Assassin's Creed Mirage's "more intimate scale" was directly shaped by fans exhausted with enormous RPGs

Assassin's Creed Mirage
(Image credit: Ubisoft)

Assassin's Creed fans helped shape Ubisoft's decision to create the "more intimate" world of Assassin's Creed Mirage.

Speaking to GamesRadar+ as part of our Big in 2023 showcase for Assassin's Creed Mirage, creative director Stéphane Boudon said that while "a convergence of several inputs" helped shape the creation of Mirage, the first in their mind is the voice of the community. "Origins, Odyssey, Valhalla. They are all great games with the promise to live an epic journey in a strong fantasy," he says. 

2017's Origins marked a notable departure from the original Assassin's Creed formula, adjusting the series closer to a traditional RPG and moving on from many of the ideas that had been present in the games from their inception all the way up to Assassin's Creed Syndicate. But after Odyssey's world eclipsed Origins' and Valhalla grew larger still, fans wanted another change of tack:

"Amongst our fans, we started hearing the desire for a character-driven story, focused on the core pillars of the first ACs in a more intimate scale. It resonates with us as well, as developers, and this was the starting point of the project."

Mirage pays homage to the original Assassin's Creed in several ways. That "more intimate scale" was a necessity when Altair took his first shaky, free-running steps, but Basim's story makes a more deliberate choice to embrace that scope. It's also set in a similar part of the world, returning to the Middle East via 9th-century Baghdad (rather than the Holy Land) and concerning itself directly with the Assassin's Order, rather than the proto-killers that more recent games have dabbled with.

It's set to be a huge year, so let us help you out with our list of new games 2023.

Ali Jones
News Editor

I'm GamesRadar's news editor, working with the team to deliver breaking news from across the industry. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.