I'm really enjoying the transformation of "Assassin's Creed" into a huge RPG series, but after spending hundreds of hours roaming Norway, England, Ireland, and France in "Valhalla," I'm really looking forward to just chilling in Baghdad in "Assassin's Creed Mirage."

Mirage.

As Morgan wrote after Mirage's announcement, it's exciting to see the return of the classic Assassin's Creed approach, but it's not just the return to sneaky shenanigans that piques my interest. It seems that a reduction in scale can only be a good thing. Speaking to Easy Allies last week, Ubisoft compared the scale of Mirage to Constantinople in Revelation and Paris in Unity, and they seem to welcome the departure from the country-by-country adventures of the last few titles.

Now, Paris is more than twice the size of Constantinople, and while we don't know where Mirage falls within that, it is reasonable to assume that we are looking at about 2 km2. I still remember flying around Paris a few years ago and being amazed at the sheer scale of it all. But it is certainly much smaller than modern productions that can explore hundreds of kilometers. While [Valhalla] and [Odyssey] offer a variety of urban environments, most of these games are dominated by wilderness and rural areas. These places offer more potential for screenshots, but less room for stealth assassination. You also want to jump from rooftop to rooftop, pounce on your target, and blend in with the crowd.

What's missing so far, however, is a Unity-style horde of bodies undulating through the streets in Ubisoft's Paris knockoff, where the Assassins have to push through sweaty masses of protesters, rioters, and pedestrians every time they take to the streets. Sorry, that's not a pleasant way to put it. But the density of the crowds has long stayed with me, contributing to the feeling that Paris is the most well-realized space in the series. That ambition was unfortunately ruined by technical problems, and Ubisoft has since scaled back the crowds. One would have thought that a return to a more focused setting would bring back those large crowds, but so far it has been disappointing.

Still! I'm really looking forward to exploring Baghdad from the streets and rooftops with my good friend Basim. And the important thing is to spend time doing something meaningful, not just riding a horse from A to B over huge distances.