Historical Realism Review: Assassin's Creed Mirage
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- čas přidán 28. 05. 2024
- Assassin's Creed Mirage touts a "return to the roots" - but in their treatment of the history, they've done something very different than prior games. How realistic is this depiction of medieval Baghdad? Let's see!
Special thanks to our friend @Ludohistory for having me on his Mirage livestreams, for our many conversations about the game, and for looking through this video's script.
See more of his playthrough here: • Assassin's Creed Mirage
Note on Ali Ibn Muhammad & the Zanj Rebellion:
I'm aware that Fuladh has two voice lines in the Sharqiyah bureau about Ali and the Zanj if you specifically ask him for more information, but that's a very flimsy way to handle that and as far as I'm concerned it fully does not count. The Abbasiyah and Karkh plotlines weave much cleaner historical narratives without omitting essential details like "What is the Zanj Rebellion".
Cited interview clippings:
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Thanks for letting me consult on this! If anyone's curious for some more historical talk around AC Mirage, Blue came and talked through some of this with me live when I was going through it! The recordings of that whole playthrough are going up over the next week or so, and will be added to this playlist! czcams.com/play/PLvFfHAMv6EH8p21V6_jBQyoGPwbgVJ2rO.html
We all know you would never die on a hill but a strategically placed and historically relevant arched bridge.
He might die on a dome, though, which, let's be real, is the hill of the architectural world.
@@SSGranor What is a hill, but a dome of earth?
@@JackSilver1410what is the earth but two domes on top of each other
Just like Harald Hardrada would have done!
@@isaacaxisa2142 Technically, they're on bottom of each other...
After getting my degree from the House of Wisdom, I can now boast "Who's your Baghdad-dy now?" to anyone who didn't earn their degree from the House of Wisdom.
Abu bakr?
😂😂
This is so cringe
Domes, domes galore and more for sweet Blue
Lapis Lazuli from Afghanistan! One of the things I've learned so far 😅
Arches and Domes for my lord Blue!
We should send Blue to Chili to see the construction of the ELT, this is one big dome.
Treating the Zanj rebellion as some secondary background thing is like playing in 1st century B.C. Rome and having someone say "Hey, here's a job for a guy called Spartacus,. Just a dude you know, some kind of rebel."
As someone born and living in Baghdad, the game was a breath of fresh air! I loved seeing my culture presented in such a well-studied way. Also some structures from the Abbasid Caliphate still stand today like the Mustasiria school , although it's a little later than the time period presented in the game.
I know and the markets and the old buildings and houses my grandpa lives in a mud house like those in the game it's so nice to see it
The architecture and overall feel was good. But the cultural representation was a bit off. I know they were trying, but women without hijab, no Salam, modern day political sensibilities, I mean come on.
@@rongeen4404modern day political sensibilities? In a 1st century game
@@michealgironimo603No. Next.
"Now I have to go back to being in shock that I actually like this game"
-Blue and the entirety of the AC fanbase
Yeah speak for yourself
As someone who speaks hebrew, it was insane to suddenly hear it in the chatter while roaming the city.
It was even better when i realized they had the same voice actress talking to herself
"I'll be overly nice to the older games by ignoring them completely" is a level of shade I didn't expect from this video, but I appreciate.
Every time I've tried to research medieval cultures in the middle east, I found nothing but fetishised orientalism or complete nonsense. Even if Mirage isn't perfect, it really means a lot to have a game actually trying to show off an idea of what Baghdad might have been like without just being sexy bellydancers and evil muslims
That just means that you haven't been doing good research on the topic
@@standowner6979 It could legit mean the original commenter just hasn't had time to dig through all the crap yet. Let me tell you, when you look into ANYTHING, you will find all sorts of off-topic nonsense, misinformation, oversimplified information, and the like, and it can take forever to filter it all out.
