Assassin's Creed Mirage finally has a release date, so we know we'll be leaping from rooftop to rooftop this October. Ubisoft has been a little quiet on this upcoming Assassin's Creed game since its first announcement, but between its new gameplay trailer at the PlayStation Showcase and the imminent Ubisoft Forward in the E3 2023 schedule, we're seeing a lot more of our old pal Basim.
It's going to be well worth the wait too, with Mirage returning to the series' roots, stepping back from the expansive open-worlds and RPG route seen in the likes of Assassin's Creed Valhalla and Assassin's Creed Odyssey. As a love letter to the game that started it all, Assassin's Creed Mirage will be closer to the classic stealth experience in the setting of Baghdad. With a focus on parkour, stealth, and assassinations, you can expect to find all of the original ingredients in the role of protagonist Basim.
Read on below to discover everything we know about one of the most anticipated upcoming Ubisoft games, from story details to an exclusive developer interview, and more.
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Assassin's Creed Mirage release date
Ubisoft has confirmed that the Assassin's Creed Mirage release date is October 12, 2023. When it lands, it'll be available on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, and Xbox One. Ubisoft has also confirmed that Assassin's Creed Mirage will be released on PC through the Ubisoft Store and Epic Games Store.
Assassin's Creed Mirage editions
There will be three Assassin's Creed Mirage editions available at launch. The Standard Edition will cost $50/€50; the Deluxe Edition, which includes DLC inspired by Prince of Persia, will be priced at $60/€60; and the limited Collector's Case, which includes a 32cm Basim figurine, map of Baghdad, exclusive steelbook, and more will run you $150/€150. If you get your Assassin's Creed Mirage pre-order locked in now you'll get exclusive access to a '40 Thieves' side quest.
Assassin's Creed Mirage trailer
Watch the debut Assassin's Creed Mirage trailer above to get your first look at a younger Basim, the beautiful Baghdad setting, and refined focus on assassinations, parkour, and stealth. While the CGI trailer doesn't feature any gameplay, it does give us a really good sense of what to expect from Mirage. Fans of Assassin's Creed and Assassin's Creed 2 will want to pay attention, as there are a lot of mechanics hinted at in here that were lost as the series transitioned into a RPG.
What is Assassin's Creed Mirage?
Assassin's Creed Mirage is a back-to-basics approach for the long-running series, with Ubisoft returning to the stealth-action, narrative-driven roots that defined Altair and Ezio's earliest adventures. Assassin's Creed Mirage is set in Baghdad and will show the evolution of Basim a few decades before his appearance in Assassin's Creed Valhalla.
Assassin's Creed Mirage setting
The Assassin's Creed Mirage setting is 9th Century Baghdad – with the time period beginning in the year 861 (the Golden Age), a few decades before the events of Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Artistic director Jean-Luc Sala says that at this time Baghdad was effectively at the center of the world, and "a key place for knowledge, art, innovation, science, commerce, and power." As 9th century Baghdad was effectively destroyed five centuries later, Ubisoft looked to historical documentation and other cities of the time (such as Samarrah) to recreate Baghdad with as much accuracy as possible.
Assassin's Creed Mirage size
Assassin's Creed Mirage will be far smaller than the worlds offered up by Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Odyssey, and Origins. Baghdad itself is divided into four unique districts, including the industrial area of Karhk and the lush gardens of the Round City. Ubisoft has promised that Baghdad will be a bustling and dense city, with artistic director Jean-Luc Sala noting that "inhabitants react to your every move." You'll also be able to visit The Alamut outside of the city, which is the home to the assassins who put down the foundation for the Creed as we know it today – while it has appeared in the wider lore, this is the first time the fortress has featured in an Assassin's Creed game.
Assassin's Creed Mirage gameplay
The Assassin's Creed Mirage gameplay is set to take the series back to where it began – social stealth, fast parkour, and agile assassinations. Ubisoft Bordeaux says that "there's a bit of every Assassin's Creed game in Mirage, and players can look forward to going back to the roots [of the series] while experiencing a modern take on gameplay and iconic features of the early games." This narrower focus, particularly when compared to Assassin's Creed Valhalla, will be complemented by a narrative-driven approach to progression and a more contained map to explore.
