Innovation and creativity are key driving factors within the gaming industry. Creating a solid game concept and taking it as far as one can go, with as many iterative improvements, usually dictate the longevity, notoriety, and impact a game series can have. Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed has been a behemoth in this regard, remaining one of the most iconic and easily recognizable franchises on the market. However, over time, the series seemed to have lost its magic touch.
What was once a franchise tightly focused on stealth and covert assassinations went full-bore into bombastic, “No F’s Given,” all-out brawling combat. There isn’t necessarily anything wrong with giving players more options and ways to play their game, but doing it in a manner that erodes a game’s core identity across multiple titles, is less than favorable. Players who have been with the franchise since the beginning are intimate with the feeling.
However, with the recent leaks and announcement of the new Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Ubisoft Bordeaux is seemingly returning the franchise to its roots, figuratively and literally, a welcome sight for weary veterans and a fresh one for the newcomers. Here’s why we are excited about Assassin’s Creed Mirage’s back-to-basics.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage’s protagonist is the supporting character Basim Ibn Ishaq from 2020’s Valhalla. Mirage takes place many years before Valhalla before Basim becomes a Master Assassin, and even before he joins the Hidden Ones, the proto Assassin’s guild built up by Origin’s protagonist, Bayek.
It will be interesting to see how Valhalla’s master assassin turned towards that way of life, having been a common thief in his youth, and also how the contemporary Assassin’s Brotherhood operated at the time (c. 9th century AD). The story almost plays out like a mirror of the legendary Altair, one of the most revered figures in-game, with both protagonists becoming masters of their craft from a young age during a turbulent time, both having been brought low by a society rife with corruption and backstabbing.
Though, I will profess that I am less excited about the whole Loki possession thing that Basim goes through and becomes enslaved by.
With the intentional mirroring of Altair’s tale and the return to the series’ roots, it will be interesting to see how Basim and the Hidden Ones evolve into the recognizable and prolific Brotherhood, while Mirage explores an area of the Assassin’s Creed universe never explored before.
The Assassin’s Creed universe has explored several countries, cultures, and periods (Japan when, Ubisoft?). From Ptolemaic Ancient Egypt, Classical Greece, Renaissance Rome, the American Revolution, and even Victorian London, Assassin’s Creed is no stranger to exploring new, uncharted territory. (And the less we talk about the present-day story, the better.)
So, it’s rather significant for the series to return to a region players have been before, albeit at a different juncture in time. Assassin’s Creed Mirage takes place in Ancient Baghdad around the 9th century. During this period, the region would have been ruled by the Abbasid Caliphate, the third dynastical succession from the Prophet Muhammad.
It is often referred to as the Golden Age of Islam, with Baghdad becoming the cultural epicenter of innovation, science, and invention. The House of Wisdom, the university-like school Basim visited in his youth, was built around this time (750 AD). It was also marred by conflict, with revolts, insurgencies, and wars as constant as the desert sands surrounding the Muslim world.
One of Assassin’s Creed’s best assets is its ability to draw upon real-world history, historical figures, and significant events when telling its story. Despite being fictitious, the games made all the events feel real as if the players were directly responsible, or at the very least had a hand, in how history unfolded. It was a magical experience, seeing these moments in history brought to life and having a key part in it all.
I’m looking forward to checking out Assassin’s Creed again, after dropping it years ago, because of how historically rich Mirage’s setting is, and the folklore and mythology it will incorporate. (Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves in Mirage’s leaked Forty Thieves Quest.)
It would be an understatement to say how vastly different Assassin’s Creed of today looks and plays to the Assassin’s Creed of yore. Ubisoft certainly expanded how players and their assassins could play in the sandbox they were given, whether piloting a pirate ship or building a Viking homestead. In the same way, gameplay expanded, the mechanics surrounding the player character did as well.
Taking on more traditional RPG-related mechanics, akin to the skill points and skill tree system in Valhalla, Assassin’s Creed drifted away from the story-based progression of the older games, where abilities, skills, and items were locked behind the progress made in the tightly-focused story. Turning the series in a more RPG-like direction, while making the game “bigger,” has made the game more bloated.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage, reportedly, intends to do away with all of that.
According to leaks, Mirage is letting go of some key RPG elements built up from previous games, like dialogue, player-gender choice, and leveling system, the latter implying a potential removal of skill points and subsequent skill tree. It is essentially trimming mechanics and features that diverged the newer titles from the older ones.
Though we have yet to see how much will change in Mirage, it’s exciting to know that the game is returning to the series’ simpler and more tightly-focused roots.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage is reported to be released sometime in the Spring of 2023. More details regarding the game and the coming future of the franchise are to come during Ubisoft’s official reveal event on September 10th.
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