"The stage is yours, Basim. We will be watching."
— Roshan bint-La'Ahad
Assassin's Creed: Mirage is a historical open-world action adventure game, and the thirteenth main entry in the Assassin's Creed series, released on October 5, 2023.note
Taking place in 9th Century Abbasid Baghdad during the early Islamic Golden Age two decades before Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, the game has you play as Basim Ibn Ishaq during his early days with the Hidden Ones, as he transforms from a street thief to a master assassin.
As several pre-release trailers, gameplay videos, and developer interviews have shown, Mirage is also intended to be an entry that returns to the series' original formula of a large open world city that is more dense than it is large, focusing moreso on the parkour and stealth that defined the games up to and including Assassin's Creed Syndicate rather than the more combat intensive and role-playing game focused gameplay of the recent games since 2017's Assassin's Creed Origins. As such, a variety of mechanics that have been absent since Origins are making their return here, such as more in-depth parkour movements and proper social stealth involving blending in with crowds.
On September 21st 2023, during the Tokyo Game Show, Assassin's Creed Mirage is confirmed to be given a direct and unabridged AAA conversion for Apple Devices iPhone 15 Pro and onwards, to be released on a later date in 2024.
As a prequel to Valhalla, all spoilers from the (production-wise) previous title are unmarked.
Trailers & Previews
Tropes
- Anti-Air: While Basim is using his eagle Enkidu, he can be driven off by archers, as shown in the Gameplay Walkthrough.
- "Arabian Nights" Days: This game takes place during the Islamic Golden Age
, the cultural era that inspired the stock setting. The story follows a thief whose cunning enables him to rise to power and prestige, and the first mission involves infiltrating a Caliph's palace. One of the bonus quests bundled with a preorder is called The Forty Thieves. - Artificial Brilliance:
- If an enemy is armed with a spear, then they will use them to investigate your hiding places without getting into assassination range, forcing you to leave your hiding spot.
- If you successfully pickpocket someone and stick around, the person you stole from will seek out a guard, tell them where you went, and the guard will begin to search for you. If you fail to pickpocket someone, then they will immediately call for guards.
- Bait-and-Switch: When Basim meets back up with Nehal after their falling out, she prepares to slap Basim across the face before pulling him into an embrace.
- Big Damn Heroes: Roshan is introduced in the Story Trailer saving Basim from two soldiers that have him at their mercy.
- Bittersweet Ending: Leaning a bit more toward the bitter side. Alamut is saved, and the Order of the Ancients has been fully purged from Baghdad. However, multiple Hidden Ones have been slain in the assault on Alamut, and Roshan has left the Brotherhood in the fallout of Basim discovering the Isu temple's contents. Basim, while finally, peacefully having come to terms with his own identity and accepting his past life as Loki, has lost Nehal forever, Roshan is no longer on speaking terms with him, and he has been permanently changed by his experience. In addition, the next chronological game in the series confirms that Basim does not get better with time.
- Blade Below the Shoulder: As is tradition (well, usually), that Basim wields the traditional Hidden Blade under his arm, even if he has to remove his ring finger to do so.
- Call-Back:
- During one investigation you can encounter a merchant from Greece, who says "Malaka!" twice. This is an expletive popularized by the player character in Odyssey.
- Alamut has a note that can be found detailing the delivery of a sketch of Darius's blade from Odyssey to the Hidden Ones.
- Call-Forward:
- The Hidden One outfits hew pretty close to the Levantine Assassin outfits seen in the first game.
- Basim does the classic feather wipe to his target's bloody throat after assassinating them.
- Alamut in general is filled with these, as well as a few Call-Backs.
- Alamut having a First Civilization cache underneath was first established in Revelations as the source of the Memory Disks Altair used as the keys to his Vault under Maysaf. Fittingly it's where Basim gains back his memories as Loki at the end of the game.
- A note that Basim can find is proposing the creation of a Hidden Ones' bureau in or near Jerusalem. Part of the original game takes place here.
