The Ringer-Verse - 'Assassin's Creed Mirage' Review and the 'Assassin's Creed' Reset | Button Mash

Episode Date: October 11, 2023

It is time to step into the role of assassin once more as Ben and Jess talk about the latest entry in the 15-year-old action-stealth franchise: 'Assassin's Creed Mirage.' They give their spoiler-free review of the latest entry and discuss the legacy of this long-running franchise (13:54). Hosts: Ben Lindbergh and Jessica Clemons Senior Producer: Steve Ahlman Additional Production Support: Arjuna Ramgopal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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They cut off a finger. No wait. A whole hand. That is not funny. Then don't laugh. All right, you are in a mood and I have things to do. Nothing that concerns you. Oh, secret hidden one stuff.

What are you doing this time? Stabbing, stealing, stabbing and then stealing? That is your specialty, Nihal. Just because you lost a thing. you lost a finger does not mean you've lost your touch. Hello and welcome into the Ringerverse, your Nexus podcast feed for all things fandom. I am Ben Lindberg, a senior editor at The Ringer, and with me, as always, is the co-host of ButtonMash, the Nihal to my Bassem, currently podcasting from a cart covered in hay, so no roommates will hear her.

It's Jessica Clemens. Hello, Jessica. Hi. Jessica Clemens, senior citizen of the ringer. Very excited to be here. Very excited to talk as every week. You sound great coming to us from a cart covered in hay. What is your go-to Assassin's Creed hiding spot? Because you've got your rooftop shelters, you've got your benches, your bushes, your crowds of pedestrians, your piles of leaves. What is your favorite place to give a guard the slip? I think it has been the bushes and just because you can hide it for a very long time.

I hate hiding behind buildings because they're going to walk around the building eventually. And bushes, I'm like, oh, just keep rotating here. We'll get into it, but it's so funny how it stressed me out. As a big person, it's kind of hard to hide in general. And somehow I still feared it in this game. I think my favorite are the rooftop boxes. I don't even know what to call them because what are they. why are they there? They're just such a gaming thing, the way that you see boxes and barrels so much

more often in video games than in real life, unless you're like a brewmaster or a vintner or something. I haven't seen a barrel lately, IRL. But like, what are those? They used to be called at least rooftop gardens according to the game, but they're not gardens. There are no plants in there, right? There's curtains blocking out the sun. And what are you supposed to do? Like, sit in there and just enjoy the the breeze or something? It's like some of them are phone booth sized. They're like big enough for one person to stand in there. Ben, I think, I think this is a video game. And they were like, you know what, we need to make this as video gaming as possible. I just need to understand the lore. I need to understand why this box is here that I'm standing in. Anyway, it's Loki season at

the Ring Reverse. And today that extends to video games as we discuss the latest big game in a busy the October Assassin's Creed Mirage. I won't say exactly how Mirage is related to Loki. But if you've played Assassin's Creed Valhalla, you know Mirage was originally supposed to come out this week, but it was bumped up to last week, possibly to avoid the Spider-Man Mario Alan Wake pile up coming later this month, which gave us and at least some of our listeners more time to play. So we're going to give you our spoiler-free review of Mirage. It's just, it's hard to spoil Assassin's Creed even if you try because you would have to understand what is happening in order to spoil it for anyone else, right? But we'll talk about the game. We'll share some thoughts on the Assassin's Creed franchise as a whole and stealth games in general.

We have some hotish takes about that. So before we do our deep dive off the rooftop to talk about Mirage in detail, let's make like in Quito and give the high level eagle eye view. Jess, what is your big picture take on this game? Is it an oasis in the desert of Ubisoft's open world games? Or is it just a mirage? Okay. The way you set it up was so nice for what I'm about to say. Okay.

What I'm about to say. I don't like it. I don't. And I think it's okay. Some people like things and some people don't like things. And that's just how it goes. I'm not saying, I don't think anyone listening to this podcast will ever be like, Jessica hated this game.

I'm not going to play it. No, you should go play it. It doesn't take long to play, which is the bonus part to it. I'm a storytelling person when it comes to these games that we're playing, and I'm lost completely.

I was deterred by every person's facial expression. Everything in the story, it would pull me out. The voice acting, I thought, was great. Yes, agreed. They got my girl. I can't remember her name, but they got my girl,

like the girl. Like, she's an actress, but she's, her voice is so beautiful and grasped. Like, I love that. Oh, yes. The iconic that Avasarala from The Expanse, right? Shorae Agdashu. Yes. You always know that it's her.

It's amazing. I love, I, as soon as she came in, I went, yes. Yes. This is my gravely voiced girl. I thought the voice acting was great. It was like, just certain things in the game really pulled me out. And then it was, you and Steve were talking about it a little bit before this, but it was the point of, like, the story. It was like, they made.

made like a storyline for something cinematic, but then was like, we need to also remember this is a game where Spider-Man and the Spider-Man Miles Morales games have like that good balance of like cinematic and storytelling. This was like all over the place. It was all over the place for me. Well, it's okay not to like or love this game because like people want us to be fair and even-handed, right? They don't want us to be haters probably, but they also don't want us to love everything. you got to take our critical our critical opinions seriously, then you know that

sometimes we like things and sometimes we don't like things as much. So you weren't a big fan of this one, but you've been a big fan of most of the stuff that we've talked about. Oh yeah, I love especially even games that are new to me that I was like, I mean, Boulder's Gay is kind of new for a lot of people, but even like that I was like, holy crap.

This turned my world upside down. We play so many games and I do like a lot of games but like movies and like TV, there's something that I just don't like. I appreciate all the work it took to make it. It's just for me, I'm like, this is a no for me, dog. Yeah. This is no for me, dog.

I get it. I am higher on this game than you are, I think. But not so much higher that we will have like a first take style debate here where you hated it. And I loved it. I probably will concede and understand all of your critiques of this game. But I generally enjoyed it. I would say it passed the minimum test for me, which is just when I finish a play session and I go do something else, do I want to pick up that controller again?

You know, like, do I have the phantom feeling in my hands? Like, gosh, I wish I were running around the rooftops of 9th century Baghdad right now. And yeah, I think it passed that bar. You know, I finished the game and I liked it in a low level way. I would say, full disclosure, there was a lot of baseball on this past weekend. The baseball playoff started. And I was sort of second screening while I. was playing this game, which I think is maybe the ideal way to play Assassin's Creed Mirage.

Is it? I think so. I don't think you need your entire attention and brain while playing this game, which can be really nice. Like, that doesn't mean it's bad or good. We said the same thing I think about Diablo, you know? It's like, hey, put on a podcast, right? You're just your button mashing, you're hacking and slashing.

Well, it's hard because I was doing that at first. I was second screening. And then I was like, I don't know what's going on. So I had to go back to the game. I had to turn off everything. I was like, I need to focus on this storyline. I'm so confused. But then I also, this is coming from someone that doesn't really play Assassin's Creed.