@@standowner6979Historical research takes a degree of training. It's not uncommon for the average person to not be able to reach their depth or breadth, especially without access to academic resources
@@standowner6979 I don´t think the comment is meant to be taken that literally, OP it´s just making a legit complain about one of the many cultures and time periods that get quite fictionally portrait. They could make the same comment on a plethora of other historicall cultures and doesn´t detract from the fact there maybe a good representation here and there. Sure, there´s some good documentaries on say Mayan culture, but most people would have acess to Apocalypto; that´s what OP is saying.
I would've liked sexy bellydancers
As a devout Muslim who is obsessed with the first 4 centuries of Islamic history, this game was my fever dream.
The fact my boy Al-Jahiz (who low-key discovered natural selection years ahead of time) got a shout out.
My only sadness is not getting to see Imam Ahmad ibn hanbal 🥲
Not touching on Ahmad Ibn Habal is probably a bullet dodged on Ubisoft's part. He's a complex figure to address in Islamic history and even if the game had done this well, being exposed to the "hot-takes" of Reddit denizens on him is something I'd be keen to avoid.
Im with you Qahari, but I agree with the above comment in how it’s better this way. I’d rather see no Imam Hanbal than one that would be critiqued by people who either don’t know much about him, have a personal grudge against his school of jurisprudence, or are misled by a Ubisoft depiction of him.
Yh its probably for the best that we don't see prominent scholars depicted, especially for entertainment purposes. But one the plus side, you can see NPCs praying according to the Hanbali fiqh
@@menacegallagher7334 Complex? The vast majority of Muslims love Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal, I could only imagine a few fringe sects of Muslims disliking him. And as for the average non-Muslim Joe, they know nothing about him.
I think so long as the game was respectful and didn't try to do a full historical deep dive on Imam ibn Hanbal they would have been ok. Like just do something to show he was there.
Assassins were historically Shias, Fatimid Shias. I assume you guys are Sunni. You seriously wanted Ubisoft to take a Shiite approach to one of the Sunni madhab founders? Because honestly, I doubt you would have liked it if they portrayed how the historical Assassins would have reacted to, seen and thought of Hanbal...
I first fell in love with Islamic architecture and art when I studied the Moorish architecture of Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain for an art history class. I was absolutely floored by the mathematical and artistic intricacies of that building.
Mirage giving me the opportunity to see so many of these pieces of art rendered in such high quality makes me positively giddy.
Hey Blue, would you consider doing a video on the history of museums? You love history and architecture, so why not highlight humanity's earliest effort to preserve and present history to the general populace.
For instance, you could talk about the Ennigaldi-Nanna's museum, the world's earliest museum, dating from c. 530 BC and devoted to Mesopotamian antiquities. Or you could discuss the Capitoline Museum in Rome. You'd have a lot of options and famous buildings to explore.
Ahh but let's not forget the looming specter of colonialism.
Probably because most museums are just stolen shit, and the history of them is a history of plunder.
oh that wiuld be suh a long video but it would be interestibg to see him tackle it even tho the topics he's talked abt seem much more archeo oriented to me
Or like, how a lot of museums (esp during colonial period) stole and smuggled artifacts from others countries? 🤷🏿
6:50 hold up, mentioning the Zanj rebellion reminds me of my favorite historical anecdote that I hope is in the game. During the Zanj rebellion, in the city of Baghdad, a serial killer was found with the bodies of several young women strangled in his house. They whipped him hundreds of times, but this didn't kill him, so they killed him by crushing his testicles with a log. I'm not making this up, I can give you a citation from al-Tabari. Please tell me that the serial killer is a mission in this game
The last part is....strangely specific....why that of all forms of execution?
@@KaiHung-wv3ul probably humilation
this is perhaps the most metal execution I've heard of, they really went "oh you like strangling, here, lemme show you what pressure feels like"
Maybe they assume he was a rapist, since his victims were girls?
And they had to do something to appease the anger of public. Just an assumption.
