Assassin's Creed: Mirage

Assassin's Creed: Mirage is the thirteenth main installment in the Assassin's Creed series developed by Ubisoft. In the game, players take control of a younger version of Basim Ibn Ishaq, a central character from the 2020 video game Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, and explore his life during the 9th century in the Abbasid Caliphate's capital city of Baghdad.
==Gameplay==
Set a decade prior to the events of Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, players assume the role of Basim Ibn Ishaq with the gender choices, dialogue options, and relationship possibilities removed. After Valhalla had the raven Sýnin provide Eivor Varinsdottir with Eagle Vision despite being a corvid rather than an eagle, Mirage returns to the method used in Assassin's Creed: Origins and Assassin's Creed: Odyssey by having the (Aquila heliaca) Enkidu aid Basim. 
The main location of the game is primarily the city of Baghdad, with minor parts of the game also set at the Alamut fortress, but it is not explorable. The Black Box missions from Assassin's Creed: Unity, Assassin's Creed: Syndicate and the Valhalla downloadable expansion The Siege of Paris make a return, with Basim being able to explore the environment and find different ways to approach and eliminate his targets. Another returning feature us the notoriety system that either assists or hinders Basim in his objectives. 
Basim has a variety of weapons and tools at his disposal, including smoke bombs, the Hidden Blade, a blowpipe and darts, mines, throwing knives and noise makers. The game does not feature a leveling and XP system like its predecessors, only tool improvement. To upgrade his tools, Basim will have to visit the triplet inventor brothers Abu Jafar Muhammad, Al-Hasan, or Ahmad at any of the Hidden Ones bureaus in Baghdad. A skill tree allows the player to choose different effects for each of Basim's tools or weapons. A new combat mechanic, Assassin Focus, resembles the various enhanced abilities Kassandra had access to in Odyssey through the Spear of Leonidas and can be used to assassinate multiple enemies in rapid succession.
During the game, Basim witnesses the prelude of the Zanj Rebellion, where the people of Baghdad rose up against the Turkic forces of the Caliphate. The density of civilian crowds echoes their appearance in Unity, and although Basim's movements were done on the same engine as Valhalla, they were built from scratch, and Basim can move through crowds and traverse the city by free running in a similar fashion to Arno Dorian during the French Revolution.
Unlike previous installments in the Assassin's Creed series, Mirage is the first story to not be interrupted by a modern day plot element, except for a framing device that bookends the start and end of the game. Contracts that mark targets for assassination and hiding places return, alongside optional challenges. Enemy archers can also shoot at Enkidu, canceling the Eagle Vision.
==Synopsis==
===Official synopsis===
In the ninth century CE, Baghdad is at its height, leading the world in science, art, innovation, and commerce. Amid its bustling urban landscape, a conflicted young orphan with a tragic past must navigate the streets to survive.
In Assassin's Creed® Mirage, you are Basim Ibn Ishaq, a cunning street thief with nightmarish visions, seeking answers and justice. After an act of deadly retribution, Basim flees Baghdad and joins an ancient organization—The Hidden Ones. As he learns their mysterious rituals and powerful tenets, he will hone his unique abilities, discover his true nature, and come to understand a new Creed—one that will change his fate in ways he never could have imagined.
===Plot===
In the present day, after acquiring a sample of Basim Ibn Ishaq's DNA, William Miles tasks one of his Assassins with reliving the former Hidden One's memories in the Animus. In a short monologue, William explains that, although he had his doubts about Basim at first and feared the wrong lessons might be learned from his life, he now understands that Basim has a great deal to teach the Assassins. He also claims that Basim was at the heart of the Creed and challenged it, and now the Assassins must do the same, as he fears there will soon be a time when they will all be tested.
During the 860s, Basim is a young thief living in Anbar with his childhood friend Nehal. For his entire life, Basim has been haunted by visions of a djinn, which Nehal had been helping him cope with. While a simple thief, Basim has greater aspirations and wishes to join his idols, the Hidden Ones, and become a protector of the people like them.
In 861, Basim is given a chance to achieve his dream after meeting the Hidden One Roshan while completing a contract for his employer Dervis. However, Roshan refuses to recruit Basim into the Brotherhood, so he decides to impress her by stealing a chest sought by the Hidden Ones from the Caliph's Winter Palace. While breaking into the palace alongside Nehal, Basim witnesses the Caliph, Al-Mutawakkil, being threatened by masked members of the Order of the Ancients, and discovers the chest's contents to be a Memory Seal, which activates in his hands.