So I genuinely, and we're getting thrown in it, this is before Valhalla. So I'm like, I don't. Right. Who's who? What's going on? Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

So you're new to Assassin's Creed. I would describe myself as a lapsed Assassin's Creed player like a lot of people, I think. There have been so many Assassin's Creed's that it's tough to play. them all. So I played and enjoyed the early ones. And then eventually I started to develop some Assassin's Creed fatigue and I just kind of checked out for a while. And now I'm back in, right? This was a game that was sort of advertised as, hey, it's safe to come back in the water. Now, you know, like this is a shorter game. It's sort of a simpler game. It's a throwback to the original, more stealth-centric, linear Assassin's Creed experience. And I would say it largely delivered on what it was

intending to do and what it said it was. Whether you like it or not, that's a different question. But if you enjoyed old school Assassin's Creed, then I think there's enough here to bring you back and a few new touches, a few other things that maybe seem a little bit dated now compared to when this first came out, right? But it did feel a little bit like a return to the original in, as you said, a more compact package. I was able to play this entire game in a weekend, a long weekend, admittedly.

But still, that's saying something. Yeah, I played, spoiler, I have not finished it. I told Ben this, I was getting too frustrated. Yeah. I was getting too frustrated. But it was like what I put in, I did in a day. I started, I put like, I started it, I downloaded it, played like four hours, and then I stopped, and then this past weekend, I was like, okay, I'm going to jump back in, and I did like eight hours.

And so I was like, oh, and I got really far. And that's where I was like, normal people would finish this game, especially fans of the Assassin's Creed franchise would easily, can easily finish this, I think, in a weekend. It was just me. Well, it's October 2023, so the bar is high right now for actually finishing video games. Okay, we'll get into that much more. but now that we have teased our stances for this episode, let's tease what else is coming up on the ring of verse and our sister feed, House of Arr.

So on Friday, on the Ring ofverse, The Midnight Boys, will give you their instant reactions to Loki episode two and this weekend. Jess will break down the episode and explain some Easter eggs and theories on Splash Page, the first episode of which is up right now

on the Loki premiere. Also, Howsebar will have a special episode this Friday, topic TBA, followed by their, Loki episode two deep dive early next week. And if you're in the New York area, remember to go see Joanna Robinson live as she does events in three different boroughs. She's doing a week-long New York residency to promote her book, MCU, The Rain of Marvel Studios, which is out now. So, congrats to Joe and Dave and Gavin go get their book. That's huge. They wrote a book. It's out right now.

You can all go get it. You should. And as we mentioned last time, we're doing weekly button mash episodes throughout October because this month is so stacked. So want to remind the people what we're playing and what's coming up? Yeah, we're revisiting Spider-Man. This is my number one. I'm, as you know, I lied. It isn't my number one, but I'll get to what my number one is. We're doing Spider-Man revisiting because we're going to get ready for Spider-Man 2. And then we're doing Five Nights of Freddy's and Alan Wake. And then we're also doing the Super Mario's game, which I am excited for, but you guys know I'm going to pop off for the Halloween special spectacular. That is Five Nights of Freddy's and Alan Lake.

Yes. Right. I'm going to be dressed up for that episode and you guys won't know because this is a podcast, but I will be dressed up as Freddie Fast Bear. I will be too scared to video chat with you for that episode. So yeah, that'll be at the tail end of the month, I guess the same day that we're doing our live event in L.A. That episode will come out too. And as you mentioned, yeah, we're going to revisit Spider-Man and Miles Morales next week just to get you hyped and prepped for the week after that,

Spider-Man 2 is finally dropping, and we will devote an entire episode to that. Can't wait, you've already been playing it a lot, but we're holding our piece for now, and we will share it all very soon. And we might cram that Anna Super Mario Brothers WonderPod within one week, because what else can we do? They come out on the same day.

People didn't coordinate these things enough. And then they don't, I mean, they don't have to care, but it's funny that Sony and, Nintendo are like, yeah, we're just coming out with two games on the same day. And it's like, you don't understand. You don't understand. We're both, we're all going to play both of these games. Everybody's going to play both of these games. Yes, we will get to it. Ubisoft understands because they said, hey, we will move up with Assassin's Creed Mirage so that you'll at least have a couple of weeks in theory to play it. So lastly, of course, you can contact us through the various

ringerverse social channels, or you can email us. We love getting emails at Ringervorce Gaming at gmail.com. For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters. Tramphia offers self-injection or intravenous infusion from the start. Tramphia is administered as injections under the skin or infusions through a vein every four weeks, followed by injections under the skin every four or eight weeks. If your doctor decides that you can self-inject trumphia, proper training is required. Tramphia is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with moderately to severely active Crohn's

disease and adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis. Serious allergic reactions, increased risk of infections or lower ability to fight them, and liver problems may occur. Before treatment, get checked for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, or need a vaccine. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Tramphia today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit trimfire radio.com.

All right. So you're new to Assassin's Creed. Have you been tempted before? Have you dabbled? Or are you just like, no, no interest. This is not for me. I played some in college with my boyfriend at the time. And I remember being like, oh, this is fun.

But he was letting me do all the killing part, which was very fun. not the stealth part. So I was like, this is fun. And then, but I wasn't given, it wasn't my game, so I didn't really pay that much. I just watched him play. And then I played this game. And I went, oh, this is, he got all the boring parts. I did all the fun parts.

That's interesting. Some people, I think, would disagree and say that the stealth parts are good. Yeah, that's true. That's true. That's true. It depends on what you're playing this series for, right? That's true. I apologize on that end.

I like the violent parts where I'm like to be sneaking. up and stabbing someone in the spine. Yeah. But he did all the hard work. Right. So you're relatively new to this series. I've been away for a while. It's been a minute for me.

I mean, I played the originals, the early ones, the numbered ones. I played Black Flag, which is a highlight, along with Assassin's Creed 2. I've checked in. You know, I played Odyssey for a while. And I was just like, you know what? No, I'm not going to get into this. I'm just, I'm done. out for a while. And I think probably a lot of people are in that boat. So let's just briefly

review how we got here. So the first Assassin's Creed came out in 2007, right? And this whole series features the Order of Assassins, who were kind of counterintuitively, generally the good guys, and the Knights Templar. And in Mirage, because this takes place earlier than some of the other games, it's in the 9th century. They're known as the hidden ones and the order, but sort of the same deal, right? There's just this kind of eternal ancient conflict that is going on throughout the centuries throughout the millennia. And this is the 13th mainline Assassin's Creed game. Again, I said the first one came out in 2007. So do the math. There have been most years a new Assassin's Creed game. It's basically been like Madden, which is kind of incredible given the typical

development time for AAA games, right? I mean, Ubisoft is a global company with many studios across the world that have contributed to this series. But even so, it is impressive or maybe exhausting the rate at which they have pumped out these games. Was that part of the turnoff for you at all? Was it like, wait, there's another one already? I remember there's a million. I remember there was like a part in my life where I was just hearing Assassin's Creed. Like, it kept coming out. And then on top of that, they were doing. then we had in the movie and then they were doing so much

they do really good promotional material for it I'll give them that because it was everywhere everywhere all the time and I just kept being like I'll play it eventually I'll play it eventually I'll play it eventually

I always after me and my my boyfriend played it I was like oh I should go play the other ones because I had fun and I just never did because I was like they just keep coming out I'll play it eventually and now I did

yeah it's tough to keep up and there's a lot of lore to catch up on not that you need to or even conceivably could. I wish anyone well, anyone who tries to understand the complex lore of Assassin's Creed, which is, it's hinted at in this game, but this could be an entry point for you. It could be a welcome back to AC. We know you've been away for a while.

