Highlights
- Assassin's Creed Mirage successfully depicts 9th-century Baghdad as a diverse city with people from different backgrounds and languages, such as Arabic, Persian, Chinese, Hebrew, and Greek.
- Ubisoft went to great lengths to ensure historical accuracy in the game, recording multiple people in multiple languages and adding details like veiled and unveiled women to reflect the religious diversity of the time.
- While some adjustments were made for gameplay purposes, such as the proximity of rivers and visibility of mountains, Ubisoft prioritized accurately representing the historical and cultural aspects of Baghdad in Assassin's Creed Mirage.
The most important thing Assassin's Creed Mirage got right, according to Ubisoft historian Raphael Weyland, was the city feeling like "it was inhabited by multiple people, people from multiple backgrounds." At the time of AC Mirage, Baghdad was a powerhouse of the globe, where folks the world over would travel for science, trade, and other means, and it was essential this was depicted in the populace. After all, while history classes are often about the big events throughout time, history often happens because of the people living in it—evidenced by the budding Zanj Rebellion in Assassin's Creed Mirage.
Recently, Game ZXC had the chance to speak with Weyland regarding the history that exists within the title, big and small. He talked about everything from small soap-related flavor lines in Assassin's Creed Mirage to the act of populating Baghdad with so many cultures.
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When asked what the most important thing was to get absolutely right in Assassin's Creed Mirage, since some elements like the House of Wisdom require certain liberties, Weyland talked about the populace of Baghdad and the people living in it at this time, stating that
"It was not only people speaking Arabic and only Muslim people, but there were also people speaking Persian, Chinese, Hebrew, and some Greek. This, for me, was absolutely essential because it is a really important aspect of the city."
Of course, this isn't necessarily simple to do, especially while ensuring all pronunciations and usages are correct. For Ubisoft, it meant recording multiple people in multiple languages, and double-checking and verifying all of these details. It's a laborious task, especially for something so seemingly small, as many players may not pay as much attention to NPCs as others. However, it goes a long way in making sure Baghdad feels authentic and lived in. The use of Arabic and other languages in Assassin's Creed Mirage furthers this along, even creating moments when players may hear a Greek person say, "Malakas," which may also bring back memories of AC Odyssey.
The attention to detail and history is even more granular than that. Ubisoft was always glad to add something that would make the content and depiction of Baghdad even more accurate. According to Weyland, Ubisoft added women who were veiled and unveiled to the game just for that reason. It has no real bearing on the gameplay, but it goes a long way in terms of historical authenticity, with Weyland explaining that,
One of the things we added, for instance, is the fact that there are women who are not veiled in the game. At the time, there were people wearing the veil or not wearing it from different religions. This is something we put in because it existed at the time.
Assassin's Creed Mirage's gameplay is a big stand feature for the title, and things had to be adjusted to accommodate for that. The rivers in the game were not so close in the real world, as one example, and mountains would not really be visible from Baghdad's walls is another. However, it's clear that Ubisoft did everything it could to accurately reflect the culture of 9th-century Baghdad, and that history and culture came first before anything else, even gameplay. While some things were added to improve the historical and cultural representation of the title, nothing vital to that was cut.
Assassin's Creed Mirage is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