Another criticism that I'd point out is very integral the fact that most of the important Zanj characters were either Mesosemetic phenotype or Afro-Arabic, when not only was Eastern Africa far less interposed with Persiac, Indian & Arabic settlement during this period (outside of the coasts), when teh Zanj, who were very much predecessors to groups like the Habshi/Siddhi & Afro-Iraqi, were primarily taken from Nilotic, Pagan Kushitic, Kalenjin, South African, and Far East Cong-River Basin (Ugandan, Rwandan, etc) peoplegroups, with minority malgasy population also interspaced with them (mainly because most Malgasy groups at the time were collaborating with the Zanzibari slave network). These are peoples represent of some of the darkest phenotypes in Africa & most of them instead resemble modern Afro-Iraqi, who have had nearly a millennium of genetic drift & intermixing to look the way they do.
To me, the crowning glory of Creed was the irl rebuilding of Notre Dame from game footage after the fire. That to me is the ultimate flex and should be the goal of these games every time... bringing museums to life, exploring architecture (by literally crawling all over it). Goofy conspiracy plotlines are secondary to experiencing the historical world.
Unfortunately that never ended up happening. The scans and models Ubisoft took for Notre Dame were not useful to the reconstruction teams. Because of copyright, model detail, etc, the cathedral as it appears in Unity is not an appropriate facsimile of the original. Ubisoft did make a donation to the reconstruction, but the game assets are not being used.
-B
@@OverlySarcasticProductionsWait, copyright of Notre Dame? How would they have any claim like that?
If Ubisoft doesn't recreate it perfectly, then they've made something new which can be copywrited.
@@BJGvideos as mentioned they can't recreate a model of notredam and retain copyright. There is also SOME concern over the accurate representation of major public locations from people worried about them being used to prepare attacks or thefts, which could have been a factor (as most planning authorities get to keep a record of things like blueprint requests)
@@reganator5000 I would assume that a building as old as that would have very few design secrets from notes over the centuries
The enthusiasm and care the developers in Ubisoft Bordeaux had made me want to buy it especially with Muslims talking about in detail about the representation.
I mean I know about the flaws but I understand because of what they had to deal with, basically working with smaller time and working with Valhalla assets too
Yeah for a game that was meant to be a dlc for Valhalla, it is pretty good.
A few weeks ago I had a very lifelike dream where there was a E3-esc presentation, where a guy from Ubisoft announced that after the lackluster reception of Mirage, Ubisoft had decided to change course. He explained how for the next 4 years *minimum*, there would be no new AC games, instead they would be releasing remakes of the first 4 games. And at the same time, in the background, they would begin work on the next proper AC games in the form of a planned trilogy titled AC Empire, set during the rise of the Roman empire, and would see the player travel across the mediterranean in a full length story reminiscent of the Ezio saga... I woke up and was legitimately distraught that it was just a dream.
That would be awesome. I had the same type of thought, but instead have it place during the height of the Silk Road. If they could make maps as big as a whole country on PS4/Xbone generation, surely they could do continents on PS5/XSX generation
Blue talking about assassins creed is how i wish teachers talked about literally anything
I've heard nothing but praise for the historical realism in this game, and how even if it's not always accurate, it's got love and care put into it. And that's good.
I also saw people commenting on that one guy who says he steals shoes from the Mosque and acting with bewilderment at this deranged behavior.
I love it when you can tell that actual passion is put into a game which is frankly quite rare nowadays.
POV: you only play AAA-games.
@omppusolttu5799 No, indie games have started being passionless too. Although the less passionate ones do tend to sell worse so that's good.
Name one indie game with less passion than Mirage. Except hello neighbor, perhaps@@EPadraigM
@omppusolttu5799 POV: you don't play enough games if you think it's just a AAA thing. Indy games as well as AA games, by number, are far more egregious for being pushed out cash grabs
It’s great to see the amount of research they put in for this game, the effort it must have taken to even get a grasp on pre-sack Baghdad layout must have been insane.