Here's kind of a familiar template, Templar template, to ease you back into the game. Or it could be an introduction. It could be, hey, here's your first Assassin's Creed. And at first at least, it's sort of self-contained. And then things in classic Assassin's Creed fashion kind of run off the rails and they're like, wait, what? What is going on? And that's why.

I was like at the beginning, I got it. I was like, oh, I'm locked in. And then I went, where the hell am I? What the hell's going on? And then it was, I think it was a joke line where they were like, it's only been a week. But it didn't come off as a joke. It came off as serious.

And I went, I think this has been longer than a week. I think you've been training for a couple years. What is going on? Right. Yeah, there's a montage. And at one point, Bassim, who's the protagonist, he's apparently 20 years old. I'm like, wait, what? I thought this guy was like mid-30s.

Like this guy's like 45. What's going on? Yeah, when did this happen? Anyway, he goes from sort of this like street urchin, you know, thief on the streets of Baghdad to just this highly trained assassin. Granted, he's got some sneaking skills as it is just as a thief. But he kind of, you know, he puts on the cloak and the hood and everything. And suddenly he's a Superman.

So it's a quick transition. But hey, it's not a super long game. So things have to be moved along. And we appreciated that. So on that score, this is kind of a reset for Assassin's Creed after a bit of a breather by the standards of this series and Ubisoft. It's been three years since the last mainline Assassin's Creed game, which doesn't sound like a long time. And in most series would not be. But before this, two years had been the longest.

break between big Assassin's Creed games. Generally, it was one every year. Once there were two in one year that came out of the same day for different generations of consoles. So it was like, pump the brakes a little bit, people please. And not only were these just being churned out at an incredible rate, but they kept getting longer and longer and longer. And often people would argue more bloated, right?

People appreciated that some people like the length. But if you just look at the lengths of Assassin Creed games on how long to beat, which I did before we started recording, you know, they go from relatively trim 15-ish hours for kind of the main story, maybe 30 hours for a completionist play-through if you want to see everything to once you get to Assassin's Creed 3, Black Flag, you're creeping up more towards like 20 hours and maybe 60 hours for the complete content. then you get to unity and it's like, okay, still sort of 15, 20 hours, but now there's like 80 hours of content, total origins, maybe even more than that. And then Odyssey and Valhalla, the last two, just absolutely exploded in length and scope. So these were more like 50, 60 hour games with hundreds of hours of content. And interestingly, this one has been kind of marketed as smaller, which is different from, how games have historically been promoted, right? Like, we've talked about this, how there's kind of been a shift from bragging about how big

and long a game is to saying, actually, this is shorter. Actually, this will not take over your entire life. I mean, not in all cases. There have been a lot of behemoths that have come out this year. And some of them have been so good that we'd ever wanted them to end. But often, it can be kind of an incentive, right? I mean, when you heard Mirage was more compact and that this is not a Zelda or Gator Starfield length experience.

That's sort of a selling point, right? Especially if you're not already in on Assassin's Creed. Absolutely, 100%. That was what I was so excited for. I said that before we downloaded it. I was like, oh, this game's very quick. And the fact that even if I, whatever, didn't feel the greatest way about it,

I was like, I got very far in a very short amount of time, and I missed that. I miss that more than, I'm willing to trade a lot of things for like a shorter game like that because we just don't, we don't have all the time in the world anymore.

We have to play Super Mario with Spider-Man 2. Right. And look, Valhalla was very successful. It sold a lot of copies. Even though there hasn't been a new standalone game, there have been expansions

and new content for the game. And there are a lot of people who like the Balhalla and origins are enormous, right? And they want to get a game that's going to give them a lot of bang for their buck and they can just spend months

playing this thing. And they like, you know, collecting things and checking off boxes and exploring and everything. But for a lot of people, there was a sense of fatigue, I think, and just being overwhelmed. And just that general idea, that stereotype of the Ubisoft map game, which has been associated with Ubisoft has sort of spread to other companies too. But it's just the sort of generic open world that just gets bigger and bigger and

bigger but maybe there's less life and character to it. And you open up the map and it's just an incredible clutter of activities and places to go and things to do and collect. And it just becomes overwhelming. I mean, you've had that experience, right, where you look at a map screen and it's just like, nope. That's just, that's too much, you know? Like, maybe it's, that we're playing so many games. Maybe this is what I, it never really bothered me until recently. And I think it was like specifically in Assassin's Creed, I'm opening it. I'm checking. checking my inventory. I'm changing up my stuff. And I was like, I'm feeling claustrophobic. I was like, there's so many options. I don't know how to handle this. And then I was like immediately

being like, okay, in Spider-Man, and this, in this game, in this game, and I was like, maybe it's because we're playing so many games that it's now getting clustered for me that I'm like, I don't know how to breathe these in anymore. But because Mirage didn't feel too bad to understand. It was just more so that I was like, I was so flustered with everything that the only thing I could do consciously was like change my outfit. I was like, I know how to do this. Yeah, right. Yeah, a lot fewer options for customization than some of the other games we've talked about this year. It's much more manageable.

Yeah. Oh, God. Oh, God. What is our life? What have we become? Yeah, look, again, games being too big or having too many games. games to play. It's a good problem to have. It's not a problem everyone has. But there's a difference between quantity and quality, obviously, and there's a balance there. And I think there's a difference

between the more emergent, organic kind of open world game, like the recent Zelda games, like Eldon Ring, where you just feel like you're exploring. There's something new over every hill. You're not just going to something on a map and placing a marker down and saying, here's where I'm going to go. and I'm going to check off this objective and do this mission, and then I'm going to go here, you're just wondering. You are exploring. You are discovering, right? And that's been lacking a lot in Assassin's Creed games and other games of their ilk.

And they've dialed it back a lot. That's not to say there aren't still a lot of icons on the map. But compared to like some of the memes that have gone around about like the typical Assassin's Creed's UI or on-screen interface or map, it's definitely more measured and I appreciate that. So it is safe to go back to this series again. And if you liked it before, I think there's a lot to like here. So again, the lore of Assassin's Creed has just spiraled completely out of control as far as I could tell.

