Assassin's Creed Mirage was fully unveiled at the Ubisoft Forward, with players traveling to Baghdad to watch Basim grow into a Master Assassin under the guidance of his new mentor, Roshan. The gameplay is meant to honor the old games, with stealth, parkour, and assassinations all central to the gameplay loop.
The Assassin's Creed Mirage trailer showed fans what to expect from the franchise in terms of going back to its roots, but also its future by showing off open-world RPGs like Assassin's Creed Red and other, "different" titles like Assassin's Creed Hexe. But after Valhalla, Mirage is the next big hurdle and the one with all the eyes on it. Game Rant recently spoke with Assassin's Creed Mirage creative director Stephane Boudon about all the things happening in this next iteration of the franchise. The following transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Q: Was the Valhalla team expecting Basim to prove so popular?
I think we're [all] pretty happy with Basim. At some point, he was a character full of mystery. Obviously, for us, he's one of the best characters to tell a bit more of his story, so that's why we decided to take a few steps back in time and tell his whole journey, his coming-of-age story, from street thief to master assassin.
Q: Are there any present-day elements in Assassin's Creed Mirage?
No, we decided to not put in any present-day or future playable missions in Assassin's Creed Mirage because we wanted to really focus on the story of Basim when he was in Baghdad in the Ninth Century. So, you are still in the Animus obviously. It's core to the Assassin's Creed franchise, so you will start with Animus and there's also an ending, but we won't have any gameplay for present-day during the whole game.
Q: During the AC showcase, at least for me, one of the most interesting quotes was that "there's a little bit of every Assassin's Creed game in Mirage," and the showcase talks a little bit about the connections to AC1 with the Middle East and all of that. But would it be possible for you to speak to other games' influences on Mirage?
Yes, totally. In fact, the team was hard at work to really pay homage to the walled city of Assassin's Creed. So indeed, the most, let's say used, Assassin's Creed games were Assassin's Creed 1, Assassin's Creed 2, and in fact, the whole Ezio trilogy.
But we pick up some ingredients and some tools from Unity. Obviously, we are coming from this new generation of games which are Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla, and we have a lot of their DNA inside of the game such as the fighting mechanics.
For example, we create a lot of things after Origins because, in fact, we have the closest game between Origins and Valhalla. We have to tell a bit more about Bayek and his legacy in our game, but obviously, we are also very close to Assassin's Creed 1 with Altair. Even if we are not in the holy land, we also draw some links to this future.
Q: Did Unity have any influence on Mirage's parkour?
Unity was indeed an inspiration for us. Unity was really built for parkour, with animations. etc. And in Mirage, we aim to add the best quality possible. Let's say enhance the way we have parkour. So, we have new moves for Basim, we have new ingredients, and also the density of the city is really key because it's helped us to move very quickly everywhere, like on the roofs of Baghdad. The flat roofs are also really a good way to really tackle the city during your playthrough.
Unity was an inspiration, of course, but we aimed to upgrade and enhance with new animations and a quickness for Basim. As you know in Valhalla, Eivor was heavy and parkour was not at the core of the experience. Another example of inspiration from Unity, it's also the crowd. So in Assassin's Creed Mirage, you will see a big crowd. It's been a while since you've seen such a crowd.
Q: The AC Showcase mentions there are four districts of Baghdad, so how distinct is each district?
Yeah, we created four districts for Baghdad, and we wanted to thematize them. For instance, you have the industrial district, you also have the district of knowledge with the House of Wisdom, which was the biggest library of that time, where scientists from all over the world debated and also revised the scriptures. You have also another district that's all about commercial connections from all over the world. And finally, you have the Round City at the middle and it's the rich district where you can find the palace and administration.
You can expect to really feel the differences between each district when you visit the city.
Q: How did the team go about balancing honoring these other games while also making sure that Mirage was something unique?
First, we played a lot of the old games and looked at all the parts of the old games that did not age well sometimes. So, we aimed at how we can enhance all these mechanics and bring them in a modernized way into Assassin's Creed Mirage. The decision was to bring quality to every feature we wanted to add in Mirage. So we have to choose sometimes, but really what we have in mind on all these choices was the quality we wanted to give to the player.