Lord, I love when you're happy with historical presentations. Makes the times they may have screwed up even more interesting. Also, points for saying "Baghdad" more accurately than most of us English speakers usually manage.
FINALLY...! The *one* Assassin's Creed: Mirage review that I've been waiting for before I decide whether or not to play the game!
ah, blue and domes. how much fun was spotting all of them I wonder
I’m so glad AC isn’t afraid to be itself again after so long. It’s a fantastic step back in the right direction, it’s reinvigorated my passion for the series, and it’s just fun to play.
Would love to see Rome and Byzantium get this treatment
Isn’t ezio in both Rome and constinopal
R/whoosh. It's ok bud
I think a larger scale early Hellenistic period is a more fitting choice as it connects Odyssey to Origins.
Plus Indo-Greeks and Bactria are a civilization that rarely gets representation
@@supremercommonder yeah but give them the new artifacts and lets see Rome in its height during the 300s
@@compatriot852 would love that I live near texila In Pakistan where the indo Greek where as Buddhist
I’d love this to become a series on this channel!
At 4 or 5 videos isn't it already?
@@bazzfromthebackground3696 shhhhhhhhhhh
Tbh, "The Mummy" 1999 got me interested in ancient Egyptian history, and I don't even mind that it wasn't very accurate 👍
Currently downloading it, wasn't going to buy it but the fact they've gone back to realism instead of ridiculous anachronism got me interested. Also been playing since the original, looking forward to booting it up tonight~
Regarding Scandinavian temples and stave churches, there's actually quite a few scholars that claim stave churches are modelled on pre-Christian temple architecture. There are finds in southern Sweden (Scania/Skåne) and other places that support this
We've gotten Egypt, Greece, and now Islamic covered. Makes me wonder if they'll expand it to a wider scale by covering the wars of the Diadochi after Alexander the Great's death or the far off Indo-Greek kingdoms/Bactria
The Diadochi wars are *way* too complicated to be covered in an AC game. Even a Game of Thrones type TV show would have a hard time doing it.
I'd love to see a game set in Gaul during or after the Roman invasion/subjugation
I love these types of videos, because it shows that if you just have the passion and interest, there's NO EXCUSE to skimp out on the writing. Or maybe better word is "unfocused".
Ubisoft definitely has, especially in regards to AC for a while now. They've been spreading their focus and vision into dozens of modular pieces with a general theme, but they don't utilize the time periods to their fullest. Notable people or events feel more like "requirements" everyone adds with a sigh, or at best almost like easter eggs.
Been waiting for this!!
is a middle eastern who loves history so much this channel became my favorite of how accurate and honesty blue and red talk about history you can see how both are very passionate when they talk about history very few could make me this impressed while talking about history I recommend this channel t9 anyone interested in history you won't be disappointed
Thanks for the effort put into this review. I agree it was fun just to explore and listen.
Wonderful video Blue! I always love your AC content, I really enjoyed your detail diatribe but it would be great if you did a breakdown similar to this for the older games before origins as well
Oh wow this really does look beautiful!! I've never played Assassin's Creed, but I love hearing you talk about it. Really gives a lot of food for thought just for the game design aspect, and what it means to capture the spirit of an era and of a people in media...
Hey Blue, I know it's been about a year I think since episode 41 of the OSPodcast, but I'm marathoning them on Spotify and can't leave a comment there. I really wanted to say how funny it was that you chose to finish your tests with a broken thumb instead using your off hand. Awesome video here too, so glad to see AC back to form.
One nice detail Ubisoft added to the game was the fact that the Adhaan for Fajr in game is different to the Adhaan for other prayers, which is accurate to real life. There's also NPCs who'll actually perform prayers, while facing the right direction.
LOVED this game guys! Epic history tv videos helped me prepare!🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
So just to be clear, Blue IS recommeding that there is finaly a recent AC game that is worth buying, right? Because I have been burned before and my delicate heart hopes for a return to form.
