Assassin's Creed Mirage is Proof That It's Time for an AC1…

Debuting in November 2007, the Assassin's Creed franchise is approaching its 16th birthday, and what a journey those 16 years have been. Originally conceived as a Prince of Persia spinoff, Assassin's Creed quickly took on a life of its own. Over the last decade and a half, it's become one of the most popular franchises in all of gaming, offering a great blend of action-adventure, stealth, and RPG gameplay all wrapped up in a fascinating historical package. While Assassin's Creed Mirage looks to be a smaller entry in the long-running franchise, it's still turning plenty of heads.

Announced back in September of last year following some leaks, Assassin's Creed Mirage is said to be a smaller-scale adventure set in 9th-century Baghdad, following Basim Ibn Ishaq, a character first introduced in Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Though Assassin's Creed Mirage is designed to be the next main entry in the franchise, it's not really pushing the series forward in terms of mechanics or setting, and instead is acting like a return to basics, which many fans seem incredibly excited for. If a return to basics is what fans are asking for, then a remake of the first Assassin's Creed seems like a no-brainer.

Assassin's Creed Mirage Shows Fans Want a Return to Basics

After 2007's Assassin's Creed was a massive hit, Ubisoft doubled down on the stealth-action gameplay for Assassin's Creed 2, and that formula received even further refinement with Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. Then, for the next five years and six mainline entries, Assassin's Creed's gameplay formula stayed largely the same. By the time Assassin's Creed Syndicate rolled around in 2015, many fans had grown tired of that formula, and seeing the numbers dip pretty significantly, Ubisoft took the franchise back to the drawing board for a few years.

Released in 2017, Assassin's Creed Origins marked the next phase of the franchise's life, taking the stealth/action-adventure elements of previous entries and applying them to a grander open-world, and adding some major RPG features for good measure. While a big portion of the fan base wasn't too happy with the big changes, for a general market it seemed to do the job, with Assassin's Creed Origins managing to breathe new life into the franchise, and create a formula that's been used ever since. But as time's gone on, that new formula has itself become stale, and fans are looking for another shake-up.

Ubisoft is marketing Assassin's Creed Mirage as that franchise shake-up. As soon as press releases started to drop for Assassin's Creed Mirage, it's been clear that Ubisoft wants to claim this game as a return to the series' simpler roots. A smaller setting, an increased focus on stealth, classic styles of parkour, and fully-fledged assassination missions all hearken back to Assassin's Creed's first few entries and that classic formula. While many fans were desperately pleading for a formula change back in 2015, nostalgia is a powerful thing, and many of those same fans are desperate for a return to those days.

The general reception to Assassin's Creed Mirage's marketing has been pretty positive so far, with the vast majority of fans praising the game's decision to return to the series' roots. Though it's still a little ways off, it seems likely that Assassin's Creed Mirage will perform fairly well in the sales department. If that is the case, then Ubisoft should waste no time in producing a remake of the original Assassin's Creed, with all the new bells and whistles carried over from Mirage. The desire for a return to that original formula is clearly there, and if Ubisoft didn't seize that opportunity then it'd be leaving money on the table.