I mean, if you have some time to kill, look up a YouTube explainer that's just like, here's what has happened in Assassin's Creed so far. I defy you to follow it. And this one, you know, like there are allusions to this mysterious, you know, precursor species or race like the first ones, right? I mean, there are these kind of otherworldly beings that were there before we were and have this advanced technology and everything. But for the most part, it is, hey, we're in 9th century back toad here, you know, and some of the game's earlier elements of sort of the time hopping between past and present. because often the conceit of the series would be you're someone in the present, you're this company, Abstergo, or you're using this animus machine, and you're able to sort of venture into the genetic memory of your assassin ancestors and experience life as they saw it. And so each game goes to a different time and a different setting, and you go through that adventure.

And sometimes you will hop forward into the future, too. It's simpler this time, at least for the most part. At least when it starts, right? At first, it feels pretty manageable. You know what's going on here. Depending on who you are. I watched, I watched YouTube videos breaking down the history of, what do you call it? And let me tell you, they were all different, too.

That's the other than piss me off. They were all different. They were all different. I watched like, I was like, because I got so confused, I was like, maybe it's because I didn't play Valhalla. Let me go watch a breakdown. And then I was like, okay. let me go back another game. And I was like, let me go back another game.

And I was like, is that a consensus? Is that an actual consensus that we're all like, we don't really kind of understand the story? Even the purported lore experts of Assassin's Creed may have different interpretations of what's going on. What are they doing? I like it. I like that.

I like that they're like, you guys can't break this nut. Y'all can't break out of this shell. But I'm like, now I'm getting pissed. You guys had 13 games come out. That's insane. Yeah, there may be people who understand it or think they understand it, but I'm not one of them. And it's sort of, it's run off the rails in kind of almost an X-Files way for me, where at first it's intriguing. And it's like, oh, where are they going with this?

And then eventually it's like, oh. You're like, I'm tired of this. Yeah, but like they don't know where they're going with this. So they're just trying to keep this moving somehow, keep this story stringing along. And they're making it up as they go. And, you know, I'm kind of like intrigued by the different era. and the time hopping and the setting hopping and all of that, but I have largely just given up on understanding the larger lore.

I respect that. I respect that of them. I respect that of them. It's kind of villainous. All you need to know is it's good versus evil, sort of, or at least it's, you know, people who want peace through freedom and people who want peace through order. And then also there's some artifacts and first ones and who knows what the heck is going on.

Anyway, this game started. as an expansion to Valhalla. And so it's sort of a prequel to Valhalla. So Bassam, the protagonist, the playable character in this game, is a character in Valhalla. And both of us were going in cold, not having played Valhalla. So we didn't know anything about Bassem. And you can play this game. You can follow it at least at first without having that history.

It's just, you know, how deep do you want to go? And the general structure of this game, again, kind of a return to the traditional formula. But there's a lot of sneaking, there's a lot of stealth, there's a lot of assassins and assassinations, as one would expect, given the title of the series. Although, it's kind of gone away from that lately because the recent open world games have been so vast that it's been tough to retain those stealth elements. And there's been more of an RPG emphasis to those games. And here, again, they're sort of stripping it down. And it's, hey, you're investigating the order. You're trying to stop this order, this mysterious shadowy masked figures.

And you are part of the hidden ones. You're this brotherhood. And you are also kind of a private eye. You're sort of a sleuth and invest together. You don't want to be a private eye. You don't want to be a private eye, though. Most of the time, people have you enlisting you in other things that you don't want to do. That's my favorite part about the game is every time someone's like,

oh, I'll give you this key, but you have to go do this for me. And then it's like, he's like, he goes, okay. And then as he walks away, he talks to himself and he's like, what are we doing? He goes, what are we doing here? Why are we doing this? That was like my favorite part of the game where I was like, why am I doing so many things to get back to where I was supposed to go? I was like losing track. I was like, why do I have to put flowers on this person's grave?

Get me on my horse and out of here. A lot of monologues in this game. A lot of people talking to themselves, definitely. I liked it, though. I like that part. A lot of fetch quests. It's true. But basically you're trying to find the main masked figure who is behind the whole conspiracy.

And so you are trying to unmask literally their lieutenants, you know, kind of the sub bosses and then the higher mini bosses and then all the way up to the top of the tree, just trying to topple this order. And to do that, you have to gather clues and you have to sort of solve each mini isolated case, which will then point you toward the big. case, the big climax, at least in theory, right? And it is largely linear and the environment is smaller. Like, it's still big by typical open world standards, but it's essentially one city with some outlying areas, right? I mean, it's big, but it doesn't feel overwhelming, at least to me. No, but also, I didn't really, like, do anything that I wasn't supposed to do. I just was, it was on one quest to the next. Like, it was, that's what I did.

I didn't really pickpocket as much as I should have. I just kind of like, yeah, I just did the missions. I didn't really explore as much as I probably should have since I'm testing the game for an audience. Yeah, but, yeah, I mostly stuck to the main narrative. It still took me 15, 20 hours to do it with some exploring, but not as much of like the optional contracts and that kind of thing. It's funny you mention the pickpocketing because, like,

Bassim is he's sort of a freedom fighter, right? Like he's he's trying to defend the oppressed and topple this restrictive regime. And yet he's like constantly stealing stuff from people. You have to. You have to to fulfill what you're doing. I was thinking about that too because I was like, well, he's still kind of bad. But then I was like, well, no, no, because you got to do some bad for some good. That is one way to rationalize it.

I like him. I like him. I like his missions. It's like the story at the beginning helped so much to find who he was where it was like this little boy got killed. He's like, no, don't touch me. Don't talk to me. I got this boy killed.

And then he goes on. And then when they reunite with that woman, he's just like, it's so much. And I like, but I liked him. And I liked what you said earlier where you were like, you don't really need to play Valhalla to understand or like to play the game. And I was like, yeah, because I still had that same grasp on him. And I didn't play Valhalla. I was like, I like this.

I know what I'm fighting for. He's still a good guy to me. He's just having to kill and steal a lot of things in between. Yeah, he's been through a lot. Yeah, no, I was going to ask whether you ever sort of roleplay in a game above and beyond what the game requires you to do. Like, you know, there's that concept of the fancy term would be ludonarrative dissonance, right? Where, like, the story is saying one thing and then the gameplay is having you do another, you know, if it's like a GTA. protagonist who's like, I don't want to be a bad guy anymore. And then as soon as the cutscene ends,

you're killing everyone. Right? Yeah, you're like, or uncharted, you know, or Nathan Drake. It's like, hey, you know, I'm a good guy. I'm a fun, quippy kind of character. And meanwhile, I'm slaughting millions of guards. Right. Right. And then they kind of tone that down in the movie. But do you ever play in a way that, I don't mean like a pacifist play through necessarily, but like every time I would loot and I would constantly loot. Like, every time I saw just like a bin that had stuff in the market or whatever. I'm like, yep, give me some of that. I'm just going to grab some food right here.

And I'm going to walk away with it. I'm going to pick pocket people. If I find a box with coins in it, yep, that's mine now. I'm just going to pocket that. But every time I did, I was like, I feel kind of bad about this. Like, would the real BASM do this? Is this inconsistent with how BASM would behave? Do you ever, like, behave lawfully, you know, when you don't need to, to be consistent with the character?