Also, I will add the fact that the system responds to itself. So yes, you have the crowd, but you have also a wanted system inside the city, and it's quite new. You can be foot chased inside the city. You also have crowd blending, but the crowd can sometimes recognize you if you were wanted. So we have all these interactions, and we tried to make a real simulation of an Assassin's Creed game.
Q: The AC Showcase mentioned that the detection system has been reworked. Could you expand on that?
For us, when we started to work on Assassin's Creed Mirage, it was very important to have a reliable system of detection, so we added more behavior to the AI. You will be able to play with them a little bit.
We have now three distinctive states. You have a warning state at first when the player can still evade pretty easily, and it's just a warning phase for the player. We have the search state which leads NPCs to look for you and try to investigate you. And at the end, we have the last stage that will be the fight and conflict. All these steps are clearly showcased to the player, and you can play with that. We also put a lot of effort into the interactions between AI, so the detection will spread between AI, and we have also created a lot of different archetypes that will play with all those stage behaviors. So for instance, some archetypes are able to use their horn to call reinforcements.
Q: Roshan is a very interesting character. What can you say about her relationship with Basim?
Oh, it's a classic mentor-student relationship. Roshan sees a lot of potential in Basim. Indeed, he is kind of a special character. And she will help him find the answer to his issues, his problems. Because, you know, Basim has this great potential, but he's also torn with nightmares, with visions. He will seek answers inside the brotherhood and Roshan will help answer them. At some point, maybe Basim will cross a line, and we can see that there will be conflict between them.
Q: Assassin's Creed Mirage is also bringing in Alamut, and that has a lot of lore. How was bringing that to life in the game?
It was really fascinating to be able to highlight Alamut, because it was at this time that it starts construction. Alamut would start and the Hidden Ones are already there, participating in this construction. You will witness there the whole organization of the Hidden Ones, and you know it's a pivotal moment for them. It's really when they start to ask themselves how they will leave the shadow to become the Assassin Brotherhood. So it's not yet, but it's very soon. As a team, we wanted to showcase this in our game.
You have all this lore, this very important lore, and for us it was also historical accuracy because it's something we already know, Alamut existed. There was a guild of assassins there, and we have proof of that. It was perfect for us, and it was a perfect fit. Also, with the region because Alamut is not so, so far from Baghdad, we had the chance to make this connection.
Q: Speaking of Baghdad, the AC Showcase mentions that there's a lot of document and research in recreating Baghdad. How long did it really take the team to do this?
How long is complicated to give full length because it's still ongoing. It's not finished yet, but it was a walk with history. It's what we do all the time with history and all the time in history and local experts. Also, people for diversity to really nail Baghdad at this time.
You know, Baghdad was totally destroyed during the 13th century, so there is nothing left, right now, of ninth-century Baghdad. So, it was a huge work of reconstruction with experts and with documentation from the time. We also sometimes took creative liberty because we didn't have the material to know what it was exactly. We also took inspiration from nearby cities like Samarra. There is some architecture of it left, and we took a lot from these remains, what we could have.
Q: The classic Assassin's Creed games in the franchise are obviously much shorter than the open-world RPGs How does Mirage's length compare to some of the latest entries in the frame?
It's difficult right now to give you a precise amount of time or length. But as you said, we are not doing RPG. We are well-packed and condensed story. We wanted to really nail down the story of Basim, so in terms of comparison, we always compare ourselves to a game like the first one, Assassin's Creed Revelations, or Assassin's Creed Unity.
Q: Reportedly, Mirage was originally about Valhalla expansion. How much has it grown since that point in its concept?
Yes, we started Mirage, in its first idea, as a Valhalla DLC, and it was quite different at the time. That idea only lived for a few weeks and only on paper, in fact. Quite early, we decided to become a standalone with a full new character because we saw all the potential of such a return to the roots. And it was all pretty quick.
Q: With this return to roots, do you think that like there will be more games in the action-adventure space like Mirage in the future?
It's too early to say and I cannot see the future right now, so I'm full on Assassin's Creed Mirage. And we will hope for the future when it comes time.
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Assassin's Creed Mirage releases in 2023 for Luna, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.