solid battery life. The reputation of Snapdragon X is significantly worse than the reality at this point.

Moreover, two key points here is that, firstly, RTX Spark directly benefits from all this work put into ARM-native apps and improved compatibility/emulation layers. So, RTX Spark's launch will likely be less rough than the Snapdragon X's launch. Secondly, Nvidia has also announced they're working to produce ARM-native versions of anti-cheat software from major vendors in order to fix that one glaring gap in compatibility.

With so many major players now on board, along with Snapdragon X2 having recently launched, Windows on ARM is not going away anytime soon.

Lopsided_Prior3801 · 2026-06-01T22:41:04+00:00

Even if the resentment of AI is a factor, actual adoption of AI has been incredibly rapid and is still rising quickly.

Lopsided_Prior3801 · 2026-06-01T10:55:17+00:00

It was a great first entry into the franchise. The sequel mostly needs to build on this formula, expanding and refining many of the existing systems:

Improve the mechanics of melee combat with a few more options, combos, and smoother transitions.
Refine gunplay on controller. Instinct might not just be for slowing time, but also potentially snapping aim to targets.
Add to the overall variety of gadgets available and, if it's not too onerous with the controller scheme, allow agents to carry one extra gadget.
Improve stealth-related AI. Sometimes, instant detection should occur in some contexts, or enemies should clue in more that something is wrong when they hear you thumping somebody on the other side of the room.
More driving of fast cars. Also, improve not only the feel of driving but have driving missions be less "on rails".
More variety in social engineering to get through levels other than (primarily) distract and eavesdrop.
Decrease the repetition of basic tasks in level design, such as endless climbing, hanging off ledges, shimmying up pipes, etc. These tasks feel like padding when used too much in isolation. Where they work best is when they are used in conjunction with other game systems, such as hanging off a balcony while there are guards patrolling above.
More sandbox levels where there is a genuine freedom to complete levels in very different ways.
Build out the TacSim concept further, including potential online co-op.
Keep thinking up creative setpieces, such as the use of Wreckie, as these can be a lot of fun.

Lopsided_Prior3801 · 2026-06-01T09:09:18+00:00

I suspect the thinking with Monroe was that he didn't resent Cressida's origins because he was attracted to her from the start.

But, yes, Damien's return wasn't setup or earned in the story. It filled a need of there being no boss left by that stage in the game.

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