Assassin’s Creed Mirage is an action role-playing video game developed and published by Ubisoft. It is the twelfth main installment in the Assassin’s Creed series that was recently released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Where Are We This Time?
The game is set in Baghdad, Iraq during the Abbasid Golden Age in the 9th century CE. The player takes on the role of Basim Ibn Ishaq, a street urchin who becomes a skilled assassin after joining the Hidden Ones, a secret brotherhood dedicated to fighting for justice and freedom.
How Does It Play Compared To Other AC’s?
Assassin’s Creed Mirage is a return to the roots of the series, with a focus on parkour, stealth, and assassination. The game features a new combat system that is more challenging and rewarding than previous installments. The player will also have access to a variety of new tools and gadgets, such as the eagle vision, smoke bombs, and grappling hooks. I mean, they’re not NEW NEW, it’s such at such an early time in history that they’re simply a marvel back at that timeframe. Eagle Vision is always the constant throughout the franchise, helping you to highlight enemies and objects of interest such as a treasure chests, hiding spots and food to recover lost health.
Who Is Basim?
Basim Ibn Ishaq (who you will be playing) is the protagonist of Assassin’s Creed Mirage. He is a street thief living in 9th century Baghdad who becomes a skilled assassin after joining the Hidden Ones. He is also a human reincarnation of the Isu Loki, who used Yggdrasil to permit his consciousness to survive the Great Catastrophe millennia ago.
Basim previously appeared in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla as a supporting character. In that game, he is a mysterious stranger who helps Eivor Varinsdottir and the Raven Clan on their quest to conquer England. However, his true motives are revealed later in the game, when it is discovered that he is actually Loki seeking to escape from his imprisonment in the Yggdrasil tree.
In Assassin’s Creed Mirage, Basim is a much younger man, and his story is still in its early stages. It will be interesting to see how he develops as a character and how his Isu heritage influences his actions.
Here is a brief timeline of Basim’s appearances in the Assassin’s Creed series:
- Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (873-878 CE)
- Assassin’s Creed Mirage (861 CE)
Playable Area and Map Size
Assassin’s Creed Mirage makes a lot of roll backs, and if you were in love with the sheer size and area Origins and Odyssey had to offer, then this is a much, much smaller map. The total playable area of Assassin’s Cred Mirage is about 13KM squared, while the Baghdad city itself would be 2.3KM squared, similar to Paris in Assassin’s Creed Unity.
We’re In Baghdad, What Is There To Learn Historically?
Apart from sneaking, hacking and slashing your way through a very real period set in a semi-fictitious setting, Ubisoft had always made Assassin’s Creed to have a trove of historical texts and images, offering a level of immersion to the game that really sets you back to 861 CE, learning about how the great city of Baghdad was founded by the Abbasid Caliphate.
The Abbasid Caliphate was the third of the four major Islamic caliphates, established following the overthrow of the Umayyad Caliphate in 750 CE. The Abbasids claimed descent from Muhammad’s uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, and their rise to power was supported by a broad coalition of Muslims, including Arabs, Persians, and other non-Arab converts to Islam.
The Abbasids initially established their capital in Kufa, Iraq, but in 762 CE, the Caliph Al-Mansur founded the new city of Baghdad on the Tigris River. Baghdad was carefully chosen for its strategic location, between the major trade routes of the Middle East and Asia. It was also located near the ruins of the ancient Babylonian capital, which gave it a sense of legitimacy and prestige.
Baghdad quickly became one of the most important cities in the world. It was a center of learning, culture, and commerce. Al-Mansur established the House of Wisdom in Baghdad, a library and translation center that attracted scholars from all over the world. The Abbasids also supported the development of the arts and sciences, and Baghdad became a leading center of mathematics, astronomy, medicine, and other fields.
The Abbasid Caliphate reached its peak under the Caliphs Harun al-Rashid (786-809 CE) and al-Ma’mun (813-833 CE). During their reigns, the Abbasid Empire extended from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to Central Asia in the east. The Abbasids also maintained a strong navy and controlled much of the Indian Ocean trade.
