Assassin’s Creed Mirage Will Let Players Learn About Early Medieval Baghdad

Who said games can't teach you anything?

Ubisoft recently revealed that Assassin's Creed Mirage will have a new feature that allows players to learn more about medieval Baghdad through in-game exploration and item collection.

Assassin's Creed Mirage is set for release on PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S on Oct. 12.

Assassin's Creed Mirage History Lessons

Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed franchise is more than just a video game series. Those who have played the games, or at least watched the trailers, know that the games give players the chance to explore and learn more about the historical setting the game is in.

For instance, Assassin's Creed 2, the game where the Assassin's Creed franchise first started becoming educational, contained database entries for the many famous locations featured in-game, like Ducal/Doge's Palace in Venice and Florence's Santa Maria del Fiore, better known as the Florence Cathedral.

While more recent entries into the series feature a "Discovery Tour" that lets players explore their historical settings in peace, like in Assassin's Creed Origins, historical database entries for famous and notable locations, people, and events remain for players to enjoy in-game.

The same is true for the latest Assassin's Creed game, Mirage. According to Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed team, Mirage will come with a new feature called the "History of Baghdad," which provides players with historical context about locations, items, and cultural events they will encounter in the game as Basim in early Medieval Baghdad, per Game Rant.

The feature, which Ubisoft integrated as part of the game's Codex and database, will provide players with historical context about the locations, items, and cultural events featured in-game. To ensure their historical accuracy, Ubisoft acquired insights from various experts worldwide, including Copenhagen's The David Collection, the Paris-based Institut du monde arabe, the art collections of Professor Sir Nasser D. Khalil, and the Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design in Honolulu, per Rock Paper Shotgun.

To unlock these, players simply need to encounter them as they travel the game's world as Basim; they're also classified into five different topics: Economy, Belief & Daily Life, Government, Art & Science, and Court Life, per the official Assassin's Creed Twitter page.

Ubisoft didn't shy away from featuring more than a few "sensitive and misrepresented topics" at the time, though the company did it with the help of Middle-East expert and historian Dr. Raphaël Weyland. According to him, Mirage also tackles topics like the harem, the role of eunuchs in the Abbasid court, and slavery in a nuanced way.

"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 said.

Assassin's Creed Mirage Details

Assassin's Creed: Mirage is a love letter for fans of the series' classic games.

Basim's stealth and combat style are very similar to that of Altair and Ezio, down to the hidden blade and the hood. Players will be engaging in quests in stealth and parkour - just as it did in its roots.

Smoke bombs, throwing knives, and urban stealth make a return, but Ubisoft has something new in store: Basim seems to have a supernatural ability that allows him to strike multiple opponents almost simultaneously - a gameplay mechanic similar to Kassandra's chain assassination in Assassin's Creed Odyssey.

Whether Mirage succeeds in attracting the "old Guard" fans back to the series remains to be seen; the game shows some promise so far.