- Basim meets his future apprentice Hytham near the Hidden Ones bureau in Karkh.
- The Karkh Bureau has a note from another Hidden One who proposes the idea of wielding two Hidden Blades, one on each arm. This would be introduced in Assassin's Creed II, with Ezio using two blades.
- The Mysterious Shards that Basim can collect to unlock the Isu gear in the Oasis cave call back to the Shards that Eivor collected in the A Fated Encounter crossover story on the Isle of Skye, whose description was "This mysterious shard is of unknown origins". Both are used as keys to unlock Isu ruins that hold some of their artifacts.
- In Valhalla, some of Basim's first words upon being revived in the modern day are, "A new world awaits." Nehal says this to Basim as he accepts her as his repressed memories as Loki, and he says these words at the very end of the game.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Ali is a proponent of this. Basim walks in on him beating someone senseless for information, and leaves before it gets much, much worse.
- Continuity Nod:
- As this game takes place centuries before Altaïr's reforms, the first trailer has Basim cut off his left ring finger during his Hidden One initiation ceremony.
- One of the letters Basim can read in Alamut has a Greek Hidden One mention Darius as being the first user of a Hidden Blade, which he refers to as Xerxes's Bane.
- Fuladh mentions that the feather tradition originated in Egypt and were meant to represent the feathers of Ma'at that are used to judge the dead, a direct reference to Origins.
- The entrance to the Vault underneath Alamut is hidden behind a hologram, of the same kind as the tombs Eivor explores in Valhalla.
- Contralto of Strength: Roshan speaks with a distinctly raspy voice, and she's a deadly Master Assassin.
- Darker and Edgier: Compared to most entries in the series, Mirage is much, much more bleak and tonally dark, especially when compared to Valhalla. There's quite a bit less levity, corruption, human suffering, and rebellion are at the forefront of many arcs, very, very few characters get anything even close to a happy ending, and the game as a whole ends on a rather bleak note.
- Dark Reprise: "Ezio's Family", the theme of the entire Assassin's Creed franchise, is given a dark, somber take this time around. It's in a minor key, it has a lone man singing in Arabic, and it's played during the assault on Alamut, when several Hidden Ones are slain, camps are torn and burned, and Basim is at his absolute lowest point.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Hytham, Basim's apprentice in Valhalla, appears as a young boy who idolizes the Hidden Ones. He can be found in a Tale of Baghdad where he boasts to his friends that he can climb a tower, but can't bring himself to jump down until Basim performs a Leap of Faith first. Basim then tells Hytham to seek him out once he's old enough.
- End of an Age: The developer breakdown describes the game as the beginning of the end for the Hidden Ones and the start of the Assassin Brotherhood, as well as the same for the Order of the Ancients becoming the Knights Templar (which retroactively applies this to the Order in Valhalla).
- Evil-Detecting Dog: After Basim awakens his lost memories and changes, Enkidu rejects and attacks him.
- Final Death Mode: Title Update 1.0.7 introduces Full Synchronization Mode where if the player desynchronizes in any way (dying, mission failure, killing citizens for example), their save is permanently deleted and they have to restart from the beginning.
- Fingore: The first trailer depicts the moment Basim cut off his ring finger and became a Hidden One, though it cuts away at the actual finger-severing part. In-game, this happens as part of Basim's initiation ceremony, and the player is given a button prompt to do the deed.
- Flash Step: Assassin Focus is an ability that allows Basim to quickly snap from target to target in a chain of rapid stealth kills, with the movement between targets being shown as if Basim is teleporting. Word of God states that Basim is not actually teleporting; the Animus just represents Basim's speed when taking down his targets through the skipping.
- Foreshadowing:
- To Nehal being a figment of Basim's imagination:
- When Basim is speaking to someone, Nehal generally tends to limit her input to giving Basim little gestures and resigns herself to the background. She isn't really there. Basim is the one speaking at all times.
