If you're a relatively recent Assassin's Creed fan, then Assassin's Creed Mirage is going to feel very different. Where Assassin's Creed Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla had massive open worlds to explore with dozens upon dozens of characters and quests, Mirage will take the series back to its more "character-driven" roots.
That is to say, it's not going to be open-world at all. Instead, Mirage will harken back to the original Assassin's Creed games and feature a more linear level design full of set-piece moments that drive the plot toward an epic conclusion. And that's probably a good thing, too, since Assassin's Creed games, and Ubisoft in general, have developed a reputation for bloating their titles with repetitive quests in order to artificially lengthen gameplay. Some fans don't mind, but others are finding it a little hard to deal with--especially in comparison with other open-world games like Elden Ring.
"Origins, Odyssey, Valhalla. They are all great games with the promise to live an epic journey in a strong fantasy," stated creative director Stéphane Boudon in an interview with 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."
Elsewhere in the interview, Boudon described how Mirage will return to a more traditional Assassin's Creed design, but will still be a vast improvement over the likes of Assassin's Creeds 1, 2, and 3. For starters, new hardware means the map will be "richer and denser" than the first AC games, with "more gameplay opportunities, more interactions between systems, more depth. It also means incredible and immersive details to treat Baghdad as one of the main characters of Mirage."
You can get a preview of what to expect in Mirage with Valhalla's Last Chapter, which brings Eivor and Roshan together for one last dance. Mirage doesn't have a release date, but it's expected to arrive sometime in 2023. Hopefully.