After Al-Mutawakkil confronts Basim and attempts to strangle him, Nehal comes to his rescue, killing the Caliph. Basim then escapes from the palace with the Seal and is approached by Roshan the following day. The Hidden One takes the Seal and invites Basim to flee Anbar with her, as the guards are hunting him down in retaliation for the Caliph's murder. Basim refuses at first, but after discovering that the guards have executed most of his thief network and angrily blaming Nehal, he flees the city with Roshan.
Over the following months, Basim is trained in the Hidden Ones' ways at their fortress of Alamut, under Roshan's guidance. After completing his initiation into the Brotherhood, Basim, along with Roshan and Fuladh al Haami, is sent to Baghdad to continue an investigation into the Order of the Ancients' activities started by his friend Nur, who returned to Alamut after being attacked.
Once in Baghdad, Basim attempts to locate Ali ibn Muhammad, the leader of the Zanj Rebellion and a Hidden One ally, who was captured by the Order's forces. In the process, he is reunited with Dervis and meets Beshi, Ali's second-in-command. After Basim rescues Ali from the Damascus Gate Prison, the rebel leader helps the Hidden Ones identify the soap mill owner Mas'ood Al-Ya'qoob as a member of the Order. Basim subsequently assassinates Mas'ood at a caravanserai where the Ancient was purchasing slaves for the Order's dig sites in the desert.
During this time, Basim reunites with Nehal, who informs him that she has been researching the artifacts sought by the Hidden Ones and the Order, which she inexplicably feels drawn to. Nehal also tells Basim about her doubts regarding the Hidden Ones' intentions, as she feels the Brotherhood is keeping secrets from Basim, and suggests that the solution to his visions of the djinn may lie with the Order. However, Basim refuses to listen to Nehal, feeling that his obligations to the Hidden Ones and the Creed come before his personal desires.
In time, Basim manages to eliminate the remaining Order members across Baghdad. In the Abbasiyah district, he discovers that the Order has infiltrated the House of Wisdom, where they are building a machine called the Alruh using scavenged Isu technology and are attempting to uncover the secrets of an ancient manuscript. Basim assassinates the Ancients Hassan, who oversaw the machine's construction, and Zahra, who abducted the scholar Hunayn ibn Ishaq to force him to translate the manuscript. He then identifies Fazil Fahim al-Kemsa as the Order leader in Abbasiyah and kills him during a symposium held at the House of Wisdom.
In Karkh, Basim, with the help of Roshan and his friend Kong, learns that the Order has organized a blockade at the harbor, confiscating all foreign wares in search of a rare hairpin. He subsequently assassinates the Ancients Javed, who oversaw the blockade, and Suhail, who raised the taxes for merchants in the Bazaar to earn money to finance the blockade. Following this, Basim attends Baghdad's annual grand auction, the Da'irat Al-mal, where he identifies the Chinese merchant Ning as the Order leader in Karkh and kills her.
In Sharqiyah, Basim assists the Zanj Rebellion after the Caliphate's Turkic mercenaries executed countless rebels in an attempt to draw Ali out. Traveling to Jarjaraya alongside Ali, Basim identifies and eliminates the captain carrying out the executions: Dogan bin Arslan. He then assassinates the Ancients that the captain answered to, Nadir ibn Havid and Jasoor ibn Basil, in the process uncovering the identity of the Order leader in Sharqiyah: Wasif al-Turki. While infiltrating the Great Garrison to eliminate Wasif and rescue captive Zanj rebels, Basim and Ali witness Wasif executing Beshi, leading to the Hidden One killing him in revenge.
With only the Ra's Al-Af'a of the Order left, Basim investigates the three possible candidates for the Order leader's identity: the poetess Arib Al-Ma'muniyya, Baghdad's governor Muhammad ibn Tahir, and the royal concubine Qabiha. His investigation reveals that the Order has made a deal with Muhammad to remove his Tahirid cousins' protection of Alamut, and that Qabiha is the head of the Order. Infiltrating the Caliphal Palace to assassinate her, Basim hesitates when Qabiha reveals that she is aware of his true nature and urges him to investigate an Isu temple underneath Alamut.
Roshan, who followed Basim, kills Qabiha and reprimands her apprentice for his disobedience, before trying to convince him to forget about the Isu temple and return to the Hidden Ones. However, Basim, now sharing Nehal's distrust of the Brotherhood, refuses and decides to travel to Alamut to uncover the truth about himself. Joined by Nehal, he arrives in the midst of an attack by Tahirid forces and is knocked unconscious, but is saved by a mortally wounded Nur.
