Assassin's Creed Mirage

''Assassin's Creed Mirage'' is a 2023 action-adventure game developed by Ubisoft Bordeaux and published by Ubisoft. The game is the thirteenth major installment in the ''Assassin's Creed'' series and the successor to 2020's ''Assassin's Creed Valhalla''. While its historical timeframe precedes that of ''Valhalla'', its modern-day framing story succeeds ''Valhalla'''s own. Set in 9th-century Baghdad during the Islamic Golden Age—in particular during the Anarchy at Samarra—the story follows Basim Ibn Ishaq (a character first introduced in ''Valhalla''), a street thief who joins the Hidden Ones to fight for peace and liberty, against the Order of the Ancients, who desire peace through control. The main narrative focuses on Basim's internal struggle between his duties as a Hidden One and his desire to uncover his mysterious past.

Originally envisioned as an expansion for ''Valhalla'', the game was reworked into a standalone title to expand its scope. The design philosophy behind ''Mirage''—the first game to be developed primarily by Ubisoft Bordeaux, previously just a support studio—was to return to the series' roots by focusing on stealth, parkour, and assassinations over the role-playing elements featured heavily in recent installments. As a result, the game is much smaller in scale than its predecessors and combines elements introduced in them with those found in earlier installments of the franchise.

''Mirage'' was released for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on October 5, 2023. A mobile version is also scheduled to release for iOS on iPhone 15 Pro models in early 2024. Upon release, the game received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its world design, focus on stealth and return to form of the franchise, though some criticized the characters and the story's reliance on previous installments in the series.

Gameplay

''Assassin's Creed Mirage'' is an action-adventure stealth game intended to be reminiscent of older ''Assassin's Creed'' titles, being more linear and story-focused and reducing the number of role-playing elements present in recent installments of the series. Parkour, close-quarter combat, and stealth are core elements of the gameplay. For assassination missions, ''Mirage'' adopts the "Black Box" design previously seen in ''Assassin's Creed Unity'' and ''Assassin's Creed Syndicate'', where players have to explore the environment to find different ways to reach and eliminate their targets.

The game is set principally in the city of Baghdad, which is divided into four districts—the Round City, Karkh, and Harbiyah—but also features several smaller towns like Anbar, located on the outskirts of the city. Alamut, the fortress headquarters of the Hidden Ones, is also featured in several missions, but is inaccessible outside of the storyline. Baghdad is much smaller than the worlds of recent ''Assassin's Creed'' titles, being closer in size to ''Unity''s and '' Revelations depictions of Paris and Constantinople, respectively.

Similarly to previous Assassin protagonists, the main character, Basim, has a large arsenal of weapons and tools at his disposal, including the signature Assassin Hidden Blade, smoke bombs, throwing knives, and poison darts. Both weapons and tools can be upgraded through a skill tree which allows different effects to be applied to them. Basim also has access to both Eagle Vision and an avian companion named Enkidu (after the character from Mesopotamian mythology), an eastern imperial eagle that can be used to scout nearby areas. Unlike previous ''Assassin's Creed'' games which featured avian companions, enemy marksmen can detect and shoot at Enkidu, requiring the player to eliminate the marksmen before Enkidu can be used again.

''Mirage'' introduces a new ability called "Assassin Focus", which allows the player to eliminate multiple enemies simultaneously and is recharged by performing stealth assassinations. When the ability is activated, time stops and the player can mark up to five enemies who will then be automatically killed by Basim in quick succession. Another new feature are various poles located around Baghdad, which can be used to cross wide gaps. Furthermore, moving and running animations have been refined to improve mobility and fluidity, with the development team taking inspiration from "samurai, ninja, and even Jedi to a certain point".

