As a core part of the series design that’s come under fire for its most recent games, parkour inAssassin’s Creed Miragewill be under significant pressure to return to form just as Ubisoft keeps insisting throughout the game’s marketing. From the series' beginning all the way through toACSyndicate, each game has tried to refine, improve, and even expandAssassin’s Creed’s freerunning parkour. But whenAssassin’s Creedshifted towards a traditional RPG approach withAC Originsand beyond, players immediately noticed that the iconic parkour design had suffered as a result.
So whenAssassin’s Creed Miragepromotes itself as a return to the series' roots and promises the authenticAssassin’s Creedexperience from back in 2007, many players are cautiously anticipating what this might mean for the game’s approach to parkour. While the trailers released so far provide a few glimpses of freerunning gameplay, these don’t shed much light on how exactly parkour will work withinAC Mirage. However, with the outright ambition of mirroring the classic style ofAssassin’s Creed,AC Miragewill need to hit the ground running with its parkour, or else it could struggle to find its feet and falls flat on its face.
RELATED:Future Assassin’s Creed Titles May Be Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Assassin’s Creed Freerunning Has Become A Slow Crawl
Right from the start of the franchise, players were drawn toAssassin’s Creedfor its use of parkour, leading to each following game adding its own touch to enhance this area of gameplay, whether it wasAC 2’shooked blade for a leaping grab or the introduction of zip-lines inAC Revelations. While it wasn’t a completely perfect system,Assassin’s Creedhas succeeded with its freerunningsince it effectively captures the freedom of freerunning. However, blending parkour into futureAssassin’s Creedgames where the world was more expansive and subsequently less dense, as seen inAC 3andAC Black Flag,began to pose a challenge.
This was the same issue that the most recentAssassin’s Creedgames have faced as the series moved towards RPG-style gameplay. Though these games have retained parkour, they lacked many of the innovations made throughout the series and scaled back even some of its most basic essentials like vaulting. So while players could still run, jump, and climb, it would be nowhere close to theoriginalAssassin’s Creedfreerunning experienceand, beforeAC Mirage’sannouncement, it left the series with the unfortunate possibility that such an iconic and well-liked staple of its game design was gone for good.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage Needs To Commit To Classic Parkour
SinceAC Mirageis being likened to classicAssassin’s Creedgames, it offers fans a glimmer of hope that classic parkour could make a resurgence with it. Though behind-the-scenes commentary from Ubisoft claims its striving for Ezio’s level of parkour, it was revealed thatAC Miragewould actually be pulling inspiration fromAC Unity. Though this would meanAC Mirage’sfreerunning predates the series' RPG titles regardless, it poses new problems like one ofAC Unity’s many criticisms over trying to make its parkour more cinematic only to neglect the mechanics and playing experience behind it.
IfAC Mirageis going to succeed with its parkour, then it will need to fine-tune the mechanics it currently has in the series' history, identify any areas where it might be lacking, and find ways of resolving these shortfalls. Some previous mechanics have already been seen and mentioned inAC Mirage’slatest trailers, but this shouldn’t prevent others from returning too, such as back ejects, controlled descents, and more.AC Miragewill also need to ensure that, unlikeAC Unity, these mechanics feel satisfying to play and rewarding to master, and it shouldn’t rely on the “just go forward” approachAC OriginsorAC Valhallaleft players with.
Assassin’s Creed Mirageis set to release on Jul 22, 2025, for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
MORE:Assassin’s Creed Mirage Can Tie AC1 and AC Valhalla Together on the Timeline
