Assassin’s Creed Mirage shows off teleportation combat, defying fans’ wishes for return to basics

At Ubisoft Forward during Summer Game Fest 2023, we got an extended look at a full gameplay sequence in Assassin’s Creed Mirage, launching October 12. Old abilities return with some improvements, and new powers look other-worldly—literally. I think it looks great, but some of the old heads in the community aren’t convinced.

Mirage has been touted as a return to Assassin’s Creed’s roots, and the showcase for it opened with those very words. This is something we’ve been told time and time again, but the gameplay almost makes it feel believable. There’s stealth, blow darts, smoke bombs, and oh, what’s that? A magical teleporting chain assassination.

Again, I think it looks awesome. A complete return to the series’ roots but with a fresh lick of paint would be boring, and this seems like an interesting way to tie in the magic and lore of Valhalla to this next entry in the series. We see Basim scope out a courtyard and highlight three enemies guarding the balconies above his target. A mirage assassin appears next to them all in a pre-stab pose before Basim flashes between them in the blink of an eye like he’s fulfilling some sort of divine, murderous prophecy.

Some purist fans aren’t pleased. “Magic teleport attacks? ah come on, we want more focus on history, not dumb immersion-breaking super attacks,” writes BuildTheBase on Reddit. Some believe the teleporting to be an Animus quirk, where it simply speeds up the chain in the memory, but the fact the guards don’t react as their pals are murdered right beside them is causing people to doubt this theory.

Still others are both pleased and disappointed at the same time. “Teleportation magic bullshit looks dumb and parkour looks pretty slow but idk its still better than the last three games lol,” writes hemlo86. A much more concise comment left by piachu_ posed a simple question: “Why magic ffs?”

Other people are upset that it looks like the game is reusing animations from Valhalla. There are clearly reused assets in here, but that’s not a bad thing to me. Would you rather have one game every 10 years or a new one every three? We shouldn’t expect devs to reinvent the wheel every time they make a sequel when they’ve got a perfectly good wheel on file.

As the DOOM devs once famously tweeted, “You control the buttons you press.” So, if you don’t want to use the magical ability and would rather dart, smoke, and throwing knife your way through everyone, feel free. I’m gonna be teleporting to my heart’s content.