Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed is indeed one of the most popular franchises in the world that began with 2007’s Assassin’s Creed video game. The game set the base for one of the biggest historical action-adventure video game series of this era and it continues to dominate the market 17 years later. The latest installment in the franchise, Assassin’s Creed Mirage, took players back to 9th-century Baghdad during the Islamic Golden Age, particularly the Anarchy at Samarra period.
At the time of its release, there was some criticism over the depiction of Baghdad during that period, with many raising concerns over false representation but Ubisoft historian Raphael Weyland once explained how every small detail in the game took hours of research and effort.
Ubisoft historian Raphael Weyland once explained that everything is historically accurate in Assassin’s Creed Mirage
For Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Ubisoft decided to choose the 9th-century Baghdad but some fans were questioning whether Ubisoft did its research as there were some false representation accusations. Shortly after its release in October 2023, Ubisoft historian Raphael Weyland told GameRant that they spent a lot of time to make sure everything was accurate about 9th-century Baghdad,
“I really, really wanted to make sure that the city felt like it was inhabited by multiple people, people from multiple backgrounds. 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. It is what made it essential at the time, and we managed to do it. It took time. It meant recording multiple people in multiple languages and making sure all of it was accurate. We managed to do it, so I’m really proud of that.”
Weyland added that he spent one year researching himself while others who were already attached to the project spent longer than him. After making a rough estimation, he said one person spent “maybe two years or something like that” working on the game to make sure it was accurate.
Ubisoft had to make one change to Assassin’s Creed Mirage
Further in the interview, Weyland explained that they didn’t have to cut anything out of the final game as everything they put in the game was historically accurate but they had to add something as it wasn’t accurate,
“Actually, I cannot think of something that was cut, but there were things that were added. 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. But I cannot think of something that we cut because it made no sense, it was a false representation, or it was a false impression that the devs might have had about the city that we had to change.”
As per Weyland, women not wearing the veil in the game doesn’t count as a false representation because some people during that period used to wear a veil while some opted not to. All in all, Assassin’s Creed Mirage was well-received by the fans as well as the critics, with praise for world design, focus on stealth, and bringing back the true element of the Assassin’s Creed franchise as it focused on stealth, parkour, and assassinations.
