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Assassin’s Creed Mirage gameplay trailer shows a return to franchise roots

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This story is part of our Summer Gaming Marathon series.

Ubisoft showed off three new Assassin’s Creed games — Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR, Assassin’s Creed: Codename Jade, and Assassin’s Creed Mirage — at the June 2023 Ubisoft Forward event.

Basim leaps at an enemy in Assassin's Creed Mirage.
Ubisoft / Ubisoft

Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR will release on Meta Quest 2, and players can play as three characters: Ezio, Cassandra, and Connor. Players can block, parry, counterattack, and duel with enemies in VR. There are also a variety of different weapons to choose from, such as hidden blades, swords, tomahawks, bows, crossbows, and throwing knives. The game will also feature comfort settings, like peripheral vision blocking and teleportation to mitigate nausea, vertigo, and fear of heights. It will release sometime during holiday 2023.

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Assassin’s Creed Codename Jade is a mobile game set in China in the imperial city of Xianyang. It follows Xia as he protects his home from Xionanu raiders from behind the Great Wall. Players can now pre-register for the game’s closed beta, but a release date was not revealed. Finally, Ubisoft showed off gameplay footage of Assassin’s Creed Mirage. It looks to be a return to the franchise’s roots, just like in older Assassin’s Creed games, with Basim climbing across scaffolding and buildings. Basim is also shown jumping into bushes to soften his landing.

Assassin's Creed Mirage: Gameplay Walkthrough | Ubisoft Forward

Basim can utilize various tools like blow darts to incapacitate enemies, as well as explosives to distract them. After taking over a scout tower, he can call on his pet bird, Enkidu, to scout out areas and find his target. After a combat encounter, Basim can choose to finish off remaining enemies or escape into the crowd to lose them. Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR was first announced in 2020 alongside a Splinter Cell VR game. Ubisoft is also working on two other games in the franchise, one code-named Red and the other Hexe.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage will release on October 12, 2023, for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.

George Yang
George Yang is a freelance games writer for Digital Trends. He has written for places such as IGN, GameSpot, The Washington…
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