A haystack appears – perfect timing! With a swift leap, our hero Basim evades the sword-wielding guards. Assassin's Creed: Mirage wastes no time; the stealthy action in ninth-century Baghdad kicks off promptly. We witness Basim's transformation from street thief to agile member of the Hidden Ones, moving with feline grace through the shadows.

Anyone who played the predecessor Assassin's Creed: Valhalla will immediately recognize Basim, Eivor's mentor. Now he gets to be the hero in the latest edition of the series and – plagued by nightmares – fights the mysterious Order of the Ancients.

In around 20 to 25 hours you experience an exciting series of action and cinematic sequences, sneaking through urban canyons, bushes and narrow valleys.

Successful missions allow you to develop new skills and specialize in one of three game types (Phantom, Trickster or Predator), each of which offers slightly different approaches.

Back to the roots

Compared to its opulent predecessors "Odyssey" and "Valhalla," "Mirage" is much more straightforward. No long present-day sequences, and hardly any confusing talk about stored memories.

Instead, the focus is on sneaking around and stealth – and after a bit of practice, that's really fun and offers different ways of solving a mission.

For example, things can be blown up and guards can be distracted with a whistle or left to deal with a freed big cat. Stealth is important because Basim won't fare well in close combat against a bunch of heavily armored guards.

Assassin's Creed: Mirage, already available for PCs and consoles, has now been launched for the iPad. The graphics and performance are no less impressive than in the versions for other platforms.

You can also pair your tablet with a gamepad for more precise control to prevent you from hitting innocent passersby when you want to look around. In general, "Mirage" would have benefited from a little more fine-tuning of the controls.

Smaller, but finer and full of beautiful details

Assassin's Creed: Mirage is a small step back to the beginning of the series. The game is tighter with less running and more sneaking, climbing, stealing and assassinating. There is also a quite exciting background story.

If you look closely at all the action, you will find a lot of lovely details in the game world as well as top-class voice actors. In short, fans get their money's worth and beginners may be converted into series fans.

It's a bit of a shame, though, that despite the splendor of the graphics, the animation of Basim's face in particular is pretty devoid of facial expressions.

Assassin's Creed: Mirage is available for PCs, the Xbox One/Series, the PlayStation 4/5 and the iPhone/iPad (with an A17/M1 processor or newer) for around $50.

You can buy more weapons and costumes in-game with real money. However, that's not necessary to complete the game.