After freeing the captive Hidden Ones, allowing them to repel the attack, Basim gains Mentor Rayhan's blessing to explore the Isu temple. However, he is confronted by Roshan, who tries to stop him from accessing the temple's secrets, forcing Basim to fight his former mentor. After defeating and incapacitating Roshan, Basim enters the temple alongside Nehal and discovers more Memory Seals locked away, as well as a cell where Loki was once imprisoned.
Basim has an internal struggle, realizing that he is Loki's reincarnation, that Nehal was never real and was just a manifestation of the Isu's consciousness, and that his visions of the djinn were a representation of Loki's repressed traumatic memories. After overcoming the djinn, Basim decides to embrace Loki's memories and "fuses" his consciousness with Nehal's, becoming "whole" again. Following this, Basim is welcomed back by the Hidden Ones, which causes Roshan to resign in protest. As Basim meets with Rayhan to discuss what he has seen inside the temple, they both witness Roshan's departure from Alamut.
Sometime later, Basim recalls his previous life as Loki and the suffering inflicted upon him by the other Æsir. As his eagle companion Enkidu rejects him due to no longer recognizing him as the same person, Basim decides to seek out the other Isu reincarnations like himself and muses that a "new world" awaits.
==Development==
The game is designed to be smaller and more "intimate" than previous entries. According to Ubisoft, players were growing tired of the larger RPG games in the series. The conceptual title of "Assassin's Creed: Rift" was first leaked on 9 February 2022 and reported by ; another working title was "Assassin's Creed: Dust", as revealed in the path names for a series of concept art by Xavier Minguell Solanes for Digic Pictures. Originally planned to be a DLC for Valhalla, Rift was expanded into its own standalone game. Bloomberg also revealed that it would be be developed by Ubisoft Bordeaux and was planned for released in late 2022, but it was pushed back to the first quarter of 2023.
On 1 September, after the official title "Assassin's Creed: Mirage" was leaked alongside art for a DLC called "The Forty Thieves" that promised to visit the infamous , Ubisoft formally announced the game and promised that more details were to come at the Ubisoft Forward convention on 10 September. Darby McDevitt, Basim's creator, reportedly did not have any development role but acted as a character consultant.
On 3 December, it was reported that the game had been internally delayed a second time and it was slated for an August 2023 release instead of in the first quarter, though Amazon pre-order links contradicted it and listed December 2023 instead. A new gameplay trailer was revealed on 24 May 2023 and gave an official release date of 12 October, later amended to the new date of 5 October.
==Release==
Assassin's Creed: Mirage released on 5 October 2023 for , , , , , and . The Forty Thieves, a downloadable quest was available as a pre-order bonus.
===Marketing===
After a series of leaks, Ubisoft officially confirmed the existence of Assassin's Creed: Mirage on 1 September. On 10 September, Mirage was featured in the 2022 Assassin's Creed Ubisoft Forward showcase, alongside the debut of its cinematic trailer. When the various editions of the game were announced, Ubisoft ran a promotion through Twitter for the Collector's Case that fans could vote on their favorite design for the exclusive steelbook. Out of two design choices, one was decided the most popular by the time voting closed on 23 September.
===Rating===
On 12 September, it was reported on Gamerant that the Microsoft Store listing for Mirage had an Adults-Only (AO) ESRB rating, which, if valid, could only be explained by the game featuring real gambling. Gamerant speculated that it could also have been a mistake which stemmed from Ubisoft showing that one of their games had an AO rating at the start of their Ubisoft Forward event. Ubisoft subsequently released a statement on the official Assassin's Creed Twitter account declaring that Mirage would not feature gambling or .
===Editions===
Ubisoft announced several editions of Assassin's Creed: Mirage in addition to the standard retail edition.
