In a few days, we'll all be able to experience a gaming world that so faithfully recreates 9th century Baghdad, that it made a historian cry. Assassin's Creed Mirage has a realistic and faithful depiction for us to scurry about in, but it goes further than the stealth gameplay and creates yet another historic location prime for some digital tourism.
Ubisoft have placed themselves at the top of the pile when it comes to recreating historical cities and periods of time. Having already shown off their capabilities with London, Paris, the Nordic countrysides. As reported by GamesRadar, art director on Mirage, Jean-Luc Sala claims, "this is uncharted. Nobody knows that time period really well."
Little is known of the Middle-East before the 13th century, when the Mongols completely burned Baghdad to the ground. Sala goes on to say that historians had warned Ubisoft that due to a lack of information, this recreation could be "problematic."
One of the many historians who worked with Ubisoft to create the city, Dr. Ali A. Olomi expressed that seeing Mirage's Baghdad for the first time he felt "like a kid." It must be an astonishing moment to have used your expertise create a digital city so true to life as we believed it to be.
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Designing Baghdad was a special moment for Sala, too. He grew up in Iran, but speaks fondly of Baghdad saying "Baghdad was a peaceful time in my childhood, good memories." His connection will be like that of so many others. Olomi got the chance to see "Medieval Baghdad like you've never seen it before."
Olomi became emotional right away says Sala, "He'd spent his life studying that period and that city, and just being his tour guide was really emotional for both of us."
The voice of new assassin, Basim, is Lee Majdoub and they went on to agree with all the passionate responses by saying, "reminding people historically that so much art came out of there, so much science, [is amazing] - Ubisoft have done an amazing job with Baghdad"
Topics: Assassins Creed, Xbox, PlayStation, PC, Ubisoft