Synopsis

Setting

''Assassin's Creed Mirage'' is set in Baghdad during the Islamic Golden Age, primarily during the Anarchy at Samarra, which was a period of extreme internal instability during the reign of the Abbasid Caliphate. Taking place a decade before the events of ''Assassin's Creed Valhalla'', the game explores the backstory of Basim Ibn Ishaq (voiced by Lee Majdoub), depicting his transition from street thief to fully-fledged Hidden One, under the tutelage of his mentor, Roshan bint-La'Ahad (Shohreh Aghdashloo). Like previous ''Assassin's Creed'' games, ''Mirage'' also features a number of characters based on historical figures, including , leader of the Zanj Rebellion; the Banū Mūsā brothers, a trio of scholars and inventors; Muhammad ibn Tahir, the last Tahirid governor of Khurasan and Baghdad; and the Caliph al-Mu'tazz (Abu 'Abdallah Muhammad ibn Ja'far) and his mother Qabiha, in addition to al-Jahiz, al-Farghani, Hunayn ibn Ishaq and Arib al-Ma'muniyya, as well as Wasif al-Turki.

Plot

Following the events of ''Assassin's Creed Valhalla: The Last Chapter'', the modern-day Assassins use a blood sample provided by Basim Ibn Ishaq to relive his memories during the age of the Abbasid Caliphate.

In 861 CE, Basim is a young street thief living in Anbar with his childhood friend and companion, Nehal. For his entire life, Basim has been haunted by visions of a monstrous ''jinni'', which Nehal had been helping him cope with. While just a simple thief, Basim has greater aspirations and attempts to join the Hidden Ones, but is flatly rejected by the senior Hidden One stationed in Anbar, Roshan bint-La'Ahad. In an effort to prove himself, Basim sneaks into the Caliph's palace to steal a chest sought by both the Hidden Ones and the Order of the Ancients. Basim retrieves a disk-shaped artifact from the chest, which displays a holographic message, before he is confronted by the Caliph, al-Mutawakkil. Nehal kills the Caliph to save Basim and they both flee the palace.

In retaliation for the Caliph's murder, the guards begin slaughtering all thieves in Anbar, including many of Basim's friends, and he angrily blames Nehal before parting ways. Now on the run, Basim manages to escape the city with Roshan's help, and she takes him to the Hidden Ones' mountain fortress at Alamut. Over the next few years, Basim trains under Roshan and is eventually initiated into the Hidden Ones. When their Mentor, Rayhan, learns of the Order's rapidly expanding influence in Baghdad, he decides to send a contingent of Hidden Ones to the city to investigate, led by Basim and Roshan.

Upon arriving in Baghdad, Basim learns that five Order members have infiltrated the Caliphate's highest levels of power, and are exploiting it in order to excavate or rebuild ancient Isu artifacts. He proceeds to hunt down four of the Order members, assassinating them and their subordinates and foiling their respective plots. During this time, Basim reunites with Nehal, who is distrustful of the Hidden Ones and encourages Basim to investigate the artifacts the Order is looking for, believing they are both somehow linked to them. Eventually, Basim confronts the Order's leader, Qabiha, who claims that the answers he seeks lie in an Isu temple underneath Alamut. Qabiha then tries to convince Basim to accompany her to the temple, but is killed by Roshan, who warns Basim not to investigate any further.

Disobeying Roshan, Basim travels to Alamut with Nehal, only to find the fortress under siege by the Order's forces. Basim rescues many captured Hidden Ones and rallies them to fight off the attack while he heads to the temple after convincing Rayhan that the power held within could be used to defeat the Order for good. However, he is confronted by Roshan, who reveals that she is aware of Basim's true nature and attempts to stop him from entering the temple, fearing what it may awaken within Basim. Basim defeats Roshan, but spares her life and enters the temple with Nehal. Inside, he finds more disk-shaped artifacts and discovers that the temple used to be a prison where the Isu Loki was held in at some point before escaping. Basim also realizes that Nehal never existed; both she and the ''jinni'' were in fact representations of his repressed memories as Loki. Deciding to embrace his nature as Loki's reincarnation, Basim "fuses" with Nehal and regains his memories.

Upon leaving the temple, Basim is welcomed back into the Hidden Ones, which causes Roshan to resign in protest. Now fully aware of his past life as Loki, Basim muses that he has been reborn in a new world, and looks forward to a "reunion" with those who were responsible for his imprisonment.

Development

Prior to its announcement at Ubisoft Forward on September 10, 2022, details about ''Mirage'' leaked–under the codename ''Rift''–when it was revealed that the game started out as an expansion pack for ''Assassin's Creed Valhalla'' before being turned into a standalone release.

