How Assassin’s Creed Mirage Changes the Franchise
03.10.2023 - 11:45
/ fortressofsolitude.co.za
There are very few gaming titles that have spawned a successful franchise. While some have been simple cash grabs and others pushing through annual releases to the continued disdain of fans, Assassin’s Creed has had much more success in how it delivers its releases. Not only has the timing been well scheduled, but the content has remained fresh and interesting, giving fans an unexpected glimpse into the past with stories often forgotten or seldom told. For its latest title in the franchise, Ubisoft is taking us back to 9th-century Baghdad, the era of anarchy at Samarra, in Assassin’s Creed Mirage.
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Although it has severed ties with its roots as a Prince of Persia title without a Prince, it kept to similar themes in the original games. This included a mix of Assassins and the Knights Templar across the 12th-century Persian deserts. The game’s predecessors then began to explore different worlds, timelines and even terrains, taking to the seas in Assassin’s Creed III and even more so in Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag.
Throughout its history, the Assassin’s Creed franchise has reinvented itself. Starting off as a predominantly stealth game with hints of parkour thrown in, it has expanded into a verified FPS title, supporting a wider range of gameplay and weaponry. This culminated with the previous Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, which took players down a path of discovery and crafting, more so than previous titles. However, it moved away from some of its roots with heavily influenced stealth missions and parkour elements. That being said, it’s not as easy to achieve those same gameplay dynamics in the large expanse of the Viking landscapes of yesteryear.
With Assassin’s Creed Mirage, there is a huge focus on bringing many of these elements back to the fore, paying homage to its original fanbase.
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Few games have portrayed the accuracy of its landscape as historically accurate. Oftentimes, we get a hint at the aesthetic, the people and the technology of the time to allow players to feel a sense of the period. However, given the required detailing and having to mould to the game’s dynamics, it doesn’t often allow for artists to fully develop something of this nature.
The Assassin’s Creed franchise is one that has pushed the limit of creating like-for-like time capsules of major cities, which it captured with the likes of Paris and London in titles past. With the recreation of Baghdad for Assassin’s Creed Mirage, the developers enlisted the help of historians and dedicated scholars to portray what would seemingly be a historically accurate picture.
That said, there’s very little