The WASTED POTENTIAL of Assassin's Creed Mirage's Setting | Al Muqaddimah
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- Опубліковано 29 вер 2024
- Assassin's Creed Mirage is set in the Abbasid Caliphate in the year 861. This setting is one of the most important times in Islamic history. The Ubisoft Bordeaux team did a great job with the game but their work on the story was less than ideal. The incredible story and setting is simply put in the background to focus on Basim's past. In this video, we'll talk about the real history of Assassin's Creed Mirage
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Disclaimer: The maps and flags in the video are not 100% accurate. Some maps and flags are difficult to find and so, are estimations.
🎶 Original Music & Sound Effects created by :
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I "like" the way you sprinkle some negativity for every Islamic Dynasty in your Patreon except the Umayyads LoL
Hello Syawish, I am an historian with a master's degree in late medieval méditerranean history and recently I had the privilege to attend a very small committee to a private conference on AC Mirage in the presence of the main historical advisor, a colleague of my proffesor, alongside the Ubisoft historical Content manager responsible for fact checking all recent Ubisoft titles. Since we were less than 10 I got to ask them a lot of question and feel like I can answer a lot of your concerns.
First of all you are right that the lack of sources on the setting was a problem for the devs. Historians arent even sure where the river flew back then and no buildings from the period survives on the western shore were the round city once stood. The Ubisoft representative explicitly stated that they knew that the decorated blue domes were not accurate to the period, but were chosen in a manner as to show the splender of islamic architecture to western audience, knowing and I quote, "that it's unlikely that AC will soon return to the muslim world and we had to take this opportunity to showcase this even if it meant compromising".
5:50 I want to take this opportunity to mention that originally the game was going to start with the Zanj revolt (so a few years after the current Mirage story), in a subburb to the south East of the round city, but due to limitations they had to cut this huge section of the game and rewrite a lot of the plot, which is also why slavery is so seldom mentioned, and it originally was going to play a bigger role. This might also explains the weird timeline choices.
7:10 while the historical department of Ubisoft can correct overly modern language in dialogue submitted to them, they have little agency in changing the narrative taken by the writting team.
11:30 The team that oversees accuracy as very little if any oversight over main character appearence, as that is primarily the work of veteran concept artist/3d artists who's interest may clash with the more historically minded devs. (Be it because they think they know what they are doing because of their ego, or instead view AC as fantasy and thus purposely dont bother sticking to purely accurate concept, those were two exemples given to me).
12:30 as I mentioned, due to "technical limitations " that whole plotline was cut.
16:10 as you may know Mirage was originally a mere DLC for Valhalla, so that might explain the shallower depth given to this title, plus the need to progress the ancient ones plotline. This is definitly not the fault of the historical advisor, who did everything in their power to make this setting justice, but the bureaucracy and scale of such task in such a big company is hard feasible if this isnt the outlines main focus of the studio. The separation of the writting department might have had some impact on it as well.
All in all I hope I may have helped answer some of your concerns and I am open to say more if anyone has any questions. (Note: this conference took place some weeks prior to AC : Shadows trailer release, that was still under NDA so I got nothing on that).
Thank you for all of your work on the game. I know in large companies accuracy can cut a lot of stuff and of course there are limitations with tech, and time and in this case, the modern narrative they wanted to tack on to this historical setting.
@@jhonshephard921 I did not work on the game ahah, I am merely reporting what those who did told me
That decision-making process brings a lot of insight for those who (me included) aspire to make video games. Finding source material and ensuring that those thematic elements are being represented respectfully sounds like a huge undertaking, considering the careful planning needed to convince the studio to solicit the help of experts and other people with a background in these areas.
While it's very sad to hear AC will most likely never return to the Middle East, I would like to ask, from your knowledge, what would be a Muslim history game you would chose AC to cover if you had the choice? Shi'ite Century Buyids and Fatimids? 15th century Qara-Qoyunlu/ Aq Qoyunlu? Etc.
