The Assassin’s Creed series has had a bit of an identity crisis over the past decade. (No offense, Assassin’s Creed: Identity) From the stealth and urban parkour of the Desmond era to the post-Origins emphasis on EXP-based character progression and complete open world exploration, there have been several different playstyles implemented which have divided opinions of the series. The most recent mainline entry, Valhalla, has garnered especially mixed reviews regarding it’s vast open world, rpg-like progression, and lesser emphasis on stealth mechanics than previous titles. With the announcement of Mirage and Codename Jade in 2022 and the promise of Nexus VR by the 2023 holidays, fans are watching intently to see what the future of the series holds. The answer seems to have come this Gamescom with more info on Mirage, the next mainline title, and Codename Jade, the next mobile side story in the series.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage: A Look Back to Leap Forward
Ubisoft has released plenty of videos examining the setting and gameplay of Mirage since it’s announcement back in 2022. The big takeaway from it all is that the game is trying to return more to the games like the Ezio trilogy and the original game. At the same time, they've learned a lot since 2007 and are adding in new mechanics to enhance the gameplay features from that era. They’ve also taken great pride in recreating 9th century Baghdad in as realistic and beautiful a display as possible.
The world premiere trailer shown at Gamescom presented the visuals of the next mainline entry spectacularly and treated us to how the Arabic voice overs will sound, breathing more character into the world itself. The trailer gives us a conversation between main character Basim and fellow assassin Roshan about Basim’s history in Baghdad while exploring the city and showing off staple parkour, stealth, and assassination mechanics, all rendered in gorgeous 4k. Character movements looked buttery smooth and the scenery was beautiful, leaving a promising impression on the game’s quality when it releases.
Which brings us to the biggest surprise from the trailer. While Mirage was previously slated for release on Oct 12th, Ubisoft announced the release date was moving up a week to Oct 5th. Hopefully this will still give the game devs enough time to finish the game, but now fans get to look forward to playing the game just a little bit sooner.
Assassin’s Creed Jade: A Great Adventure on a Small Screen
Mobile entries in the Assassin’s Creed franchise have been a mixed bag of experimental titles and side scrollers like Chronicles, but the closest we’ve come to an experience like the mainline games has been Identity back in 2016. The game featured free roaming in small scale 3D spaces, some basic stealth, parkour, and combat options, and limited class-based character customization. It did it’s best to capture the feel of the main games, but it’s bite-size mission structure held it back from feeling like the true Assassin’s Creed experience.
Assassin’s Creed: Codename Jade looks primed to build off the foundations Identity laid, showing us what a full fledged mobile version of Assassin’s Creed could look like. The setting is 3rd century China, but details about the plot haven’t been divulged yet. Playable demos available at Gamescom showcase a fully customizable main character, a first in the series; an impressive selection of weaponry and combat options; and an expansive map to explore with great stealth and parkour mechanics. There’s plenty of room here for players to complete missions in a variety of ways. Even on a mobile device, the game carries the Assassin’s Creed feel with a familiar control scheme that even players who aren’t familiar with mobile gaming will easily acclimate to. Most impressively, the game is fully rendered using Unreal Engine for some amazing graphical fidelity on mobile devices.
There’s no release date yet for this title, but sign-ups are available now for the next round of closed beta.
Take the Leap of Faith
Exciting times are ahead for the Assassin’s Creed franchise as it looks to rediscover its roots. Mirage stands to provide us the stealth and parkour action the series pioneered, while Codename Jade pushes the limits of the mobile experience to give us a great Assassin’s Creed game on-the-go.
For any that haven’t been sold on the last few games in the series, these next entries might be the games you've wanted for a while. For those that loved the latest games, I encourage you to still try these games; the return to a more classical and historical structure might mean you find something new to love alongside the visual treat.