- Nehal frequently begs Basim to stop trying to put himself on the line for others and instead focus on his own well-being. She's influencing Basim in the same way that Eivor's visions of Odin from Valhalla influenced them, since she's simply the repressed memories of Loki.
- Nehal adores ancient artifacts and shows a fascination with the Isu fragments that Basim can find throughout the world. As Basim is the reincarnation of an Isu, and as Nehal is all in Basim's head, this is another way that Loki's memories are being brought out.
- When Nehal kills the Caliph, the guards don't hunt her down, but instead hunt for Basim. Nehal didn't kill him, Basim did; Nehal doesn't exist.
- The book Nehal rescues from the House of Wisdom is The Great Book of Interpretation of Dreams written during the 7th Century by Mohammed Ibn Sireen. Basim is deeply haunted by his dreams of the Jinni and is trying to figure out an answer, and saved the book himself.
- Early on in Alamut, Rayhan speaks with an emissary from Baghdad about the fragile peace the Hidden Ones have with the Caliphate. This peace is broken at the end of the game, and Alamut is assaulted by soldiers.
- At the start of a Bazaar mission, Roshan states that memories are only there to distract you. This is exactly what Basim does at the end of the game by unifying with Nehal: he awakens his past memories as Loki, which completely derails his "Basim" viewpoint and any noble goals he may have had with the Hidden Ones.
- To Nehal being a figment of Basim's imagination:
- Framing Device: As per usual, the actual game takes place in the modern day, with someone experiencing the life of Basim through the Animus. However, it bears mentioning here because Mirage is, easily, the game that uses this plot device the least in the mainline series. There's an opening monologue by William Miles, the player desynchronizes when they die, the world boundaries, Historical Sites, and Assassin's Focus are represented through Animus glitches, but that's it. We don't even know who is experiencing Basim's story.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus:
- In the reveal trailer, Roshan can be spotted following Basim's escape from the pursuing guards for a split second as she rounds a corner next to a shop stand.
- In the opening, a DNA strand is shown that has a triple helix for a split second. All reincarnated Isu, Basim included, have triple helix-stranded DNA.
- Identical Twin Mistake: In a bit of an early-game Running Gag, Basim cannot remember which Banū Mūsā is which. He will frequently excitedly greet one by name, only for them to sheepishly correct him. Basim ends up getting it down and purposefully calls one the incorrect name as a joke.
- Interquel: The game takes place 20 years before Valhalla, between Origins and Valhalla.
- Malevolent Masked Man: The Order of the Ancients member Basim assassinates in the first trailer carries a Babylonian-styled mask, which the developer breakdown identifies as their main callsign.
- Mirror Boss:
- When at max notoriety, a new type of enemy will begin to spawn that has every single ability that Basim has. He has a sword and dagger, can heal himself at low health, and can parry your attacks. Fittingly, killing him removes all notoriety.
- Roshan serves as the final boss, and she has the same loadout and skillset as Basim. She also has an additional trick up her sleeve: throwing knives, just like Basim.
- Mythology Gag:
- One of the pre-order bonuses for the game are cosmetics themed around Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, referring to the original Assassin's Creed starting development as a Prince of Persia game in the wake of the Sands of Time trilogy's success.
- Basim trains with his mentor Roshan at the still under construction fortress of Alamut, the birthplace of the historical Assassins 100 years later, as a homage to Maysaf in the first game according to the developer breakdown.
- The way Basim drops down to deal with the Order member in The Great Garrison is taken from the first Assassin's Creed II trailer, even down to the pose he makes upon hitting the ground. He even removes his mask and drops it to the ground in a similar manner to the Templar dropping his ring in that same trailer for II.
- In the game proper, Basim leaps into the air just like Altaïr did in the reveal trailer for the original game when he non-lethally stabs Roshan in the shoulder with his Hidden Blade to take her out of the fight.