@@Peter_Siri yeah it's a mess, especially due to the volume of work they are being presented by artists to review, and the concession they have to make (limited ressources, reusing assets that costed a lot of money to make, etc.). One story I was told was that during the devloppement of AC Valhalla, one artist was tasked with designing all the weapons, and well he did just that, in under two days. He covered them in runes and such (you can imagine that not much research was spent in that time). It resulted in hundreds of weapons covered in dubious runes being submited for review all at once. The guy I talk to did manage to convince the devs to scrap the countless stones castles they had modelled for Valhalla, thinking that medieval = castles and thus they could include them. But they cant always make such calls and they were honest about what they thought of the accuracy of the results.
In AC 1, there's a herald in the streets of Damascus saying "Curse him! Curse the English king and his army of infidels! They go against the will of God, and must be made to pay. Every where they ride, they leave only suffering in their wake. They say it is a crusade: a crusade for what? Ignorance, violence, madness?" While we were all waiting for Mirage to come out, one Muslim player from Pakistan told me that his uncle declaims that speech at every monthly family meal. His uncle doesn't play video games, but he heard that speech while his nephew was playing and just loved it. It was 2007, while the U.S. was in the middle of its "War on terror", but Ubisoft brought out a game where Muslims in the Levant were portrayed as ordinary people, not caricature villains, some of them heroes, and your primary goal was killing Crusader knights. That was quite a remarkable thing, where Western gamers - not usually seen as the most tolerant or culturally sensitive crowd - accepted somebody called Altair ibn La'Ahad as an iconic hero.
All your points are very valid, but I remember how, last October, Arab/Muslim gaming Twitter exploded with delight and energy about this game. Iraqi gamers were particularly delighted to see some of the glories of their history being celebrated, on contrast to the usual depiction of Iraq in Western media. It was quite something seeing their enjoyment mixed with that of many old school Western AC players, happy to see a return to the spirit of the game that brought them Altair.
Sadly, this only lasted a few days; Mirage dropped on Ocober 5th.
One of the best things if not thee best thing about AC Mirage is that you can hear the Adhan whilst roaming Baghdad
And they even included the Fajr Adhan. "Prayer is better than sleep".
That is the worst and most annoying thing. You can’t even turn it off in the settings
@@ebrahim_al_mutawa*it’s the most best thing 😁
Mirage was originally supposed to be a DLC for Valhalla, where Eivor went to Baghdad, as a nod to AC1 since the 15th anniversary of the franchise was upcoming (back then). They then pitched the higher ups if they could be allowed to work on an entire game with a 'Assassin focus', and the execs agreed, although they didn't give them a budget higher than one you'd need for a big DLC.
This is the reason it's a small unremarkable spin off. While Baghdad is lively and beautiful, the world is small and nothing like the vast incredible Egypt of AC:Origins. Sadly, a setting like the Abbasid Caliphate doesn't have the popularity that something like the Viking age does, the fact that we got it to begin with is surprising to me.
And yes, the story was lackluster (more than usual) but AC has always butchered historical figures. Rodrigo Borgia is a prime example, but there are many others. It's generally what happens when you pit some absurd goodies and baddies in a complicated historical conflict. But when the games have some money behind them, it's great popcorn fun.
It's not surprising that Mirage doesn't deal with the Zanj Rebellion. Western social ideology prefers bourgeois revolution. Slave revolts outside Sparticus and the biblical exodus are rearly depicted especially positively.
Isn’t AC: Freedom Cry literally about freeing slaves through violent acts?
@@Joeyplaysguitar1082 it's a DLC, for black flag. It not insignificant, yet look at the other ACs. Yet the American revolution and French revolution main story games featuring bourgeois revolutions.
@@Joeyplaysguitar1082 And AC: Liberation. Also, AC Mirage DOES present the Zanj Rebellion positively, it just isn't the primary focus of the game's narrative, which is more focused on Basim's personal story than anything and basically glosses over all the historical events of the period.
Yes!!
The exodus is just myth and nearly every slave revolt failed or brought on something worse. Not the most fun to play.
Well Assassin's Creed Mirage was originally intended for a DLC for Valhalla and so maybe the developers did not have the time frame and budget to develop the game further..
They should've kept it as a DLC. All about the money, isn't it?
Well, probably theme issue (probably orientalism and part of me wonder if Byzantines would have been involved since there was one merchant and considering Arab-Byzantine in 9th century AD. Like say fighting as mercenaries, or espionage for Byzantine contractors.)