The Abbasid Caliphate began to decline in the 9th century CE, due to factors such as internal political strife, military defeats, and the rise of sectarianism. However, the Abbasids remained in power for another several centuries, and Baghdad remained a major center of Islamic culture and learning until it was sacked by the Mongols in 1258 CE.
The founding of Baghdad was a major turning point in Islamic history. The city became a symbol of the Abbasid Caliphate’s power and prestige, and it played a vital role in the spread of Islam and Islamic culture around the world.
Planning To Upgrade Your Rig Before Playing?
| Requirement | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| Operating System | Windows 10, Windows 11 (64-bit versions) | Windows 10, Windows 11 (64-bit versions) |
| Processor | AMD Ryzen 5 1600 @ 3.2 GHz, Intel Core i7-4790K @ 4.4 GHz, or better | AMD Ryzen 5 3600 @ 4.2 GHz, Intel Core i7-8700K @ 4.6 GHz, or better |
| RAM | 8 GB | 16 GB |
| Video Card | AMD Radeon RX 570 (4 GB), Intel Arc A380 (6 GB), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (6 GB), or better | AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT (6 GB), Intel Arc A750 (8 GB), NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti (6 GB), or better |
| Dedicated Video RAM | 6 GB (AMD 4GB) | 6 GB (8 GB Intel) |
| Pixel Shader | 5.1 | 5.1 |
| Vertex Shader | 5.1 | 5.1 |
| Free Disk Space | 40 GB (SSD recommended) | 40 GB (SSD recommended) |
What We Recommend :
Here is an quick component list for Assassin’s Creed Mirage using only components and hardware from MSI:
Motherboard: MSI PRO B760M-A WIFI
GPU Higher End : MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPRIM X 12GB GDDR6X
GPU Sweet Spot: MSI GeForce RTX 4060 GAMING X NV EDITION 8GB GDDR6
Monitor: MSI MEG 342C QD-OLED
This build is capable of running Assassin’s Creed Mirage at the highest settings without any issues. It also has plenty of power for other demanding games and tasks.
Here is a brief overview of each component:
- Motherboard: The MSI PRO B760M-A WIFI is a mid-range motherboard that has everything you need for Assassin’s Creed Mirage and other demanding games. It has a PCIe 5.0 slot, Wi-Fi 6E, and Bluetooth 5.2. Though a motherboard doesn’t truly impact a game’s performance, paying a mid-range price for that PCIe 5.0 slot will grant you faster load times for the Assassin’s Creed Mirage’s open-world level and crowd density.It also supports Intel Processors 12th Gen – 14th Gen, meaning if you’re already on an existing 12th Gen system, you don’t really need to buy a new processor with the board, saving you extra money.
- GPU Higher End: The MSI GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPRIM X 12GB GDDR6X is a powerful and well-rounded graphics card, especially when you’re chasing high frames at 4K. My previous card is the 3070Ti SUPRIM X and I stand by my decision. 12GB is plenty memory to handle Mirage’s play state as well as keeping frames up thanks to a copper baseplate and triple FROZR 2S fans to minimize throttling.
- GPU Sweetspot: The MSI GeForce RTX 4060 GAMING X NV EDITION 8GB GDDR6 is a high-performance graphics card based on the NVIDIA Ada Lovelace architecture. If you’re on 1080P or 2K, this card will keep you consistent with over 100+ FPS on either resolution, on med-high settings depending on resolution and tweaking some settings. If you’re not keep on pushing more frames in favor of graphics (since it’s a single player game and you don’t need to be THAT responsive, the you can still push higher graphics with DLSS so you can still get the best of both worlds!
- Monitor: The MSI MEG 342C QD-OLED is a 34-inch curved QD-OLED gaming monitor with a 175Hz refresh rate and a 0.03ms GtG response time. It is one of the fastest and most responsive gaming monitors on the market, and it is also one of the first monitors to feature QD-OLED technology. On top of that, I picked this because the design matches the game’s aesthetic, coming in a combination of stealthy black with strong gold accents all over to give it that sandy, royalty-rich vibes that Mirage is set in.
