Review: ‘Assassin’s Creed Mirage’ is a return to what made early games so great

'Assassin's Creed Mirage' plays more like a game from the Ezio era rather than one from the modern trilogy.

When it comes to “Assassin’s Creed,” sometimes less is more. That’s how I felt over the past three iterations of the series that covered the Egyptian, Greek and the Viking civilizations. They were sprawling epics that pushed players to explore leagues of rolling hills, seascapes and deserts. They also required an inordinate amount of time to complete.

Those titles took upward of 80 hours to see everything. In an effort to provide an open-world experience comparable to CD Projekt Red’s “The Witcher III: The Wild Hunt,” Ubisoft lost sight of what made “Assassin’s Creed” distinct. The latest entry, interestingly enough, began as downloadable content for “Assassin’s Creed Valhalla” but grew more ambitious into a standalone title.