Assassin's Creed Mirage is doing amazing things in Baghdad, serious history-defining things, and yet for long-term Assassin's Creed fans there's one other location in Basim's adventure that's the true lure. We've seen the Assassins have many homes over the last 15 years, but if there's one true home of the Hidden Ones, it's the Alamut.
This striking fortress has notoriously always been known as the home of the Hidden Ones, but this is actually the first time that we'll be able to actually explore the Alamut. "We already know it's currently under construction because in fact Darby [McDevitt, narrative director on Assassin's Creed Valhalla] already put some clues about it in Valhalla, so we had a really good foundation to build this story", explains creative director Stéphane Boundon.
This trip to Alamut is part of our week of Assassin's Creed Mirage: On the Radar coverage.
The legendary location has somewhat mythical status for the series, having only so far been referenced in Assassin's Creed: Rogue, Assassin's Creed: Revelations, and the novel Assassin's Creed: The Secret Crusade, but having strong connections to iconic characters like Altaïr Ibn-LaʼAhad. For long-term fans, it's a huge deal to now have the location featured – even if at this stage it's still being constructed – and the team at Ubisoft Bordeaux knows that. The dedicated souls even went as far as to play every single Assassin's Creed game to date in preparation – even if art director Jean-Luc Sala admits that some haven't aged as well as others – "it took us a very long time".
"I fought for Alamut even though the producer was not happy about it," laughs narrative director Sarah Beaulieu, with Boudon saying it was a "specific effort" to add the location on top of the team's work recreating Baghdad. "It was an opportunity to pay homage to the franchise," says Beaulieu. "The Alamut is big in the Assassin's Creed lore, and I think the community would have been very sad if we had missed that opportunity."
The idea of including the Alamut arose the minute the team decided on Baghdad as the location for Basim's story. The Middle-Eastern city is, in itself, a nod to the series' origins, with Sala saying that the team hopes "Baghdad will bring back all the nostalgia and memories of our long-term players", so adding in the Alamut feels like a natural extension of that sentiment.
"I knew it was important for the lore and the Alamut is not too far away from Baghdad. I actually had someone from the community show me on Google Maps," laughs Beaulieu. "It's 179 hours by foot, and I just told him I was going to do a walking simulator. At least by camel, it's better."
The bedrock of the Assassin's Creed
The team at Bordeaux knows that for some players, this is the Assassin's Creed game they've been waiting for. The sprawling RPG entries of Assassin's Creed Origins, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, and Assassin's Creed Valhalla won't be for everyone, and no doubt only a small percentage of those who did play actually saw every narrative thread unravel. Ubisoft Bordeaux acknowledges that, and despite the fact that Basim's a character many will know from Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Mirage has been designed "as a standalone story for everyone to play – even if they've not played Valhalla" explains Boudon.
But, for those who have put in the hours over the past 15 years, the inclusion of the Alamut is for them. "People who know Assassin's Creed know what is in Alamut and what it is, but we've added some stuff, we've created some new stuff – new levels of information about Alamut – and also rethought some of the information that people have on Alamut," says Beaulieu.
"We decided to re-engineer the whole assassin's branch so it blends with what came before with Bayek [in Origins] and what will come later with Altaïr," explains Sala. "[We wanted to] try to make sense of all of the costumes, ranks, traditions, and show – for the first time – the assassin's boot camp. It's more than just three or four assassins in training, it's a small village of people who believe in the Creed but aren't able to kill stealthily. Bringing that to life was just our prelude take on the franchise."
The team saw the opportunity to include the Alamut as their way to make a mark on the Assassin's Creed franchise as a whole, even if the story can be appreciated as a standalone. "We can bring some things that will stay forever in the franchise," says Sala. "Even if Baghdad was a really interesting challenge, with the Alamut what we do now is forever [in Assassin's Creed canon]."
For me as a fan, hearing the team at Ubisoft Bordeaux talk about the Alamut like this was intoxicating. I have visions of the evolving structure being constructed with Easter eggs lining the walls among the mortar. That's especially compounded by Sala speaking of how the team played through the entire series to date, and noted every time someone found something that they could link between the wider series and Mirage. "Our purpose was to make Mirage coherent with the whole franchise," Sala laughs, but the passion for the series' origins has been prevalent in every conversation I've had with this team.
Of course, Ubisoft Bordeaux has also added its own details into the Alamut too. Sala called the Assassin's Creed canon a "playground", but caveated that with the idea that you get involved with it is a "cautious game". "You can play with whatever you want," he says, "but you need to tell a story that won't break everything" for the developers picking up the mantle next. That hasn't stopped them from having fun though.
"We have stories to tell in Alamut… you'll see," teases Beaulieu. "I hope that fans dig into every detail."