<tabber>
|-|Launch Edition=
*A retail copy of Assassin's Creed: Mirage
*Baghdad map
*3 exclusive lithographs
|-|Deluxe Edition=
*A retail copy of Assassin's Creed: Mirage
*The Deluxe Pack
*Digital artbook & digital soundtrack (available for download and streaming on the official assassinscreed.com website)
|-|Collector's Case=
*A retail copy of Assassin's Creed: Mirage
*The Deluxe Pack
*A 32cm Basim figurine
*Exclusive Steelbook
*The Art of Assassin's Creed Mirage mini-artbook
*Replica of Basim's brooch
*Baghdad map
*Game soundtrack
|-|Best Buy Edition=
*A retail copy of Assassin's Creed: Mirage
*6 x 8" canvas print valued at $10 USD
*US only
</tabber>
==Gallery==
<tabber>
Videos=
Assassin's Creed Mirage- Cinematic World Premiere - -UbiForward
Assassin’s Creed Mirage- Developer Trailer Breakdown - -UbiForward
Assassin's Creed Mirage- Gameplay Trailer
Assassin's Creed Mirage- Deluxe Edition Trailer
Assassin's Creed Mirage- A Return to the Roots
Assassin's Creed Mirage- Basim - The Master Assassin
Assassin's Creed Mirage- Recreating A Lost City
Assassin's Creed Mirage- Story Trailer - Ubisoft Forward
Assassin’s Creed Mirage- Developer Gameplay Breakdown - Ubisoft Forward
Assassin's Creed Mirage- The Round City of Baghdad
Assassin's Creed Mirage- PC Features Trailer
Assassin's Creed Mirage- Launch Trailer
Assassin's Creed Mirage- The Story So Far - Timeline
Assassin's Creed Mirage- Meet the Actors Behind Basim and Roshan
Assassin's Creed Mirage- New Game + Update
Assassin's Creed Mirage- Behind the Soundtrack
Assassin’s Creed Mirage - Behind-The-Track - Brendan Angelides & @milanrecordsusa
|-|Promotional media=
AC Mirage announcement.jpg
ACMir Promo 1.jpg|Promotional image
ACMirage Key Art.jpg|Key art
AC Mirage Logo.png|Official Logo
AC Mirage Crest.png|Official Crest with texture
AC Mirage Crest White.png|Official Crest in plain white 
AC Mirage Standard Art.jpg|Promotional standard edition art
AC Mirage Deluxe Art.jpg|Promotional deluxe edition art
ACMirage Basim Promotional Image 1.jpg|Promotional Art
ACMirage Basim Promotional Image 2.jpg|Promotional Art
ACMirage Basim Promotional Image 3.jpg|Promotional Art
ACMirage Roshan Promotional Image 1.jpg|Promotional Art
ACMirage Roshan Promotional Image 2.jpg|Promotional Art
ACMir banner.jpg|Banner art
Assassin's Creed Mirage French Cover.jpg|French cover
Assassin's Creed Mirage Arabic Cover.jpg|Arabic cover
|-|Screenshots=
ACMirage Promotional Screenshot 1.jpg
ACMirage Promotional Screenshot 2.jpg
ACMirage Promotional Screenshot 3.jpg
ACMirage Promotional Screenshot 4.jpg
ACMirage Promotional Screenshot 5.jpg
ACMirage Promotional Screenshot 6.jpg
ACMirage Promotional Screenshot 7.jpg
ACMirage Promotional Screenshot 8.jpeg
ACMirage Promotional Screenshot 9.jpeg
ACMirage Promotional Screenshot 10.jpg
ACMirage Promotional Screenshot 11.jpg
|-|Concept art=
ACMirage Basim and Falcon - Concept Art.png|Basim and Enkidu
ACMirage Eagle View - Concept Art.jpg|Basim and Enkidu in a Baghdad bazaar
ACMirage Large View Of Baghdad - Concept Art.jpg|Wide view of Baghdad
ACMirage Basim Landscape - Concept Art.png|Basim looking over the city
ACMir Banu Musa Brothers - Concept Art 1.jpeg|Ahmad, Al-Hasan, and Abu Jafar Muhammad (L-R)
ACMir Banu Musa Brothers - Concept Art 2.jpeg|Abu Jafar Muhammad, Ahmad, and Al-Hasan (no order)
ACMir Fazil - Concept Art.jpeg|Fazil Fahim al-Kemsa
ACMir - Basim Courtyard - Concept Art.jpeg|Basim stalking a target in a courtyard
ACMir Hidden Ones Escape Concept.jpg|Hidden Ones evading guards
ACMir Baghdad Aerial Concept.jpg|Aerial view of Baghdad
ACMir Basim Stargazing.jpg|Basim stargazing with astronomers
ACMirage Streets of Baghdad - Concept Art.png|Street view of Baghdad
ACMirage Basim and Nehal - Concept Art.png|Basim and Nehal
ACMirage Order of the Ancients - Concept Art.png|Order of the Ancients members
ACMirage Baghdad Order of the Ancients.png|Order of the Ancients members
ACMirage Roshan - Concept Art.png|Roshan
ACMirage Alamut Freerunning - Concept Art.png|Basim and Roshan freerunning in Alamut
ACMirage Basim Induction - Concept Art 1.png|Basim's initiation into the Hidden Ones
ACMirage Basim Induction - Concept Art 2.png|Basim's initiation
</tabber>
==Credits==
==References==
Category:Real world video games
Category:Assassin's Creed series
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