Details on Assassin’s Creed Mirage’s setting, story, world size, protagonist, and more
Want to know everything about Assassin’s Creed Mirage?Assassin’s Creed is 15 years old, and it’s going back its roots withAssassin’s Creed Mirage. It will take place in Baghdad, following Basim Ibn Is’haq prior to his appearance inAssassin’s Creed Valhalla, and have a renewed focus on the stealth-assassination roots of the franchise. That means those who played Valhalla shouldn’t expect a similar experience with Mirage, despite having clear story connections.
If the above information on Assassin’s Creed Mirage has piqued your interest, then you can take a deep-dive into the details below. On this page, you’ll find everything you need to know about Assassin’s Creed Mirage, including info on the gameplay, release window, setting, story, size, protagonist, and various editions available for preorder.
On this page:
Assassin’s Creed Mirage release date
October 12th is a Thursday, so maybe consider saving up your annual leave to make it a long weekend if you’re eager to get stuck into somedigital tourism in ninth-century Baghdad.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage will take place in Baghdad in the 9th Century, and follows the journey of Basim, a major character from Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, several decades before the events of that game.
Mirage will havea renewed focus on assassinations, parkour, and stealthas an homage to the original Assassin’s Creed. Rather than the high-action open world loot crawls that have become so familiar to those who played Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla, Assassin’s Creed Mirage will lean heavier into stalking enemies, bagging a kill, and darting back into the shadows without detection.
While hunting enemies, you’ll be able to make use of the many parkour opportunities throughout the dense city of Baghdad. We can expect Mirage to be much more urban than the recent open world titles, which had cities and towns spread across vast open worlds.Mirage’s map will be more “intimate”(read: smaller) than those of the recent AC games, and that’s no bad thing! Baghdad will still have plenty to explore, with the city split into multiple districts, but traversal will be much more focused on parkour.
As we mentioned, the developers hopes for Mirage are for it to celebrate that earlier time in the franchise. So, while we likely have many more Assassin’s Creed open world projects to come, expect Mirage to feel more similar to earlier games in the series.
Buyers can choose between three Assassin’s Creed Mirage editions at launch:
In addition to the above content, those who preorder Assassin’s Creed Mirage will also receive access to an exclusive quest in-game called “The Forty Thieves”. You’ll get access to this quest regardless of which edition you choose to preorder.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage is meant to be a shorter game with a significantly smaller world than recent open-world behemoths of the series such as Valhalla and Odyssey. Mirage represents the first step in Ubisoft’s plan to diversify the Assassin’s Creed games, with some releases being large-scale open-world RPGs, and others telling smaller, more linear stories.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage is set in Baghdad in the year 861, 12 years before the events of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla begin. The story follows a younger Basim, who you may know from the Valhalla storyline, as he evolves from a common street thief into “the most versatile Assassin in franchise history” after joining the shadowy Hidden Ones and receiving the tutelage of master assassin Roshan.
While Assassin’s Creed Mirage will be far from the largest ever Assassin’s Creed game, Ubisoft have promised the setting of the Golden Age of Baghdad will be “dense and vibrant”, and filled with inhabitants who “react to your every move”. The city will be divided into four districts - among them Karkh, the industrial district; and the far more floral Round City. But you’ll also be able to journey away from Baghdad and for the first time in Assassin’s Creed’s history explore the fortress of Alamut, the Hidden Ones' legendary capital.
Basim Ibn Is’haq is the main character of Assassin’s Creed Mirage, and we already know a fair bit about him thanks to his major role in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Here’s what Ubisoft’s official site for Assassin’s Creed Mirage says about Basim’s background:
But as Assassin’s Creed veterans will know, there’s far more to this character than meets the eye.
Major spoilers for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla below!
Basim was revealed in Valhalla to be the human reincarnation of the Isu (god) Loki. Yes, that Loki. After realising his true nature and recalling the imprisonment of Loki’s children at the hand of fellow Isu Odin, Basim confronted Eivor (the protagonist of Valhalla and the reincarnation of Odin) at Yggdrasil, but was defeated and trapped inside The Grey - a mysterious afterlife-esque digital realm that has been previously referenced in several Assassin’s Creed games.
There will be no lootboxes or gambling of any kind using real money in Assassin’s Creed Mirage. This may seem like a strange question to ask given that there has been no history in the series of Assassin’s Creed games incorporating lootboxes or similar mechanics; but it makes more sense when you understand the following context.
After Assassin’s Creed Mirage was unveiled at this year’s Ubisoft Forward presentation, viewers of the world premiere trailer noticed that the game appeared to have an ESRB 18+ rating which indicated “real gambling” as the reasoning behind the rating. This prompted widespread discussion around the possibility of loot boxes and other forms of gambling using real money.
It didn’t take long for Ubisoft to pipe up with the following statement in response to the outcry from players:
If you want to read more about the whole shortlived misunderstanding, check outCJ’s post on the matter.
That’s more or less everything we know so far about Assassin’s Creed Mirage. If you’re hungering for more details on the latest Assassin’s Creed game before its release, you can read up onAlice B’s thoughtsabout the announcement. You might also want to take a look at our primer on the upcomingAssassin’s Creed Infinityhub, which won’t include Assassin’s Creed Mirage but will act as a jumping off point for every future AC game.