I truly did not expect to like this game, but I'm having a great time.
Watch other reviews from creators whose opinions you value to build a better picture, but in my not-a-professional-games-journalist opinion, it's fun and I liked it quite a lot.
-B
the story is a mess but gameplay if quite fun. Best stealth in the franchise.
AC Mirage was wonderful to explore. It felt like the good old days. Highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't tried it yet.
Honestly my favorite part of Mirage was the codex covering aspects of life as well as historical places/people. I knew absolutely nothing about Islamic life B4 this game and it was great getting a peek at it.
Awesome! I need to play this version.
I have two historian friends that are massive Assassin's Creed fans; one used lots of the games as an education complementary tool when he was a teacher (totay he does metalworking), the other used AC as an example of historical preservation in digital media for her Master Degree Thesis on Birmingham University 4 years BEFORE the Notredame Cathedral accident.
Nice to see a series I used to love getting back to its roots. Haven't played an AC game since 3, but maybe I'll actually pick this one up...
The Arabic calligraphy hidden in the logo is sooo cool! man I love this series
Blue, if your interested in the folkloric feel of historical settings and creative anachronism, I’d love to here your opinion on the show Resurrection Ertugrul. It’s long, but pretty entertaining with a lot of content on pre-ottoman turkic tribes, focusing specifically on the Kayi
"Long" is a bit of an understatement lol that thing is massive. Couldn't bring myself to get through the plot even if i was interested in the historical tidbits and in how the turkish conceptualize the crusades.
As a lover of history, i'm really excited for this game. As a jew with 3 out of 4 grandparents from Baghdad, i dread how ubisoft chose to show that history... Baghdad wasn't kind to the jews, especially at that time (the qhalif that died in 861 even ordered them to be marked with yellow badges). I hoped they had at least some actual iraqi jews on the team to approach the delicate subject of the jewish community in baghdad. But i am willing to bet they probably didn't
Still watching RadBrad's playthrough of it and I gotta say, it looks great. Makes me regret that I don't have a console anymore as this really reminds me of AC: Brotherhood, which is my favourite title in the series. The success of this game makes me hopeful that they'll make another one based in this era give or take a couple centuries-maybe even an AC based in India during the classical period and China during the Medieval period, or perhaps further back during the Warring States period.
When I first played the game, I was just happy to play an AC game that actually felt like and AC game again. But I'm happy to hear that it did pretty good on the history as well. You can definitely tell that a lot of love went into the game
Blue, I'd love to see you do a video or something on various Japanese castles, like Himeji Castle (as an example). Maybe do it with a guest like Gaijin Goomba or something.
Assassin's Creed genuinely makes some of the best, most historically and gameplay worthy maps I have ever played. Ubisoft really nails it each time.
I think it was said they'll use the data collected for the Unity game to rebuild Notre Dame
@@theanimeunderworld8338the last great assassins creed attempt by Ubisoft. Everything else has been safe, cookie cutter and just bad gameplay
@@theanimeunderworld8338 This is actually untrue - due to copyright and memory requirements the Notre Dame in AC Unity is not close enough to the actual building to be useful for the rconstruction. Ubisoft offered the data, but the French government and reconstruction team declined.
@@theanimeunderworld8338Yeah that didn't actually happen, but Ubisoft did make a donation to the rebuilding effort
fun fact: my old university tutor was one of the historical advisors for this game! Shout out to Glaire, she's so cool and so knowledgable!
Thanks, I didn't know the game was out already. 6:21 I'll watch the rest later
Never played the discovery tours but i vividly remember reading every single codex entry in ACII as a kid, cannot be understated how valuable those are if done well
There's a very interesting video by Schwerpunkt on the historical "Assassins"
My gods! Yesss I'm so excited
Well done Blue, I admire the extent of your knowledge.
