First off, I'd like to start that I've only just gotten back into the AC range, after playing Liberation years back on the old trusty Xbox360 (stick drift and all) and Assassins Creed Mirage was a fantastic welcome back to the range.
The first thing that absolutely stood out to me was the absolute masterpiece of a world Baghdad was. The architecture is nothing short of stunning, making me want to explore every single nook and cranny of the 4 districts (As far as I know)
The NPCs also respond and react to most of your actions, giving an even more in-depth and immersive experience in the game world.
Combined with the fantastic world, is the combat, which has been majorly upgraded. Sure it misses some of the original tones of combat from past series, but they've taken it, reformed it into something better, and put it out there for show. Enemies are lethal, you're lethal, and the only way to tip those scales is to use the environment and stealth to your advantage. Sure the dockworkers seem to be incredibly helpful in setting up the perfect route for you to fly through every single time, and spice bags are in the most convenient spots, but scouting out the place is a must in order to utilize the environment properly.
Although so far, the game looks fantastic, there were a few downsides (some aren't too bad, merely mediocre things) that I experienced within only a couple of hours of playing...
Controlling Basim can be annoying sometimes, as he can occasionally act as if he's never seen a ledge in his life before, resulting in him merely clinging onto the ledge for dear life from a foot-high drop.
Then you have the enemy AI, which is quite a mixed bag. On one side, you have extraordinarily observative and alert enemies that patrol around, with their eyesight looking all over the place (Thank goodness for spice bags) to the robots in disguise, staring into space, completely oblivious to your character (I mean, I'm not complaining if it means easier stealth)
Last of all, animations. I would've stuck this up in the "pros" section rather than the cons, because they are just absolutely splendid. You can see the effects, work and dedication gone into animating the takedowns... but the occasional loot indicator playing hide and seek, or the assassination animations with the good old "Skyrim body clipping" can be easily overlooked, or fixed with a minor touch up.
All in all, the mere 10 hours spent playing were definitely 10 hours well spent.
I'm definitely purchasing the game sooner or later to give it a spin on my own (And maybe stop irritating my mate to have a spin on the game) and I hope anyone else would have as positive an experience as me. 9.5/10