- New Game Plus: Starting from patch 1.0.6, after completing the game, you have the option to restart the game from the beginning, while still retaining Basim's gear and skills. In doing so, you have the option of starting the game all the way at the beginning, or start at Baghdad (skipping the prologue entirely). If the latter is chosen, the game will start at the point where Basim gets off his mount and the game title is shown on the screen.
- Our Genies Are Different: After Basim assassinates his target and the scenery shifts to the Memory Corridor, a shadowy figure appears that the developer breakdown identifies as "The Djinn", and serves roughly the same purpose that Eivor's visions of Odin did in Valhalla. From a mythological perspective, Djinn are as varied as other folkloric beings like Yokai, and modern scholars state "you can't understand jinn". As such, the idea of a Djinn as a dark, tormenting figure isn't that unusual.
- Prequel: The game follows Basim Ibn Ishaq in his days as a Hidden One before meeting Sigurd and Eivor in Valhalla 20 years later.
- Promoted to Playable: Basim, a NPC in Valhalla, becomes the main playable character in this game.
- Protagonist Journey to Villain: Mirage tells the story of how Basim, a well-meaning and amicable street thief, became the full reincarnation of a vengeful, self-serving Loki that was met by Eivor in Valhalla over a decade later.
- The Remnant: The developer breakdown describes the Order that Basim faces as one of the last remaining Order cells in the world.
- Revisiting the Roots: After over a decade of games set around the world, the historical portion of the story finally returns to The Middle East, with Basim's story taking place in Bagdad during the Islamic Golden Age. This also extends to the gameplay, which is far closer to the classic Assassin's Creed games than the newer RPG-focused entries. There is more of an emphasis on parkour through the smaller yet more dense city, stealth returns to the forefront as your main method of attack, and combat is noticeably less exaggerated than it was in Valhalla.
- Rewatch Bonus: Practically every conversation in the game takes on more significance and meaning once you know that Nehal represents Basim's past incarnation as Loki, as well as conversations with Roshan on how memories are only there to distract you.
- Scenery Porn: As is tradition for Assassin's Creed, the world you're parkouring around is absolutely gorgeous.
- The castle of Alamut atop a mountain provides a beautiful backdrop to Basim's training there, even as it's under construction.
- Baghdad itself is an urban marvel to behold. Buildings of various shapes and sizes, a warm yellow-orange color pallette covering the entirety of it, and tons of different cultural and religious buildings to explore.
- The deserts that surround Baghdad have their own beauty to them, as well, beyond the obvious sprawling sand dunes. Ruins, rock formations, and palm tree forests are all dotted around, as are different forms of wildlife and rivers.
- Slashed Throat: One of Basim's most common ways to kill someone. Multiple final blow animations in combat have him using his sword or dagger to slice open his enemy's throat, while many of his stealthy assassinations involve him doing a rapid swipe across his target's throat, sending blood flying from the wound.
- Smoke Out: Basim throws down a smoke bomb to evade the guards in the first trailer. As shown in the gameplay reveal, this is a tool that Basim can use to escape open combat, as well.
- So Much for Stealth: One mission has Basim rescuing a guy from goons, but he needs to be carried out. Making things worse, he'd been hiding in a pot of strong spices, which makes him sneeze, drawing the attention of the guards.
- Thematic Sequel Logo Change: The Assassin sigil is made up of Arabic writing to signify the game taking place during the Islamic Golden Age, and the writing itself translates to "hidden one" on both sides to represent the Brotherhood. According to the developer breakdown, the sigil's overall shape is also a direct homage to the first game's, which also takes place in the Middle East.
- Trippy Finale Syndrome: Once Basim enters the Isu temple beneath Alamut and interacts with the mechanism inside, he goes through a long, disorienting trip through his own psyche to finally understand what's been happening to him his entire life. In the end, after confronting the Jinni and coming to terms with who Nehal really is, Basim finally merges with his past self, Loki. Once he fully embraces who he is, the trippiness comes to an end.
