Assassin's Creed is a series about parkour – that means a lot of climbing, a lot of running, and a lot of jumping. Despite that, there hasn't been a dedicated jump button since way back in 2014 with Unity. Now, over a decade later, Ubisoft is finally bringing back a dedicated jump button for Assassin's Creed Mirage.
Alongside the free Valley of Memory DLC, Mirage is getting a broad range of improvements that will apply across the entire game "We're opening the possibility to replay the main missions of Basim's story with associated new rewards," as Valley of Memory creative director Olivier Leonardi explains in a dev diary video, "alongside improved parkour mechanics that offer new moves, like a free jump, as well as new tools upgrades and brand-new visual filters paying tribute to previous AC games, like Origins or Odyssey."
That new free jump is particularly notable, as it's been a long time since Assassin's Creed has offered the feature, and fans are ready to celebrate. "Holy shit, jumping is back," as Tomichin puts it on Reddit, and the rest of the community is similarly effusive about the changes.
The big transition to RPG-style mechanics and impossibly massive worlds with Assassin's Creed Origins had its fans, but many old-school series stalwarts were disappointed by the simplified parkour systems and reduced emphasis on urban traversal.
Assassin's Creed Mirage promised to be a return to the series' classic gameplay, and mostly delivered on that promise, but it's good to see Ubisoft taking it even further – even if the Valley of Memory DLC itself might be coming from questionable provenance.
