The Assassin’s Creed games are huge when it comes to bringing real life locations to life. Entries like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla were enormous, and while Assassin’s Creed Mirage scales down the action, there are still heaps of places to explore. So much so that Ubisoft details just how many Assassin’s Creed Mirage landmarks there are for Basim Ibn Ishaq to explore in one of this year’s most exciting upcoming PS5 games and upcoming Xbox games.
Before the Assassin’s Creed Mirage release date lands for all your avid fans out there, Ubisoft details how its History of Baghdad codex will add deeper layers of information to your environment. “Basim visits 66 historical sites throughout Baghdad, and players will unlock research-driven articles that dig into information across five topics,” says Ubisoft.
Comparatively, the underrated Assassin’s Creed Unity contains 86 landmarks, with Assassin’s Creed Revelations sitting further down with a modest 34 landmarks. Just take a look at ‘Phaedrus The Explorer’ real-life comparison below.
As for these five topics, players can expect to gather knowledge surrounding the following pillars of information:
- Economy
- Belief & Daily Life
- Government
- Art & Science
- Court Life
Fleshing out the world of Assassin’s Creed Mirage, let alone any Assassin’s Creed game, isn’t an easy task. That’s where Ubisoft’s on-hand historian Dr. Raphaël Weyland comes in: “From the start we had an ambitious premise: to help the players better understand the world of ninth-century Baghdad, a world that is seldom represented in popular culture.”
Weyland expresses that “in pursuit of this lofty goal, we were given the freedom to choose what topics we wanted to tackle. We just had to make sure that what we wanted to describe existed in the world of Assassin’s Creed Mirage.” Ubisoft describes Weyland as a bona fide expert in Middle Eastern history, with Weyland joining Ubisoft specifically to work on AC Mirage.
Tasked with “finding culturally and historically authentic elements for inclusion in the game”, Weyland also clarifies the importance of making Mirage’s map come alive.
“The role of the city [is to act] as a global hub, attracting artists, scholars and traders from all over the world. By weaving together various traditions, they created research methods and artistic styles that are still important today,” Weyland explains. Moreover, Weyland says that “this cosmopolitan aspect, as well as the influence that Baghdad has on us, are at the heart of the story and the world-building of Assassin’s Creed Mirage.”
Shifting the focus to an approach more reminiscent of older games in the series, Assassin’s Creed Mirage may just end up as one of the best Assassin’s Creed games ever.