I think you're right. That is his character. wouldn't probably do it as much, especially now that he's trying to do good, but also that is a very you thing to think of like, I don't know if I should be doing this, but I want food, but I want food. I normally do. I let it, I always let it persuade me. That's why I was like, I love him. I understand his mission. They didn't really give you a lot to choose from with like what you're saying back to people. It was always like a yes or like, let me come back to it and say yes. And I was like, wait, I don't want to do this. I was like, this is a bad idea. But I was, it's different with this game because I genuinely was really bad at being stealthy. I was very bad. People saw me pickpocket every time. I had to run from the guards all the time and hide for a very long time so they would get off my trail. Most of the time I stopped carrying and then would just go kill the person that was supposed to like wear an outfit of.

I would just like murder the person. But I genuinely was like, beside that point, if it was cinematic stuff, I was like, oh, this is how he would act during this. But in the game, I was like, this is Jessica who's scared to sneak up on someone. To be clear, I still stole everything at every opportunity. I just felt a little bit bad about it, despite my moral misgivings. Just a little bit. Yeah. And it's true. Like, I would say the missions themselves are pretty linear, right? Like, there is a sort of prescribed path. I mean, it's way different from other games that we've talked about recently, like Baldur's Gate, obviously. But even, and say Starfield, which only allowed a certain degree of choice. But in this, you know, you can tackle certain cases in a certain order, but generally you got to do the same thing, right? I mean, you can choose how stealthy or how violent you want to be. Yeah, but like there were times when I would

sneak into a place and I would kill everyone. And then it would be like, oh, actually, I was supposed to pose as, you know, like a guard or something and where, an outfit in here to disguise myself. And I can't actually beat this by killing everyone. So I need to go back and do it. It's not like hitman, you know, where it's like, hey, here's your objective. Do whatever you want. You know, just get the job done.

That's not Assassin's Creed, really. It's usually like, okay, there might be a couple entry points into a building or something. But largely, you're kind of doing what the game tells you to do for the most part. I had to, like, still a Unix tunic. Yes, that's what I was thinking of. I also I remembered it just because I was like, the eunuch tunic. I had to steal the eunuch. And I like, I just kept messing up.

And then eventually I was like, okay, we're just going to sneak him into the bush. And when I snuck him into the bush, that's when the game kind of glitched. And I just like hovered into the bush slowly. And the people were going, oh, my God, that man, somebody help him. And I was like, I can't. I was like, I can't do this anymore. It's stressing me out. It shows me out.

It's just a Unix tunic. Yeah, I played that mission too. And that's what I was thinking of because, like, there's a mission around there where you have to sneak into a postal bureau to read some letters. And in that one, at least I just snuck into the building and just kind of killed everyone and then went through the mail. And then you have to sneak into a horrible person, a monster. You are a, a demon. The entire time. Give me that letter.

This is a federal offense. side. That's supposed to be reading someone else's mail, let alone killing all the postal workers. You're murdering them. Yeah, but then there's another mission, as you said, where you have to go into a harem, right? And you pose as a eunuch who's allowed in there. And so I initially, I just snuck in and started killing everyone, like all the guards and everything, because that's what I did at the postal bureau. It didn't make me dress up as a postal worker, right?

So I didn't know, you know? And then it was like, oh, no, there is only one way. There's only one set path to get through this. So it's kind of confining in that sense. You know, there's not a lot of player choice. And as you said, the dialogue options are like, let's go or not yet. Right. That's basically it.

Or like, tell me more or that's enough. There was one where, oh, who was I talking to? It was just so funny because I was like, why did I need this? I didn't need this information. It was like, how are you? It was one of the options. And then I said, no, I said, like, what are you into? And the guy was like, I guess I like poetry.

And he was like, don't be modest. Tell me more. And I went, why does this matter to me? Poetry is huge in this game. You're going to be hearing a lot about poets, reading a lot of poetry. It was big and Baghdad at the time, I guess. This episode is brought to by Whole Foods Market. Spring is here, so celebrate it with fresh, juicy, seasonal produce,

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How did it feel to you to navigate Basim around Baghdad? It was nice. It was fine. I run everywhere, bump into people. People yell at me. No one really acts too crazy about it. I like using the scanning ability to just like check everything nearby, even if it's like kind of through a wall. And then you're like, ooh, there's treasure in there. Right. Ooh, treasure. And then I like using like when we got to use the bird. I thought that was really fun.

Parkoring, I told you this before. Just button mash. Button mash on top of the roof and I'll attach to something. I mean, I guess it like works like that in the Marvels as well, or not the Marvels. Oh, my God. And Spider-Man as well where you're like, but it's different because you're thwipping. You're like, oh, I'm going to attach to a building. There's a million buildings.

When you're parkoring, I was like, hopefully I land somewhere. Right. Hopefully it goes someplace neat. Yeah, yeah. It's not even button mashing for me so much. It's just like holding a button down, you know? It's just like pointing forward and trusting, you know, it's like a leap of faith, like the actual leaps of faith in the game, but just like, if I jump, I hope I will land on something.

And, you know, usually you do. And it's impressive. Like, this is not new. I mean, this is sort of standard fair for Assassin's Creed. I think it's better than the original was. But it is pretty intuitive and pretty seamless. And I'm always impressed just that like whatever I'm jumping off of, there's almost always something that I'm jumping onto, you know,

which I imagine that that's to some degree, maybe an automated process when it comes to like placing all of these things on roofs and buildings that you can jump to. But when you think about it, you know, it's a big city. And almost every surface is kind of climbable or runnable, you know, Like not fully, you have to have handholds and cracks in the wall and that kind of thing, which adds a little layer strategy to it. But you can just more or less seamlessly run across the entire city. And not too often do you find yourself on ground level unless you want to be, which is, you know, it's kind of cool, right?

I started getting irritated parkoring at one point because I kept like attaching to a wall when I need to jump or something. And so I would find myself on the ground running and just running through people. most of the time genuinely most the time there's a lot of part of the game where you're like you have to be on top of a building but then any side quest thing I was usually on the ground just running really fast

yeah video game characters are very rude when it comes to like shouldering the crowd aside it's like you don't have to push people over it was very uh it was very um grand theft auto where it's just like hey watch it where is he going someone stop him you're right like that is that's always been I guess the the pitfall of his

has his creases that it's kind of like built for that park or it's built for you to be constantly in motion and running and so when you want to stop on a dime if you want to just like jump to one precise point or jump down from something or jump over something but like in a slower way it's tough to do that because like he's very sticky you know like he's almost spider manish He's like sticking to stuff. He wants to jump on things and climb on things. And so often it'll be like, no, not that. Don't jump to that.

Yeah. Please. Stop. Yeah. So that's always kind of been the downside. Yeah. Maybe it's in all of them because I was getting very irritated. To be fair, I'm also just pressing the button a bunch.

