AC: Mirage is a Response to Players Tired of Valhalla
The relatively small size of Assassin's Creed: Mirage is partly to be credited to fans who complained about the bloated scale of recent installments in the series, with AC: Valhalla at the forefront.
It has been known for a long time that Assassin's Creed: Mirage - rumored to be released in the first half of 2023 - will be a much smaller game than AC: Valhalla, AC: Odyssey or even AC: Origins. Both in scale and setting, the upcoming game by Ubisoft is expected to refer to the original AC.
Interestingly, the decision to create a much more modest project was supposed to have been made - at least to some extent - due to complaints from fans of the series about the size of recent installments. This was revealed by Stephane Boudon - creative director of many Ubisoft games, including Assassin's Creed: Valhalla and Assassin's Creed: Mirage - in an interview for GamesRadar .
"(...) 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."
At the same time Assassin's Creed: Mirage is meant to be more than a "love letter" to the fans. After all, for nearly sixteen years of its existence, the series has developed significantly, while the first game was more like a prototype - this has been proven by the sequel, released 2 years later and better than the original in virtually every respect.
As an example of positive change, Boudon pointed to the blending of the protagonist into the crowd. In the first installments of the series it was possible to hide only in characteristically arranged groups of several people, which, as the developer (rightly) stated, was quite artificial. AC: Mirage is expected to use mechanics somewhat reminiscent of those used in AC: Unity, which assumes that all it takes is three bystanders side by side to make it difficult for guards to detect the protagonist. Boudon said that using this solution "is more challenging and complicated, but also addictive."
Assassin's Creed: Mirage is heading to PC, PS4, PS5, XOne and XSX/S.