Ac mirage might get a dlc, if your at the home page it says there’s going to be available content, I’m excited for more ac mirage 😮
on the topic of AC Valhalla, weren't the designs of Stave Churches inspired by Odinshof's that likely existed before them? I was under the impression that this style was adapted to suit local needs as they changed, not that it was some kind of an import from somewhere else in the world. After all, being such an elaborate style of construction you'd expect at least a few hundred years of prior architecture bridging the gap between very simple iron age structures and these complex pieces of carpentry and design.
One of my favorite things about ACII was the iption to switch the dialogue to Italian, which made the whole experience much more immersive (even allowing that modern Italian was only one dialect of the Romance languages spoken on the peninsula at the time). I'm thrilled that this new entry is in Arabic, with background characters speaking other languages as well
I'd be totally down for a detail diatribe about this game, especially one featuring ludo history
i've been thouroughly immersed to a ridiculous degree in this game's setting depiction, it's so lively and artistic and full of wonders to see and examine, despite its faults and outdated game design it still offers a great experience for any one who's an assassin's creed enjoyer definitely
I had no idea there was a new AC game until i saw the thumbnail for this video 😮
I can’t wait to play it (in a couple years when it gets cheaper haha)
It's already cheaper than their regular games, but some people are getting it for less than a third of the price by starting a Ubisoft Plus account, which lets you play the game for no extra charge, and then cancelling it.
I cannot wait for you to cover AC red when it comes out. Im looking forward to playing it and its as accurate as possible being that Japanese history is well documented.
We already have upcoming games in Japan and China. Now I would want to see India next. Considering the Isu lore and with India having a lot of gods and goddesses as well, with also having a very large mythology, it would really be interesting.
Which era of India?
This game included so many Iranian things it blew my mind! On one hand I like that we’re getting all this publication. On the other I HATE that they are mixing so many innately and uniquely Iranian things with the Arabic world! From the architecture to nearly all the scientist, and even places like “Anbar”, “Carvanserai”, “Bazar”, “Alamut!!!”
For context Alamut is nowhere near a dessert and in fact it’s very close to Tehran!
Even some of the code names for the Order members where Iranian mythical creatures. And so many of the people we meet are Persian but they don’t look any different to the rest of the character designs! Some have the obvious accent but that’s not always the case…
People in America already can’t differentiate Iranians from Arabs, and this definitely doesn’t help.
Alamut isn't on the game map and is just shown as somewhere in a mountainous area quite remote from Baghdad, requiring signifcant travel to get between them. *Some* of your other issues can be answered by Persian influence being very strong in early Abbasid Bagdhad; even though that alliance was much weakened by the time the game is set in, that mark was still there.
@@Bruce-itsbruce I agree that they did a good job of showing Alamut is quite far from Baghdad, but I was mostly talking about the scene in the last mission where it seems there's a line where the desert ends and the mountains begin. That is NOT representative of the environment near there at all, there's so much greenery and grass fields everywhere.
To your 2th point, the huge persian influence on the Abbasid khalifate is unfortunately remembered as "The Islamic Golden age", where thousands of years of knowledge and innovation from an ancient powerful Empire was stolen and rewritten in Arabic, along with all the new works of the academics of the time, most of whom were Iranian as you can even see in the game and in real life.
However the architecture they took from us was mainly for military use and tactical fortification. Every home didnt have WindCatchers like the game showed! (Windcatchers are the earliest form of indoor cooling invented thousands of years ago by Iranians) romans had heating we had cooling lol
I’ve never play Assassin’s Creed but I can feel just how much relief you feel towards the history in this game XD
Yeeeeeaaaaaaah... this was a surprise considering how poorly the last game (valhalla) treated both the AC theme and norse history/mythology.
I cannot wait for AC Red in 2024, which is (finally) going to tackle Feudal Japan, which is something I have been wanting for years
I sn most interested in when exactly it takes place. I think Heian period Japan would be the most compelling
Edit: Alternatively,1590-1600 Japan would be a perfect period to explore too
I'm guessing when Ubisoft started their first games (and when they released Valhalla) that they weren't trying to go for National Geographic certification for historic accuracy.
really cool game probably the most ive enjoyed since rogue
I think Blue convinced me to give this game a try
Definitely on my to do list.