So it's probably me too. It's probably majority me just like scared of falling. But like I was, I just kept being stuck on shit. And any time I have to like run with someone, I kept like. Just get falling behind. Yeah. Yeah. Right.

We're going way ahead of them. Like, come on. Keep up. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. I don't know how you fix it. I don't know.

Oh, my God, Ben. You just, because I forgot about it. I was getting so. I kept, hey, like, I kept stopping. And then they would speed up. And I was like, and then I don't know why it visibly made me upset for them to be like, hurry up. Like, hurry up.

You're falling behind. And I was like, no. I was 20 feet ahead of you. and now you're telling me to go steal a bunch of shit that I don't want to fucking steal. And so I was getting, oh God, I was getting so irritated. And this is me getting irritated, not at the game, just like me as a human being getting talked to.

Yeah, but a little bit at the game too. It sounds like, which is understandable. I just, hey, let the hate and frustration flow through you. I love it. There was a couple times in the game where I'm talking to someone, and they were like just incredibly, I mean, I'll say maybe like 86% of the people in the game are rude. No one wants to talk to you because you seem like a shady person.

And you are a shady person. There's a wanted sign for your face. Steering everything from everyone. Yeah, 100%. People will be like so suspicious of you the entire time. And then to gain their favor, you have to do them a favor. And I hate that mentality. I was like, I was like, I'm trying to save your boss.

And they're like, well, maybe you can take my kid to school. And I was like, why am I doing this? I am an assassin. I am not a babysitter. I'm literally almost like a god. Like, please stop asking me to do mundane things. And that's what your character says right after you take on the quest. You go, God, you're not a messenger.

And I'm like, yeah, I know. Yeah. I will say the highlight for me, one of the highlights is just Baghdad, like the environment itself. Oh, yeah. Maybe because it's smaller than some of the recent games. It's very detailed and it feels very. vibrant and lush and alive and it's well populated with NPCs going about their routines right now. There's kind of an open world, open terrain between towns or between places that you go to,

which is basically barren or spart. Like there's just not a lot to do there, but that's okay. It's just kind of it's scenery. You know, you just travel from place to place. But in the city itself, I found it to be a pretty rich, engaging environment. Yeah, it was nice. And I also think it gives you a, like, there's a lot of things you can do that I always forgot I could do, like listen in windows and stuff. They had to tell me to go do that.

Like I would be like, maybe we should listen by the window. And I was like, oh, I was like, oh, I forgot that that's an option. But yeah, I thought it was beautiful, too. I think the design was really pretty. I just didn't like the design of the people. Yeah, no. The eyes. It was Mortal Kombat on the Switch.

It was exactly Moralcombat on the Switch Oh man Dude are you serious Wait am I wrong I don't want to be wrong But I was like There was one conversation I had

Where I stared into the man's Non-blinking eyes That were like staring at me like I like poetry And I was like Got it Yeah

No yeah definitely some uncanny valley If even that close To lifelike NPC faces going on here I don't know if I'd quite go As far as Mortal Kombat On Switch Damn

And maybe it's mean That's harsh But Maybe I'm being A Hey Hey, maybe I'm just being rude as hell. Which is true. Maybe I am.

That's the Starfield level of uncanny faces. Anyway, I also appreciate, you know, I'm not an expert on 9th century Iranian history, but, you know, they clearly made an effort here. And there's a lot of, you know, there's kind of a codex with, you know, historians worked on this game. There's a lot of real-life lore about the area. And also, I've seen a number of Muslim developers and gamers have praised the game for its attention to you know, representation in the cast, but also in the storytelling, making it more specific than just kind of a generic Middle Eastern, you know, blend of cultures, which is often what you get with this sort of setting in a game. If not just, you know, they're the bad guys kind of thing,

which has been sort of a trope and a stereotype in games. So again, like I can't, you know, personally testify to that myself, but I have seen some acclaim for the game on that score. and that I think is worth shouting out. So as for the structure of the investigations and the cases, what did you make of everything that kind of comes before the actual assassinating? I don't, the thing, what I'm, what I said, um, too is more so the like, even if I was irritated about going off the trail of what my mission was by doing a bunch of other side things, it wasn't like what was the act of the, how bad was the act of those?

side things and they weren't bad at all. I understand why I was doing them, why I was sneaking around, why I was stealing stuff. But I don't know. I, for me, and this is me personally, I guess I just was like, why am I doing it? Is that I don't want to be mean. I don't, I'm not trying to be mean about it. It's more so that like, they were, they weren't, I wish they were side missions that, and maybe it was because they were so crazy. Those are the ones that. stuck with me that they were so small and it was just me being stealthy. It wasn't really me doing anything to like get better at the game. I was like, I was like, oh, okay, I'm just doing the same thing in a different region. I thought like maybe it would upgrade to do something else.

Right. Yeah, the progression wasn't always clear. Why am I doing this and then that, right? You just kind of jump around and do things out of order and you gather clues that might relate to one case or not another. And the story, because it's a little more self-contained, it's a little lower stakes, too. And so on the one hand, I was relieved that it didn't depend too much on the lore, but then also it fell a little flat at times. It's like, you know, what are the stakes here? So, yeah, I'm with you on that. And then I think maybe my main critique is the combat, which for me, look, there's a line between simple and simplistic, right? There can be simple and satisfying. but this to me is so simple that it's just there's not a ton of skill to it.

I'm not saying there's no difficulty because sometimes you get in a crowd and you're surrounded by henchmen and they can kind of overwhelm you, but there's so little depth to the combat, right? I mean, you've got your sword, you've got your dagger, you have some items and abilities, but the actual combat itself, I mean, there are no combos really, like, which, you know, after mortal combat, I'm kind of relieved. I don't have to memorize all these things, but also maybe like a couple combos. You know, it's just like I'm going to have my power swing or my simple swing. And ultimately, when it ended up being for me, was just wait for someone to attack, press Perry, and then kill them with one stab.

Or, you know, if they're like a heavy, shielded, armored guy, wait for him to attack, then vault over him and hit him in the back a few times. And you sort of unlock different combat abilities, but nothing that really adds a lot of depth or complexity to them. which, you know, I guess it's mostly about stealth and being quiet and just, you know, sliding your blade in someone's back when they're not looking. But also because it devolves into combat so often for me, when the combat happens, it's just not very fulfilling for me. In a devil's advocate way, I guess it's like, yeah, there wasn't. I wasn't getting, I was getting what you were getting as well. But I kept telling myself, I was like, well, this is like the most grounded game we've played. Yes.

Yeah, and so it's like for a normal human, what are they going to actually do? We're not playing Spider-Man where it's like, yeah, I have a suit that does all these things. It took me back to like kind of The Last of Us where it's like I'm using what I have and I'm doing what I can do. I don't have any like finishers. I don't even have a gun. There's nothing I can really like, there's not much you can do. It's kind of just like a stealthy game and just stealth. Yeah, yeah.

