Random Thoughts On ‘Assassin’s Creed’ And The Upcoming ‘Assassin’s Creed: Mirage’
by Erik Amaya
Earlier this week at Gamescom’s Opening Night Live, Ubisoft unleashed another trailer (above) for the forthcoming Assassin’s Creed: Mirage. It centered the game’s key city, 9th century Baghdad, and its player character, the Hidden One Basim. And just to make things completely clear to prospective players just when and where they will be, the trailer was presented entirely in Arabic. It was a cool nod to the region and another example of the messaging surrounding Mirage: a return to Assassin’s Creed core principles after a trio of ever-expanding AC games with player character who were not Assassins.
There is a lot of excitement for the back-to-basis approach, particularly after Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla‘s giant map, various mechanics, and emphasis on the ongoing meta-narrative of the entire AC universe. It’s something I, as a fan, totally understand even if I liked the departures the last three mainline games took in expanding the series.
Starting with Assassin’s Creed: Origins, the story focused on a new modern day protagonist, Layla Hassan, and her various investigations into key figures of Assassins history who were not members of the Brotherhood. The first was eventual co-founder Bayek — although I’d argue Aya was the Brotherhood’s true founder — followed by Greek adventurer Cassandra (in the established canon, anyway, as the game allowed you to play as her ne’er-do-well brother) in Assassin Creed: Odyssey and Valhalla’s Finnish invader Eivor. Starting out as an Abstergo employee, Layla eventually joins the Brotherhood as her destiny becomes tied with Cassandra and the Isu, a long-dead advanced race of beings who first inhabited the Earth and seeded human culture. They also found a way to pass their consciousnesses into humans, leading to millennia of strife as they attempted to further their individual goals one reincarnation after another.
Why bring this up? Mirage will reportedly ignore the modern day story in favor of a focus on Basim’s training and ascendancy within the Brotherhood — which will be called the Hidden Ones as the story takes place several centuries before they become known as the Assassins — despite his very close ties to the larger AC narrative. To an extent, I think that’s a shame. While many have always found the modern day aspect of Assassin’s Creed its least compelling element, I’ve always found its weird mix of Ancient Aliens, 1990s conspiracy theories, and 2012 doomsday hokum a lot of fun. Sure, I don’t like being forced out of the Animus to further those threads, but I generally find the bigger plot developments in each game really enjoyable, from Desmond Miles’s sacrifice in Assassin’s Creed III to the reveal of the reborn Isu in modern day Montreal (the big shock in Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag) to Layla learning about her purpose directly from Cassandra and her fateful choice in Valhalla.
Oh, and the occasional implication that “reality” in the AC universe is also an Animus construct targets the same part of the brain that enjoys the work of Philip K. Dick.
But to see these elements thrown out as part of the back-to-basics initiative is disheartening. Valhalla‘s big meta-narrative moment felt like another resolution was on the horizon — and as it’s been over ten years since the last major resolution in AC III, another crescendo is about due — but between the messaging around Mirage and Ubisoft’s plan to convert the series into a live service platform of concurrent games, it seems that story will take another pause.
Which, I suppose, leaves me to ask this question: why not give that modern day story a proper conclusion since most fans say they just want to play in the past anyway?
It’s always possible Mirage will offer that conclusion so the company’s plans for Assassin’s Creed Infinity can proceed. But presuming it doesn’t, why delay this story any further? Fans will come back for more without the overarching narrative hook. Or, maybe, that ongoing tale in the present day means more than fans are willing to admit.
Assassin’s Creed: Mirage is due out October 5th.
