October 4, 2023

2023-10-04 04:00:12

Baghdad was founded in 762 at the height of Arab-Muslim civilization. A hundred years later, the Abbasid caliph Ja’far Al-Mutawakkil, its leader, was assassinated. Years of instability followed during which Basim Ibn Ishaq became master assassin of Baghdad. In Assassin’s Creed Mirage’s Baghdad, at the very least.

Those who say that video games make you stupid can go and cook themselves an eggplant. Since the first Assassin’s Creed in 2007, the popular video game saga created in Ubisoft’s Montreal offices has managed to attract players from all walks of life. Teachers. And historians. So much so that the French video game publisher cannot simply produce a digital environment in the general colors of a time or place: it must very faithfully reproduce the smallest habits and customs of the moment.

It’s no longer just a video game, it’s a history lesson.

A vanished city

Over the next few days, fans of open-world adventure games will learn through the approximately 30 hours of gameplay contained in Assassin’s Creed Mirage how the inhabitants of Baghdad lived in the 9th century. They will probably be surprised to learn that Iraqi merchants mastered the icebox better than Europeans 1000 years later. Or that they had among their military arsenal something that looked suspiciously like… a flamethrower? !

Raphaël Weyland is the historian who worked on this new game. To create this virtual world but still as real as possible, this specialist in the history of the Middle East visited libraries and dusted off old manuscripts.

“The Baghdad that we created has not existed for a long time,” he said in an interview with Le Devoir. “The only building that still exists is a ziggurat dating back 2000 years, called Dûr-Kurigalzu, and which is still in much the same condition today. »

Otherwise, Baghdad was destroyed by invasions and modernity. By time, in short. Like other cities. “Reproducing this city required other ways than reproducing a Parthenon or the canals of Venice,” explains the historian, since no visual support allows it to be illustrated today. We had to find old texts, stories, legends.

A return to basics

Was all this necessary? Not really. “But it has become a trademark, perhaps for Ubisoft as a whole,” says Raphaël Weyland. “To play, do we have to know the story? No. But in the game, one can discover up to 66 historical elements regarding the culture of the place and time. Chances are good that you’ll know more regarding that culture by the end of the game.”

In Mirage, the player completes a quest where representatives of order and freedom oppose each other in an age-old struggle. It is said that he is perhaps one of his assassins with the richest and most extensive history.

Those in the know already know who their character is. Basim Ibn Ishaq is a young thief “more pretentious than skillful” in his early days. Throughout his adventures, he must join a secret order and eventually become a master assassin. Basim Ibn Ishaq was from the previous installment, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. It left its mark and intrigued gamers and decision makers at Ubisoft enough to get a spinoff game.

Rather than making it DLC to add to Valhalla, Ubisoft saw the character’s potential and decided to produce a full-fledged game. “It’s a kind of return to basics, we return to the Middle East, even if we don’t really return to the same universe,” says Raphaël Weyland.

The big story in the small

The game returns to the origins of the order of assassins which gives its name to the series. We see clothes, weapons, all kinds of elements that reinforce the feeling of belonging to the Assassin’s Creed franchise. The small and the big story therefore merge. “We go to great lengths to do that. If we might have done the elves once morest the orcs, perhaps it would be simpler. » Although, it must be said, academics specialize in fictional languages ​​and cultures. After all, it goes as far as the Klingons from Star Trek…

“From a company perspective, I think being able to virtually witness something like the death of Caesar or the storming of the Bastille, there’s an element of immersion that makes the player want to be there. »

The launch, later this fall, of a virtual reality version of Assassin’s Creed should reinforce this sensation of reliving historical moments, we assure at Ubisoft. Because, in virtual reality, the immersion is more engaging.

The fun aspect still remains essential. Raphaël Weyland hasn’t worked on Assassin’s Creed for a year. He moved on to another Ubisoft title which must also respect certain historical constraints, although differently. In For Honor, three factions clash: Vikings, European knights and Japanese samurai. This is anything but historically true. And at the same time, each group respects its origins in its own way.

Raphaël Weyland still left a little “Easter egg” in Mirage: players who complete the historical quests will receive special clothes to dress their hero, a creation of the historian. These clothes are strictly faithful to the period. Obviously.

Because if Assassin’s Creed is a game – and probably the pride of Ubisoft Montreal – it is also an environment where History, the real one, is literally put into play.

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