And, you know, it hooked me more than. you, I guess, maybe just because of some nostalgia and fondness for the early AC games. There's just, there's not a lot new, you know, there's a new mechanic where you can kind of queue up guys to kill. You can go to the screen where you just like mark off, you know, up to five guards and you can just kill them one after another, which again, some of these things like the Eagle Vision and that, it's like, how is this happening exactly? Is this like a technological future sort of thing? Or are we just going to go with it? But I didn't mind that addition because it's just, it's stealth, it's assassinations. But,

not a lot is new here. It really is a return to form or a return to tradition without a ton of layers and systems and complexity. And I guess maybe our dissatisfaction, our different degrees of dissatisfaction, maybe just comes back to our preference for types of games, right? Because we're not big stealth people in general. So I guess you could say, well, Assassin's Creed is not for us, really. What is your hang up when it comes to stealth in general? It's a good question. because like I like The Last of Us and I like Dead by Daylight and I like the, but I think the key to those and even the game I had you play. But the key to those things is they're horror games. So I think it's like that appeal and the adrenaline of being scared that you're like, ooh-hoo, like this is fun.

This I'm not getting scared. I'm just like, Jessica, you're sweating because you're going to get caught by a card stealing. So it's not as the anticipation, that adrenaline isn't there. for me in this. So I think you can still have, for me personally, I think you can, the appeal for a stealth game is still there. I just need those stakes to be super high

and me to be very fearful of it. That's interesting because I'm such a coward, as we have covered, that it's still too much for me. Almost like the, it's partly a temperamental thing. So with stealth, like a lot of it is the suspense and the tension,

you know, like, is this guard going to see me? I'm sneaking around. For me, it's, It's too much. It's not enough for you because you want that with also like this is a zombie or this is something that is like undanger. Right. Whereas for me, it's like, oh, no, they're going to see me.

I got to hide, you know, and it's like I'm on edge. So that's part of it. I know that's part of the appeal, obviously, of the genre for people. But I kind of prefer just like the direct approach. Like you and I, we both, it seems like, tend to play like the fighter, you know, like as our D&D class or we like shooters. You know, we like the direct approach. It's just like run and gun, you know, we're going to go right for them. They're going to go right for us.

So I like that. I think there are a couple other reservations I have about stealth games in general. And look, I've played plenty of them and liked plenty of them. But I think one problem is it can be kind of imprecise, you know, like there can be a lack of feedback compared to, say, a platformer or a shooter. You know, it's like you've got to land on this thing or you've got to hit that guy. And yeah, not every game is going to have perfect. collision detection or whatever and it won't always feel great. But you sort of know what you're

doing. Whereas in stealth, you don't always know, like, am I in cover right now? Like, am I visible? Can that guard see me? Can they hear me? Because it'll vary by the game, you know, like, depending on how smart the enemies are. And so often I feel like there's a lack of feedback where it's like, I'm wanted now. Like everyone's after me. What did I do? I was just walking here. Or, you know, sometimes it'll be like, yeah, I thought I was hidden. But no, right? And in some games, the guards are super dumb and you can do whatever. And in others, they're smarter. So, you know, you just kind of have to learn the way of the land, I guess.

But sometimes that can be jarring for me. It's like I don't feel like I'm grounded enough in this world to understand how visible I am right now. I was going to say the perks about doing it when it's like a horror game is the music. It's like that dramatic sound. You're like, oh, I don't see who's watching me, but someone clearly sees me. Yes, yes, right. This is all happening. And this game is more so like, what's that over there?

And I go, damn. I go, damn, Bush wasn't big enough. Yeah. The other problem is that, like, it requires your AI to be pretty dumb most of the time. Yeah, that's true. That's true. Because, like, if you're sneaking around and you get spotted, I mean, in real life, you know, if there were dead bodies or there's clearly an intruder, it's like, okay, we're on lockdown, you know,

like, we're all going to be on alert looking for this intruder. And in a game, like, you can't wait forever for the guards to settle down again. And so it's going to be like 30 seconds before the card's like, well, guess they got away, you know? And then they'll just meander away. And that takes me out of the experience a little bit. Just reminds me that this is a video game. And often, you know, it'll start out as stealthy. But like if you blow it, if you get detected, then it's just a kill fest.

It's just a free for all. And that, I guess, sort of spoils the immersion for me. It's like, well, if I could just kill everyone, maybe I'll just skip straight to that. Yeah. Right. You were like, I like that your mentality in the game was like, I was going to let you get away. But since you spotted me, I have to kill everybody here. I have to kill everyone now.

Now I have to kill everyone here. Yeah, because otherwise I'm worried that you're going to spot me. So I've just got to take you off the map entirely. Yeah, that's sometimes I appreciate stealth elements more so than like a full on stealth game. Except sometimes the downfall of that is that if there's just like a side of stealth in the game, then sometimes it can be not very well done or integrated because it's not like the core mechanic. And so it's even more sort of rudimentary. Like I don't really know if I'm in cover now, that kind of thing.

But Assassin's Creed is more dedicated stealth. But it's just stealth has a high bar for me. You know, like I might play a mediocre shooter, but a mediocre stealth game. Like it's got to be good to make that worthwhile for me. I feel that. That makes sense. I get it. I play so many bad stealthy horror games that it's like, I'm just a little.

I'm a weirdo that I'm like, yeah, I can do some. It's the only interesting part for me of this takeaway of stealth is that I'm like, I genuinely, I guess I do like stealth games. It's just this one. I didn't. And I don't. I'm trying. My favorite stealth game ever is a game called Mark of the Ninja from about a decade ago,

which is a 2D game. And I love it in part because it is very clearly indicated, like, when you're in cover. Like, how far can the guard see? There's like a cone of light in front of them. And you always know, like, okay. what do I have to do to stay hidden here? And yet it's not like too simple or too predictable. And there's a lot you can't see.

But I just feel like, okay, I know where I am and what I've got to do. And I really appreciate that in that game. But again, harder to do in 3D. Anyway, you know, just jump in the water I found in Mirage. Just jump in the water. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. They can't follow you in there.

They can't do anything. They'll just lose you eventually. So, you know, that's kind of the life hack for Assassin's Creed Mirage. I didn't even like use the eagle all that often. I did because it was just fun. It was kind of fun. Sometimes they shoot at the eagle and like the eagle can't help you anyway, which is sort of sad. Yeah, it was, the eagle was fun.

I love the eagle because I was just like, ooh, I'm a bird. But you put an animal in a game, I'm down to play with that damn animal. Red Dead? Horrible for me because all I did was try to capture every horse. It did not matter. The game did not matter to me. I was drunk capturing horses. Didn't get on anything else.

That game could be whatever you want. If you want it to be a get drunk and capture horses game. Get drunk. Take baths. Get out of the bath. Go get a horse. That's all I did. But I love the eagle.

The eagle part was, I hate, I'm not going to say that was my favorite part because it, but it was a fun part. Yeah. It was a top. All right. Well, there was a lot for me to like here, but kind of in a low grade way. Just, you know, it does what it says on the tin for me. It's like you want throwback old school Assassin's Creed and really nothing more. no evolution on that formula, then here it is.

