Assassin's Creed Mirage Documents the History of Baghdad

Ubisoft is carrying over its efforts to document the historical details and nature of its Assassin's Creed settings into this year's Assassin's Creed Mirage. The publisher has announced in a new blog post a History of Baghdad feature for the upcoming PS5, PS4 game, which works to provide historical context to the Iraqi capital city Basim will be exploring. You will find this information in the in-game Codex, and there'll be 66 historical locations for you to visit in the open world.

Past entries Assassin's Creed Origins, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, and Assassin's Creed Valhalla have all had Discovery Tours to let you learn much more about the time period they're set in, but since this feature was linked to the Animus — something not present in Mirage — the game will simply present it in a menu. The option "will deliver expertly curated information on the history, art, and culture of Baghdad and the Abbasid Caliphate circa the ninth century, accompanied by images provided by museum partners". If you visit every historical location, you'll earn an in-game reward.

Middle Eastern history expert Dr. Raphaël Weyland joined Ubisoft to help with the production, ensuring everything was coherent and finding cultural and historical elements to include in the game. "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," he said. "In the pursuit of this lofty goal, we were given the freedom to choose what topics we wanted to tackle. We just had to make sure that what we wanted to describe existed in the world of Assassin's Creed Mirage."

Ubisoft also worked with external museums like The David Collection, Paris' Institut du monde arabe, The Khalili Collections, Shangri La Museum, and the Doris Duke Foundation. "The museums provided illustrations and photos of a diverse selection of artifacts from the caliphal period — during which Assassin's Creed Mirage is set — ranging from drinking vessels and sculptures to scientific equipment, such as astrolabes."

Do you enjoy taking the time to learn about the settings of Assassin's Creed games, and will you do the same in Mirage? Let us know in the comments below.