We got so many domes in this game
Who's found the Dome of the Ass?
Hello Blue, it seems to me that the term Zanj doesn't include the eastern African ( people from Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea and the likes...) but the Bantu people. Which are considered to be from a different ethno- cultural group. Apart from this minor detail, your video was awesome.
Unfortunately, that's not correct - al-Mas'udi's geography makes it really clear that the coast of Somalia and Kenya (i.e. Zanzibar) is the region medieval Arabic authors considered the zanj, and that Bantu peoples from the area that is now Mozambique, northern Madagascar, etc. were considered to be distinct from the Zanj.
That being said, al=Tabari doesn't seem to use 'zanj' in a particularly systematic way, meaning that the enslaved rebels he identifies as zanj likely came from a much larger area than the geographical Zanj, and Bantu people could have been included.
Yeah, there's a reason why its called Zanzibar and its so far south im Africa after all
@@JonCrs10 er... I'll concede I erased about 100 miles of Tanzania, but the current city Dar es-Salaam is around the southern edge of what medieval authors considered the Zanj from what I've read, so no, it's not "so far south"?
@@Ludohistory But Kenyan are considered part of the Bantu peoples. So the Zanj are mostly Bantu peoples.
@@waberiibrahim6052Kenta has Nilotic and Bantu people.
Wait a minute. This is the first time ive ever actually read the codex in any ac game and they speak of the Zanj rebellion. Its not shown in gameplay but they do tell you in the menu.
they never examine the zanj rebellion because the devs went out of their way to not include anything that might be viewed as even slightly critical
It's a lose-lose proposition. They'd have conservatives crying about the game being "woke" & "too political" & they'd have progressives hyper-focusing on whatever they get wrong or gloss over.
The history was definitely the strongest part of the game. It was fun learning and seeing these historical sites and institutions.
But damn was the story, gameplay, graphics, and especially acting performances bad.
you're right about the story but the stealth gameplay is actually pretty good if you don't count the.... teleportation mechanic
i really liked how it was possible to finish the game's story in a reasonable timeframe. like, i didn't need to play for 50 hours to leave what felt like the first act; and while i liked Odyssey and Valhalla, i haven't felt that way in a while.
Another excuse for Blue to talk about Assassin's Creed XD
Well it's been years since the last one with Valhalla
Which I'll be honest was an okay game, just didn't feel like an AC game
6:10 One egregious error, Hebrew was extinct as a spoken language at this point and had been since about the fifth century CE at the latest but was more likely extinct by the second century CE, Mizrahi Jews (the Jews of the Middle East) would have spoken Arabic in Arabic or Persian in Iran. It was only used as a liturgical language and was not revived until the 1800s by the Zionist movement. That's why Ashkenazi (European) Jews spoke Yiddish and Beta Israeli (Ethiopian) Jews spoke Amharic.
A fair correction! There was Aramaic text also rendered in the game, and I did think Hebrew endured alongside it, so that's on me. But there are buildings that are likely synagogues in the game world (though none explicitly identified as such), so hearing fragments of liturgical speech is still within the realm of possibility
100% agree with everything here! Yea, there are some creative liberties take (and I do have some major gripes with how al-Mutawakkil's death played out), but Mirage does the best job at portraying history of any Assassin's Creed game imo.
i love ac for the history thanks for the video
Any references to Byzantines since its same time period as them and previous entry like Valhalla has a Byzantine merchant (a bit odd but there is references to Vikings who served in Varangian Guard)?
The Assasin's Creed videos are definitely my favorite of Blue's!
Huh, as someone who's only played 3-4 games, i feel like giving this a go.
I'm kind of looking forward to see what they do with their next game.
