“Assassin’s Creed Mirage” Is Old School Short

When it began back in 2007, the “Assassin’s Creed” franchise had titles that ran around the standard length of an AAA game at that time – taking about 15 hours to complete.

Short of the expansion packs, all the main games in the series stuck not too far from that mark through to 2015 – the shortest being “Assassin’s Creed Rogue” at 10.5 hours and the longest for years was “Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag” at 22.5 hours, with most hovering around the 16-hour mark.

Then the franchise switched to a biennial release format and shifted the time period to more ancient settings, the gameplay shifting with them and playing up more of a traditional RPG angle. Subsequently, the game time to completion shot upwards with the most recent “Assassin’s Creed Valhalla” clocking in at 47 hours.

The upcoming 13th-century Baghdad-set “Assassin’s Creed Mirage” releasing this year comes as a response to those inflated playtimes. Speaking to GamesRadar, the game’s creative director Stéphane Boudon said they are responding to the game’s community, and fans request to change things up again:

“Amongst our fans, we started hearing the desire for a character-driven story, focused on the core pillars of the first ACs in a more intimate scale. It resonates with us as well, as developers, and this was the starting point of the project.”

The result, according to IGN, is a title expected to last somewhere in the region of 15 to 20 hours and much “closer to our original games” executive producer Marc-Alexis Cote tells IGN. He says to the outlet:

“It is a smaller Assassin’s Creed project. This was conceived [and] built to celebrate the 15th anniversary. So that’s why we’re using our modern Valhalla engine to build a smaller game that pays tribute to our original game by focusing more on stealth, on close-quarter combat, on parkour, and a denser city that goes back to our roots in the Middle East with Baghdad as the centerpiece.”

Because it’s a smaller game, “Assassin’s Creed Mirage” is also priced cheaper at launch too, with a $49.99 RRP. The company is continuing to develop its upcoming “Assassin’s Creed Infinity” platform, which will reportedly allow them to make different experiences of varying sizes available.