We got our first Assassin's Creed Mirage gameplay trailer (which you can watch above) at the May 2023 PlayStation Showcase. It gave us a great look at the social stealth, different options for tackling missions, and the various assassination techniques at Basim's disposal. It looks so much more like Assassin's Creed 2 in gameplay style than we'd imagined, and that's excellent.
You can read more about the various Assassin's Creed Mirage gameplay elements below too.
Assassin's Creed Mirage stealth
Ubisoft says that "Assassin's Creed Mirage has a bigger focus on stealth than in the most recent games", structured around the loop of "identifying, hunting, and eliminating a target, and then vanishing." To support the embrace of stealth in Assassin's Creed Mirage, Ubisoft has reworked detection systems to allow for more granularity and feedback, structured the design of the city (and its rooftops) to better allow for stealth approaches, and introduced new tools to aid with combat and escapes – such as a detection mine, which can release a cloud of smoke when triggered, and a blowdart.
Assassin's Creed Mirage parkour
Parkour is set to play a huge role in Assassin's Creed Mirage, just as it did in the first two games in the series. Traversing up buildings and across rooftops in the densely-layered city of Baghdad will be your primary form of spatial navigation, and it's an aspect that Ubisoft promises will feel better than ever before. "We have sped up the pace of the parkour so that players feel agile and empowered when traversing the city," says artistic director Jean-Luc Sala. Additionally, Ubisoft Bordeaux is bringing back many of the "beloved animations and iconic moves" from past games, like the corner swing, and is introducing new parkour moves like the pole vault to help Basim clear large obstacles.
Assassin's Creed Mirage assassinations
Assassin's Creed Mirage will pull a lot more focus onto assassinating targets. The main assassination events will take place in what Ubisoft is calling 'Black Box missions'. These will be contained within Baghdad's districts, and you'll have the freedom to chart your own path to the target – by blending in with a crowd and following their path or tracking them from rooftop positions, for example. Mirage will introduce all-new assassination animations, new upgradable Assassins Tools, and the capacity to set traps within the environment. Mirage will also introduce a new feature that sounds similar to the Mark and Execute mechanic introduced in Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Conviction, which will allow Basim to perform multiple stealth kills at once.
Assassin's Creed Mirage story
The Assassin's Creed Mirage story is set to be more linear than recent games in the series. Narrative director Sarah Beaulieu says that Mirage's "narrative structure is much closer to the first Assassin's Creed games, in the sense that it is more driven and linear than what players experience in the latest AC games." While we will still have freedom to explore and experiment, choosing which order to tackle assassination missions, Beaulieu says Ubisoft Bordeux wanted Mirage's story to be a "very intense and condensed narrative with a clear beginning and end."
Assassin's Creed Mirage interview
In an exclusive interview with GamesRadar+ as part of our Big in 2023 series, creative director Stéphane Boudon shed light on how the community's desire for a smaller scale experience that's closer to the original game influenced the direction of Mirage. Boudon also highlighted that with it's greater focus on classic mechanics such as stealth and parkour, Basim's adventure also features reworked Steath tools:
"For stealth, we also reworked the Stealth tools and their evolutions" Boudon says, "some of them are legacy tools (the smoke bomb, the throwing knives) you already know well, but the team worked on specific upgrades that will allow you to reinvent them to fit perfectly with your playstyle."
Assassin's Creed Mirage Basim
The Assassin's Creed Mirage main character is Basim Ibn Is'haq. While Basim was a critical character during the events of Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Mirage will follow the character 20 years prior – and track his ascent from street thief to Apprentice to Master Assassin. Narrative director Sarah Beaulieu says that Mirage "follows the transformation of a defiant young man into a refined Master Assassin with a conflicted destiny." As part of this journey, we'll also get more insight into The Hidden Ones and the evolution of the ancient organization that was founded by Aya and Bayek in Assassin's Creed Origins.
Assassin's Creed Mirage is one of our most anticipated upcoming PS5 games and upcoming Xbox Series X games of 2023. But while you wait for it to release, why not check out some of the fantastic games like Assassin's Creed to play today.