From what I understand one of the titles they're working on for their whole Infinity thing, codenamed "Project Hexe" is going to be set in the Holy Roman Empire in the 16th Century, which just so happens to be a setting that I actually do know a little bit about.
It's also going to be interesting because apparently they want to adress the topic of witch hunts, which is a bit of a loaded topic. I'm interested to see their take on religion and faith at the time. It's very easy to present witch hunters as just these murderous hateful bigots, but I'd be interested in seeing the elements represented that even allowed the witch panics to spiral so much out of control in the first place, the fears and concerns of people going through a very dangerous and difficult period, trying to find a cause for the devastation that was wrought upon the general populace by a variety of unfortunate factors. A Witch Hunter who does what he does because he genuinely believes that he is protecting the innocent from evil magics and satanic cult worship is a far more interesting character than one who does what he does because he hates women and wants to burn them at the stake.
Also, if we don't get a glorious, flaboyant, puffy slashed outfit for our Assassin I'm going to riot.
16th century HRE has literally all of the drip, at least if you're a Landsknecht.
Next game A.C is more INTERESTING because is creator of ODYSSEY
*UCHRONIA!* that's the word! I've been trying to remember that damned word ever since Red mentioned it on a podcast episode that I couldn't refind.
Uchronia.
Spoilers for the end of Mirage:
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When Basim discovers what’s under Alamut, and connects with the precursor Isu side of himself- the way they speak to each other, and connect reminds me a lot of how Sufi writing and philosophy treat oneness with god- I’m no expert on the subject and am not a Sufi myself, so I can’t elaborate, but it was very interesting how they played out that last part
I think a great example of the reasonable artistic license they take is with the presence of the Monastery of the Virgins.
The real monastery was destroyed in the 7th century, so the game version is two centuries off. Buuuut, *I didn't know the monastery ever existed* until I saw it in the game.
It made me want to google it, fascinated by the idea of a Christian monastery in Baghdad, and ultimately taught me something.
The Chinese voice acting for ambient characters in this game varies greatly in quality and is generally hilarious, in one way or another. 😂
All the lootable item's can now be found in the British museum.
Even despite it’s problems, I still really liked Mirage. I liked that it was a return to form for Assassins Creed.
Great video! And since it is related due to the impact of this age in the future, can you do a video on Palestine?
I love studying history, so naturally I have done quite a bit of research for this game. The zanj rebellion doesnt fit well, but im all about immersion. The only way i can fit it into the story at 862 (when mentioned to mentor rayhan) is that ali was going all throughout the region, planting the seeds of rebellion. The actual history places him in samarra in 62 as an enterainer who came in contact with eunuchs. I think he also uses different aliases. There was an alid rebel named yahya ibn umar, who also created revolts. He claimed to be a savior for the alids. He was killed in 64, but his followers believed he didnt die and would return in the near future. Ali was known to claim to be this savior of the alids, as well. I think the year is 866 when you arrive in baghdad, and 869 at the games end. It has to be after the civil war of 65 to 66, and it has to be before the death of wasif al-turki who was murdered in 67. Qabiha died in 873, if i recall correctly, but surely you wouldve dealt with her before the events in vahalla. 69, right after the death of her son al-mutazz seems right. Mutazz when and asked his mother for a way to pay the turks, but left empty handed. He was murdered, and his mother was exhiled, and had millions taken from a secret chamber.
Ultimate Question: as someone who hasn't bought an Assassin's Creed game since Syndicate for obvious reasons, do you think there was an Anton Ego flashback moment to AC1 while playing this game?
Ok but can we get a comparison video between AC1 and Mirage sometime?
Anytime a high profile, popular media (nonetheless a video game) treats non western cultures with genuine grace and respect makes me happy. I have never cared for or about the Assassin Creed games, but that this does a good job of representing the feel of old Baghdad and Islamic culture is an absolute win.
Good job Ubisoft (don't get used to the praise).