And maybe that's okay because, you know, we've talked about franchises that kind of have a new model and an old model like Zelda and Mario. And it's like, it's great that they're these massive open world Zelda's, but also we kind of miss the 2D Zelda's, you know, like bring back this very linear type. Mario kind of does that. We'll be talking about that later this month where you have more, you know,

3D sort of open world Mario's and sort of still the 2D retro side scrollers. I like that. So if you have the massive sprawling AC games and then every now and then you have a throwback smaller scale game, I think that's good. You know, something for everyone, right? Except this wasn't for you. But it's for some people. Hey, hey, it is for some people. Yeah.

Not me. Yeah. I am not that some people. But there are people in this world. Yeah. We didn't mention the camera isn't always great either. So that can be kind of a problem. It's like you can't really see exactly what you want.

to see or it'll just swing around wildly. What am I looking at? Yeah. You mentioned the monologues. You know, it's like you're about to kill someone and he's like, they wouldn't dare attack me here. You know, you overhear him saying and he left the door open so you could sneak in because like you can't pick a lock in this game.

So you got to get a key or else it's a deal breaker. Like a locked door, you're done. You're not kicking that down because remember you're stealthy. So you get a key. If it says barred from the other side, you are out of luck. You got to find a open window somewhere. Yeah, I was like, oh yeah, you climb through a fall in. Yes, exactly.

And, you know, I like the little moments after you kill someone. There's sometimes as they're dying, there's sort of a cutscene where they have a few moments alone with you, their killer, while they're reflecting on their life and their death with is sort of nice. And again, like, you know, production values are nice. I actually, it has full on Arabic voice for all the dialogue, which I turned on at first because I thought, oh, this will be, you know, more authentic and more immersive. it was, but it's hard to play a video game with subtitles, I found, you know, because you're looking all over the screen, and I put on the subtitles anyway. Oh, like the NPCs were speaking? Yeah, everyone, right?

Oh, I thought I was only during the cinematic parts. I was like, how is that? It's all the time, yeah. And if you're focusing on other things on the screen, it's hard to depend on the subtitle. So that's a bit of a problem. That's interesting, though. I didn't do that at all. And I would have done that.

That seems also because you have to appreciate all that work you put into doing that. Exactly. Like, that's insane. That's a lot of work. work. Yeah. And the game gets bonkers at the end. The story just completely, just wacky. Like, you, if you didn't play Valhalla, you probably have no idea what's going on at the end of this game, which, you know, read an explainer. If there is one that actually explains it, it's okay. You know, you could just kind of ignore the last hour. So if you, if you aren't into the lore, but,

but if you want that from Assassin's Creed, then there is a taste of that at the end. And, And lastly, I guess just to wrap up this podcast, like the future of Assassin's Creed, now that it's come back from this breather, it's pretty clear that Ubisoft sees this as its franchise, like its centerpiece. Like even like the menus when you're getting into this game, did you notice how they're sort of a Marvel Star Wars style intro package? You know, it's like Assassin's Creed themed the way that when you stream a show on Disney Plus, you see all the helmets and Star Wars or you see all the superheroes. You know, you see the assassins. It's like they're trying to build this into that type of franchise. And this is big for Ubisoft because they've had all sorts of issues over the past few years. I mean, obviously allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct that are still following that company after all these years. And just on a game level, they've been slumping too. I mean, they've canceled a ton of games. They've had games that have come out and been disappointing. Their stock price is way down if you care. about that kind of thing, but they're about to just bombard us with a bunch of games again, and Assassin's Creed games specifically. So having played this one, are you at all into just the larger mythology or like, do I want to come back for this? Do I want this to be a franchise?

Because we know there was the movie, which was a disaster from the bad old days of video game adaptations, but there are multiple series in the works from Netflix, live action, and animated. and there are several Assassin's Creed games on the way coming as soon as next year and beyond. There's Assassin's Creed Infinity, which is sort of like a hub game that will contain other games. And then there's like code name Red and code name Hex. And there's a multiplayer only game coming and a VR game coming. So they are about to ring this franchise dry again. Are you already like, I'm good for the next 15 years or so?

or might you give this franchise another chance? I'm solid. Okay. I'm out. The VR one, you got me, though, for a minute. Because a stealth VR game would be very fun. That would look very fun. I think that would be, I think, honestly,

that would probably be better to watch on, like, Twitch, to watch someone stream it. It'd be very funny. But I, I'm racing for anything. Yeah. I'm racing. I erase into this. I'm with you.

You know, I might take another hiatus here. I mean, we'll see. You know, we'll take it on a campaign. by case basis. If they put out another great game that's in the Assassin's Creed franchise, I will give it a whirl. But I'm not on the edge of my seat waiting for yet another comeback here. I can't wait for not that. Like a lot of games are coming out this year, right?

Then when there's like the lull of video games and that game does come out and we do have to play it for the channel. Yeah. Then I'll be playing it again. I got to. Yeah. We'll check it out. And we got to talk about VR at some point, just like as an episode or as a segment. We got to, what is going on in the VR spaces?

As soon as Ready Player 1 happens, I'm leaving this, I'm leaving. You guys will never see me again. I will be like a raccoon working at a dive bar in some weird VR world. You have no idea. Once Ready Player 1 happens, oh my God, Jessica's gone. She's disappeared. All right. Well, there is, as far as I can tell, no percent completion in the menus of Assassin's Creed Mirage,

unless I just missed it, which was kind of nice because usually you see that number. and it's just it makes you compulsive. You want to make it creep up a little bit by bit. And this one, you know, just do what you want to do. Don't feel like you have to do everything. But we have reached just about the 100% complete point of this podcast. And like Assassin's Creed Mirage, this episode was sort of short and simple, but hopefully not dated and repetitive and frustrating in a way that turns you off of the podcast the way that Mirage turned Jess off from Assassin's Creed. So thank you, Jess, for Putin.

a solid 10 hours or so into this game, giving it a shot, finding some things to like, even as you found a lot not to like, always a pleasure to talk to you about games, whether or not you enjoy them. Absolutely, absolutely. And again, my record is still pretty good on games I like to games I don't like. Yes. There's very little games I don't like. I genuinely.

Thank you to Steve Allman for producing and holding his piece on Assassin's Creed Mirage, which he played as well. And I believe he said, and I quote, it was aggressively fine. So he was somewhere. No, I think he said I loved it. He said, put on record. His mic is cut off right now. So I think he said it was his favorite game ever.

Yeah, I'm glad you liked it so much, Steve. It's great lies. Steve Marage, Alman. And thank you to our Juna Ramgapal, senior manager of podcasting at the Ringer and for the Ringerverse for scheduling so many button mashes this month especially. So stay tuned for more Loki coverage. Stay tuned for us talking about even better games in the. coming weeks. Spider-Man, Toofer, back-to-back, and also Mario on the way.

Email us at ringaversegaming at gmail.com, and we will be back next week.