3:16 Reminds me of John Green and his Crash Course World History series 🤭
Thanks for getting the reference.
@@AlMuqaddimahYTyou should cover the umayads like you did the moughols
This goes to show that western historians and storytellers are just too careless when telling stories about Islamic regions.
Nah, that’s just Ubisoft being crappy old Ubisoft.
I have noticed that bias is as well.I don't get, why are they so cartoonish when depicting any Islamic civilization?
Video games are literally Haram. Stop taking this so seriously.
@@logy650 yep. Normally I am very socialist and VERY anti-colonial so I would call this out but Ubisoft is the company that previously made Prince of Persia series and they made the first Assassin's Creed game and AC Revelations. If this was EA or Activision with their call of duty and command and conquer generals, I would 100% expect anti-Arab bias. Since its Ubisoft, I expect some incompetence.
@@logy650 and just to bring the point home, they made Prince of Persia Sands of time in an era where Zack Snyder was making 300 and when not only anti-Muslim but anti-brown racism was rampant across the political spectrum. And not only did they make a brown prince the protagonist, they made him very human. They made him proud and ultra-privilaged as a Persian prince of that era would be but also made him very flawed because of those qualities. They didn't make him a punching bag nor did they make him a barbarian or someone very "exotic" or foreign and didn't they put him on a pedestal. They made him realistic within the context of the historical fantasy. AND they did it again in the first Assassin's Creed.
Wasted potential indeed
I was so excited after your reaction to the trailer. So disappointing that this wasn't about a slave rebellion. Slavery is such an important part of Western history too, so it would have been so cool to play as part of a slave rebellion. Especially since I've been exposed to a lot of bigotry against Muslims and Middle Eastern people having to do with slavery. So, to play as Middle Eastern people rebelling against slavery would be a good rebuttal to that bigoted argument.
Some historical people other than the ones that you mentioned are in the game. Filip Holm from the Let's Talk Religion channel has made a few videos on them. And it's nice to interact with them, but even meeting Al-Jahiz, is nice and all but questing for him is just doing some fetch quests. Though the touch of Lovecraftian lore they added for us to get the Kitab al-Azif and the amulet that we get for turning it in was fun.
Wait they made another AC game ?
Well whats the point of reviewing something made by Ubisoft. They only make garbage nowadays
Idk, man, Prince of Persia The Lost Crown was pretty good.
@@AlMuqaddimahYT ok maybe one decent game, but thats not enough to convince me to play their games again. I lost my full trust in them.
I'm also an AC fan like you, who has been following you since the first game, and I've also been following your channel since your first 10 videos, your content is incredible.
I liked the game for several reasons, mainly because it taught me a little more about Arabic history, which I've been learning for some time thanks to your channel, even though it's quite difficult for a Latino like me to memorize and read the names of caliphs and generals in Arabic.
Great content, keep it up.
By the way, your English is getting better every day, congratulations.
guy looks like garfield
I didn't really like Bassim in Valhalla, so it never crossed my mind buying a game - that was supposed to be a DLC - with a character I dislike as a protagonist. Talking about comparisons and Leonardo DaVinci, it reminds me of how Piri Reis in Revelations was boiled down to a "bombs dude"
He’s actually a good character in Mirage though
@@ebrahim_al_mutawa Might be, my friend, but at full price I wouldn't buy. I really want to see Baghdad back then, but I know the value of my own money as well.
Absolutely, if massive games like Odyssey and Valhalla cost $60.00 upon release, then this game which is a fraction of the size should cost a fraction of the money. Keep in mind that Bassim is a normal person in Mirage, not some person telling people they’re Viking gods and thinking that he is one himself like in Valhalla, that was kind of silly from Ubisoft and I think they realized that
Al Mutawwakil being emasculated is just part of modern Western game developers' habits in the past 7-8 years or so to criticize "toxic masculinity" even on supposedly historical settings
That's why they're focusing on ISU/FIrst Civilization/TWCB plotlines so they can avoid attempts to get as close as to historical accuracy nor historical immersion in most part of Assassin's Creed aside from the fictional protagonists
That being said, Basim being the only main character instead of able to gender swap characters are a comeback to older Assassin's Creed games so I guess that part is good to say the least
We really feel that Mirage began as another expansion for AC Valhalla originally. After having played the Valhalla expansions I can say that for instance Francia was also only touched tangentially, even for being an expansion it was tangential.
