Assassin’s Creed: Mirage is forging the best kind of remake

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At one time, there were rumours abound that the upcoming Assassin’s Creed: Mirage would lead directly to (or be packaged with) a full-blown ground-up remake of the original game. It’s easy to see how this idea gained traction – Mirage has been sold to us from the start as something of a back-to-basics reset for the series that harkens back to the original game’s city-based gameplay and is set in the same “global region”.

So, it might seem like a no-brainer. The assets made to recreate 9th century Baghdad could surely be repurposed into a facsimile of 12th century Damascus. It makes sense, if you don’t get hung up on the fact that the two places are roughly as far apart in space and time as modern-day Paris and, er, Cromwellian Liverpool. In any case, Ubisoft staffers seemed keen to pour cold water on that prospect last year. Perhaps the project was shelved. Or, perhaps, Assassin’s Creed: Mirage is enough of a remake in itself that a separate, more explicit project is considered unnecessary.

The thing about video game remakes, right, is that they’re great for onboarding newcomers, but they’re not necessarily that interesting for veteran fans. Take the recent ground-up PS5 remake of The Last of Us, for example. It offered a fresh and modern interpretation of the original story and was well-placed to induct new audiences – some from the TV show, some who were simply too young to have gotten into it ten years ago – into the fandom of the world’s most discussed-to-death 7/10.

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