Assassin’s Creed Mirage is a smaller Assassin’s Creed game with a $49.99 budget price. This move was apparently at least partially influenced by fans who had grown tired of the series’ ballooning scope.
According to GamesRadar, Creative Director Stéphane Boudon stated that this move was a “convergence of several inputs,” but the community was the first in their mind.
“Amongst our fans, we started hearing the desire for a character-driven story, focused on the core pillars of the first [Assassin’s Creed titles] in a more intimate scale,” he said. “It resonates with us as well, as developers, and this was the starting point of the project.”
2017’s Assassin’s Creed Origins was the first entry to push further out into traditional RPG territory and takes around 30 hours to beat and 84 hours to complete, according to HowLongToBeat. 2018’s Odyssey expanded on that and takes around 45 hours to beat and 144 hours to complete. 2020’s Valhalla is the longest in the franchise, as it takes about 60 hours to roll credits and around 140 hours to complete. While that completion time is a tad lower that Odyssey, Valhalla has much more free and paid DLC, meaning that number is closer to 200 hours. (Editor’s note: It took me 197 hours to get every single trophy in Valhalla. – Michael Leri)
Even though the recent entries have performed well critically (they sit at 85, 84, and 83, respectively) and commercially (Origins and Odyssey have sold over 10 million units and Valhalla has generated over a billion dollars), many fans and critics have voiced their displeasure over the series’ increasing bloat. Some see it as going away from the franchise’s roots, while others just want a more focused game with less repetitive content.
Ubisoft initially said that Valhalla was going to be smaller than Odyssey, as Ubisoft Middle East Head of Communications Malek Teffaha said in a now-deleted tweet that the team “addressed criticism on this one” in regards to its length. This was quickly walked back as Ubisoft stated the map was “probably a bit larger” than the one in Odyssey.
The truth is a bit harder to exactly calculate. As shown by DG VFX’s comparison video below, it seems as though Odyssey and Black Flag are the biggest entries. However, those installments have much more water, and Valhalla has multiple landmasses in the core game and its DLC that aren’t accounted for, meaning Valhalla likely still has those games beat. Regardless, it seems as though Mirage won’t be in contention for that top spot.