I am tired of shit youtube recommendation algothitm, which favor mindless viral shit content. I have not received one good recommendation in last two months.
UA-cam knows my sub list, still recommend recently watched shit- again and again. Even when i search channel name in search bar, they give 0 results about the channel, just viral shit with same name. I can make a better predictive algorithm then these. I'll leave youtube soon. UA-cam and google deserve to go down
Liking this video for the cat above the UA-cam silver play button.... 🐈
Great video as always brother 😊
People forget that Basim was only ever a popular character solely because of Valhalla.
Neither Mirage nor Basim were meant to be any bigger than the picture they were first given. And both are tied to Valhalla.
That being said, Eivor should have gotten a Baghdad expansion. It's literally another point of trade and travel for the Vikings and probably would have gotten some Kievan Rus' action while at it.
Basim should never have gotten a full-blown game of his own, but that's what happens when rabid fans that haven't a clue, grab the devs by their balls 😒
Eh the assassins games quality has been going down for years now. Sad actually
So he is muslim but is being secular and unbiased while telling history? Understandable
could not beat the maps in the first AC. was the best.
The fact that Wasif al-Turki's ethnicity wasn't highlighted at all in his writing or appearance was such a disappointment for me too. Like, the game goes out of its way to highlight the ethnic diversity of Baghdad at this time with people of many different origins, but one of the most prominent ethnic groups in the region get basically no representation, even in the one prominent historical figure of that group featured in the game!
In general I was pretty disappointed to see how the major events of the Anarchy at Samarra were completely glossed over or absent from the narrative, and how they pulled the Zanj Rebellion back in time without really doing much with it (though as someone who DOES care about the Assassin/Hidden One narrative, I did like how they used Ali to explore the philosophy of freedom and one of the ironies of the Brotherhood, how they preach freedom but practice strict obedience. I also appreciated how he and his followers are explicitly religious, even though their specific beliefs aren't explored in-depth). The idea I had of how the story might go was much different, and while I'm obviously biased, I think some of my incorrect predictions would have made for a better historical narrative.
I think what this is all about with the game is that the game's creators wanted to tell the players what was really going on back then during the Abbasid Caliphate and how all of these events were basically happening at the same time. And considering the fact that the majority of the population outside of the Islamic world knows so little about the Abbasid Caliphate, they thought it was the best idea to give the players a crash course in history about this certain period of time while also enjoying the game. The purpose most likely is simply just to tell the players that this is the year when Caliph al-Mutawakkil was assassinated and the Anarchy of Samarra happened as a result along with other stuffs, which then spiraled out of control sooner or later. And this will led to the players who wanted to know more to go and search for such information on their own.
But hey, that is just my theory, of course.
🇵🇰♥️
Intro goes hard
makes me glad i never got it lol. youre totally right, this setting had the potential to be one of, if not, THE most interesting settings in an AC game but they fumbled the bad pretty hard
Assassin order was a Persian Group. It is pathetic that this is taken over by Arabs, European etc without even mentioning Persian and Iranian. Assassin castles and their training centers still exist in Iran.
It is Arab. The name is literally Arab
@@TheUnique69able Hassan Sahbah founded the order of Fadaian Ismaili Nizari Also known as Assassin orders. Hassan Sabah was born in City of Ray in Iran. He was 100% Persians. The reason Arabic root words were used in Iran was because forceful imposition of Arabic language in Iran. Arabic rulers ordered and killed anyone who knew written Persian in early part of their invasion. I personally like the Qarmatian sect of Ismaili over Nizari.
@@TheUnique69able what about the founder of Assassin Hassan Sabah. He was not Arab. He was Persian born in City of Ray.
Amazing video keep it up
Nice channel
is this channel monotized?
Love the intro
Nice video, I knew nothing about this game since I never played AC but this seems like a pretty good review
Assassins creed once did a good job of offering a player almost an embodied experinece in those great epochs of history. It was with AC 2 I fell in love with renaissance italy-- incarnated as a Ezio I was rubbing shoulders with Leonardo da Vinci and hanging out with Machiavelli, all those felt very natural, very real.
