The best thing about this game? Just sneaking around, in old Baghdad: PETER HOSKIN reviews Assassin’s Creed Mirage

Assassin’s Creed Mirage (PlayStation, Xbox, PC, £44.99)

Verdict: Sneaking through history

Rating:

There are few better experiences in gaming than just sneaking around. Keeping to the shadows. Ducking behind pillars. And then, when the time is right, knocking out a troublesome guard.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage offers that experience frequently, which is worth emphasising.

Although the now 15-year-old Assassin’s Creed series is technically one of sneaky stealth games, the last few titles — such as Odyssey and Valhalla — have back-pedalled on the back-stabbing, and instead had you battling through huge historical landscapes and narratives.

Whereas Mirage is a return to the series’ roots — sort of. In its tale of Basim, a thief-with-a-heart who becomes an assassin-with-a-sharp-blade, it definitely plays up the old-timey stealth, but it also borrows some of the best bits from the recent games.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage offers that experience frequently, which is worth emphasising. Although the now 15-year-old Assassin’s Creed series is technically one of sneaky stealth games, the last few titles — such as Odyssey and Valhalla — have back-pedalled on the back-stabbing, and instead had you battling through huge historical landscapes and narratives

Whereas Mirage is a return to the series’ roots — sort of. In its tale of Basim, a thief-with-a-heart who becomes an assassin-with-a-sharp-blade, it definitely plays up the old-timey stealth, but it also borrows some of the best bits from the recent games

Once again, there are a hundred different ways of kitting out your character. Once again, you have a pet eagle who can scan the landscape.

And what a glorious landscape it is. Mirage’s setting, medieval Baghdad, might be the best in the entire series; a glorious expanse of sand and mosaics, of palaces and hovels.

It contains plenty of contrivances for the sake of gameplay — convenient hay carts for Basim to hide in — but, otherwise, it’s a loving and convincing historical recreation.

There are flaws, of course. When the stealth goes wrong, and the guards catch on to your murderous presence, the ensuing combat can be a little clumsy.

The story — of rebellion against the ruling regime, with references to the wider Assasiverse chucked in — feels underbaked.

But when it comes to the main part of the gameplay — the sneaking around — Mirage is up there with the very best stealth games. Now you see me. Now you don’t.

Forza Motorsport (Xbox, PC, £59.99 or included with Xbox Game Pass)

Verdict: Real racing

Rating:

We’re living in a golden age. For one thing, at least. Driving games.

Over the past year or so, we’ve had Gran Turismo 7; a new entry in the Forza Horizon series; and the glories of the latest official F1 title.

Three games, three all-timers. Vroom and, indeed, vroom.

And now there’s Forza Motorsport — the serious-minded big brother to Horizon’s zany younger sibling. This one is more about lap times than freewheeling fun. More about famous race tracks than eye-popping coastal roads.

In that respect, it ought to be regarded as Xbox’s answer to PlayStation’s Gran Turismo 7. But what an answer!

We’re living in a golden age. For one thing, at least. Driving games. And now there’s Forza Motorsport — the serious-minded big brother to Horizon’s zany younger sibling. This one is more about lap times than freewheeling fun. More about famous race tracks than eye-popping coastal roads

As someone who’s really got into driving games in recent months — to the point that I’m considering buying a very nerdy steering wheel setup — I now know that the most important thing is something almost indefinable. Their feel. And this game has feel in bucketloads

Like Gran Turismo, this one really looks the part: the light bounces off the track just so; the cars throw up the most convincing little sprays of dust.

Also like Gran Turismo, it’s as welcoming to newcomers as it is satisfying for petrolheads: the generous tutorials ease you into the experience, while dozens of settings can be tweaked to make the experience more or less demanding.

But as someone who’s really got into driving games in recent months — to the point that I’m considering buying a very nerdy steering wheel setup — I now know that the most important thing is something almost indefinable. Their feel.

And this game has feel in bucketloads. There’s just something pleasingly weighty about how its cars handle. The vehicle-on-vehicle scrapes and collisions, in particular, are thrillingly substantial. On that metric alone, Forza Motorsport is best in class.

If there’s a downside, it’s that — because this game of Forza is so focused on the important business of racing — it can feel a little sparse.

It’s race against the computer or race against other people online. There are few other modes or diversions.

Still, if you’re the sort of nerd with a steering wheel hooked up to your console, that’s probably all you need. Vroom.

Detective Pikachu Returns (Nintendo Switch, £39.99)

Verdict: Pleasant policework

Rating:

When Pikachu, the puppyish yellow mascot for the Pokémon games, was unleashed on the world in 1996, who’da thunk that they’d eventually put a deerstalker on his head and have him solving crimes?

But that’s what happened in the 2018 game Detective Pikachu, which then got adapted into a Hollywood movie, and now has another game as its sequel: Detective Pikachu Returns.

Naturally, these aren’t your typical games of Pokémon. There’s no capturing and battling of cute little critters. There’s very little action in general.

Instead, what you have is one mystery after another, strung together to form a narrative.

What you have is one mystery after another, strung together to form a narrative. It’s your job, as the young private eye Tim Goodman, to simply wander through that narrative — asking questions, making deductions, passing the time with your very own Detective Pikachu

It’s your job, as the young private eye Tim Goodman, to simply wander through that narrative — asking questions, making deductions, passing the time with your very own Detective Pikachu.

Which might sound like a lazy attempt at a game by Nintendo and its Pokémon division, but that’s not actually the case. A lot of care has gone into this one; into the drawing of its luscious cartoon graphics; into the writing of its mysteries; into the sheer wackiness and humour of its mixed world of people and pokéthings.

No, I’d rather regard this one as laid-back. The mysteries are elementary (and tame) enough that even young children should be able to solve them — which is probably the point — but that makes it perfect for Nintendo’s Switch in its handheld form. This is a real ten-minutes-before-bed sort of game…

…that demands ten minutes more… then another ten minutes on top of that.

Dash it. Am I starting to become a Pikachu fan?

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