''Mirage'' has been described as a smaller ''Assassin's Creed'' title, with the main campaign lasting around 15–20 hours, similar to older games in the franchise. It was designed to celebrate the series' 15th anniversary, in which the developers used the technology built for ''Valhalla'' to create a game that pays tribute to the first ''Assassin's Creed''.

On June 4, 2023, it was announced that the game would be the first in the series to feature an Arabic dubbing, with Jordanian actor Eyad Nassar voicing Basim in this version.

The game includes an educational database on the history of Baghdad, including articles that are gradually unlocked as the player progresses. These illustrate 9th-century Abbasid culture with photographs of objects from the Khalili Collections, the David Collection, Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art and the Institut du Monde Arabe. The creation of the database involved four academic experts in Islamic art, and was supported with grants from the UK's Economic and Social Research Council and the charity Barakat Trust.

''Mirage'' features compatibility with a tie-in haptic vest designed by the gaming company Owo. This is a wireless skinsuit that registers movement from the upper body and arms.

Release

''Assassin's Creed'' ''Mirage'' was originally set to launch on October 12, 2023, before having its release date brought forward to October 5. It was released for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Amazon Luna. A version for iOS on iPhone 15 Pro models is also planned to release in early 2024. The game was made available on Day 1 for all players subscribed to Ubisoft+.

Shortly after the game's announcement, the title was reported as receiving an Adults Only rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board, which would have limited the number of outlets it could be distributed at in the United States. The reports came from a listing on the Xbox Store a week prior to the game's reveal, with one of the reasons being for containing "real gambling". Ubisoft later corrected both claims, stating the game had not been rated yet and "no real gambling or lootboxes ill bepresent in the game".

Additional content

Ubisoft announced that they would release an exclusive mission titled ''The Forty Thieves'' for players who pre-ordered the game. A ''Deluxe Edition'' of ''Mirage'' includes the base game, a ''Prince of Persia''-inspired pack featuring additional weapons and cosmetic items, the game's soundtrack, and a digital artbook. The ''Prince of Persia'' pack is also available for purchase separately.

In July 2023, it was confirmed by game director Stephane Boudon that Ubisoft had no plans to release any post-launch downloadable content.

In August 2023, Ubisoft confirmed that ''Mirage'' would have cosmetic microtransactions, in the form of "cosmetic bundles that will be purchasable directly on first-party stores at launch".

On December 12, 2023, a free update for the game was released, introducing a New Game Plus mode, a legacy outfit inspired by Bayek's robes from ''Assassin's Creed Origins'', and various gameplay improvements and bug fixes, including improved parkour mechanics.

Reception

''Assassin's Creed Mirage'' received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, according to review aggregator website Metacritic.

''GamesRadar+'' complimented the dense nature of Baghdad in comparison to recent entries, saying: "Markets bustle with shoppers and traders speaking multiple languages, streets see people meander in clusters". While enjoying the focus on stealth and calling the game a "back-to-basics approach" a successful first step in returning to the stealthy style, ''IGN'' felt the character of Basim was dull, writing, "He's a pretty milquetoast, golden retriever of a man, largely agreeable and affable when it comes to his interpersonal relationships." ''Game Informer'' praised the parkour system of ''Mirage'', "The opportunity for engaging parkour traversal is always present, and moving along rooftops, sliding down zip lines, and diving into hiding spots is great fun." ''GameSpot'' praised the social stealth, world design, and investigations, but criticized the storyline's reliance on previous entries and uninteresting supporting characters.

The PlayStation 5 version of ''Assassin's Creed Mirage'' was the third bestselling retail game throughout its first week of release in Japan, with 20,407 physical copies being sold across the country.

Notes

References

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2023 video games
Action-adventure games
Assassin's Creed
IOS games
Open-world video games
PlayStation 4 games
PlayStation 4 Pro enhanced games
PlayStation 5 games
Single-player video games
Stealth video games
Ubisoft games
Video games developed in Canada
Video games developed in France
Cultural depictions of Muhammad
Video games set in 9th-century Abbasid Caliphate
Video games set in Iran
Video games set in Iraq
Windows games
Xbox One X enhanced games
Xbox One games
Xbox Series X and Series S games