But here in AC Mirage, Al Mutawakkil was there, I could not even feel he was there, I was so enraged that he was killed in the game, ahistorically, in Baghdad-- the legendary fastidiousness of ubisoft in historical matters is long dead, I suppose.
So any idea about Byzantine and Arabs?
Like even Assassin’s Creed kinda forgot about former, even Mirage when the game’s historical context was when Byzantine Empire was contemporary of Abassid (except for lore of artifacts).
Also did the game still remember the magic memory device? Seems that it didn’t get mentioned at all, even in trailers.
Guyz Fund me to buy gaming PC so I can play mirage😅
Was the original Assassin's Creed game really open-world? I only got into the franchise starting with Assassin's Creed 3, which I would only describe as loosely open-world, given that there wasn't fully continuous travel between the different regions of the map and each region needed to be loaded separately when the player entered it. I can only imagine that the original game must have had much greater limitations, making me skeptical of the "open-world" label.
This game could’ve been so much more. We could’ve met with disenfranchised Umayyads in Damascus, we could’ve then been sent to Al Andalus, we could’ve met that Viking guy in Constantinople, Jerusalem could’ve been a setting, Persia, Central Asia, etc. Odyssey and Valhalla both had dozens upon dozens of cities, towns, and villages but Mirage got one city, one town, and 2 villages. Mirage isn’t even getting a DLC. Total lack of respect and wasted potential for this setting because they’re trying to capitalize on the samurai trend just like they tried to capitalize on the Norse mythology craze of a few years back
I think the fact that fact the Assassins Creed Mirage was still able to bring Baghdad to life is still amazing & it’s more targeted for a casual audience, so I’m not to upset if their was details left out.
I was really excited when Ubisoft announced AC:Mirage and could not wait to official publish but when I saw Al-Mutawakkil's death scene in UA-cam, I said oh boy it's over! the biggest character wasted at the starting point so the story ended before the beginning!
I am not Caliph's fan :) but when you want to write a story, you have to utilize your characters, you don't have story when you don't have characters
After this I decided to not play this game and didn't do that
Plzz post more
I think that they cut a lot out of it because Mirage was originally made to be a DLC for Valhalla. And Ubisoft Bordeaux was the primary developer on the game instead of a bigger branch such as Ubisoft Montreal, which made a lot of the other AC games. Plus I think that Ubisoft had a smaller studio work on it since most of the other were focused on making the other games such as the Skull and Bones, the AC game that is set in Japan and Star Wars Outlaws.
I would love to see a video where you cover the history of the Punjab Sikh Empire
Very good video as usual.
But at 3:37 it is the mosque Ibn Tulun in Cairo and not the great mosque of Samarra.
Bro tell me Aamir khan is the bollywood actor.😂
Running out of content.
I'm from Bangladesh. I wanna learn to speak in English like you. I can understand what you say but i can't explain from my heart what i wanna say😮😢
''Uh, even Paris''? Vive la Révolution ! Ahah
Assan ty tawan ee nai kita Mian G ❤❤ baki love you ay lasmy kamal kri jaandy oo py❤❤
Question to you if the next assassin Creed set in India in which historical era the game want to be
error --> era
@@dorderre I hate Auto correction
Independence period
@pakilla4578 I prefer old historical era
I think mid 18th century would be perfect as it has alot going on for example: Mughal decline, 7 years war and tge beginning of British colonization of india
Stoped playing ac games as too frustrated by the history being always just a backdrop for nonsense killing and every move made just to kill somebody. Crap. The other half of ppl d be bored if the story d make sence historically. Whata world.
I mean... the series is called ASSASSIN'S Creed, do you not expect it to revolve around killing people?
Great video keep it up you're doing amazing things 😁👍
Thanks thanks and thanks. Immortal
Running out of ideas?
Not that you're wrong, but I do disagree with your opinion, no real discourse to add, I just love the ISU and all the assassins creed story.
Same here. Like, I was also disappointed by how AC Mirage kinda neglected the historical events it could have been basing its story around, but things like the Isu and especially the Assassin-Templar conflict are core to the series, scoffing at them being there is like scoffing at the series for revolving around Assassinations lol
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السلام اليكم و رحمتالله و بركة