“Any anachronism is quickly noticed by the brain”: how do the “Assassin’s Creed” games come close to a historical reconstruction?

2023-10-24 19:02:00

Guarantee an authentic reconstruction. Bring the characters and the game world to life, while respecting the historical context. Create an immersive visual experience for players, while ensuring that the architecture, the settings, all the visual elements reflect medieval life…

Thierry Noël, Sarah Beaulieu and Jean-Luc Sala worked closely to ensure thatAssassin’s Creed Mirage, released on October 5, 2023, offers a gaming experience faithful to the history of Baghdad during the golden age of Islam in the 9th century, while maintaining a balance between playability, creativity and historical accuracy. They answer our questions on the subject.

GEO.fr: Could you summarize the plot ofAssassin’s Creed Mirage ?

Sarah Beaulieu, Narrative director (narrative director) of the game, from the Ubisoft Bordeaux studio: Assassin’s Creed Mirage is an action-adventure game set in 9th century Baghdad. We play the character of Basim Ibn Ishaq, who will evolve from a street thief to becoming a Master Assassin.

The plot begins at a time when the city is in turmoil: not far away, in Sāmarrā, the Zanj rebellion – which mainly concerns slaves, but also free men rebelling once morest the Abbasid caliphate – begins to grow.

Within the Hidden Ones (“the Hidden”), Basim will fight in the shadows once morest injustice in Baghdad, in particular once morest the Order of the Ancients, already known in mythology Assassin’s Creed.

Why is the city of Baghdad, specifically in the 9th century, perfect for a Assassin’s Creed ?

Thierry Noël, historian by training and director of the branch Humanities and Inspiration au be d’Ubisoft: The rule ofAssassin’s Creed is to find periods where something is happening, where the stakes are extremely high. It can be a political revolution, as with the French Revolution in Assassin’s Creed Unity (2014). An economic revolution, like the industrial revolution in London in Assassin’s Creed Syndicate (2015).

Here, the period lends itself particularly well: it is pivotal in the history of Islam and that of the Abbasid Caliphate, with a whole series of plots, palace revolutions, coups d’état, civil wars, revolts social issues which will shake up the entire empire.

Then, it is a matter of respecting the general context and the unfolding of events, while slipping into the gray areas to introduce the stories specific to Assassin’s Creed. This is what makes the license so spicy and unique.

Jean-Luc Sala, artistic director of the game, from the Ubisoft Bordeaux studio: On the side gameplay (the way to play), for an assassin, it’s still ideal to run on the flat roofs of Baghdad. Especially since they constituted real living areas in the city. When it was really hot, it was better up high than in the houses. For a whole period of the year, the beds were therefore installed directly on the roofs.

In addition, the first Assassin’s Creed (2007) took place in Damascus, Jerusalem and Acre, cities also of Abbasid architecture. All these elements are present once more, with the roofs, the stepped elevations, the street corners, the minarets… Bringing back this architecture was also bringing back good old memories for players from the very beginning of the license.

Rooftop parkour in “Assassin’s Creed Mirage” (2023). Ubisoft

How does research work for a Assassin’s Creed ?

Sarah Beaulieu : In order to stick as closely as possible to historical reality, we read a lot, and we work with historians internally and externally. At the start of production, we rely mainly on inspirations, offering them content around a character.

For example, the leader of the Zanj rebellion, Ali ibn Mohammed, was mentioned in two lines in a book I looked through. These two lines were exceptional. I asked our historian to “scratch the subject”, to confirm its role, its importance… There, we find contradictory sources, different accounts. We make do, exploiting their gray areas to feed the story.

The Banou Moussa brothers also, totally crazy inventors who wrote a book regarding their inventions (The Book of Ingenious devices), traction and pulley systems extremely developed for the time, were very quickly integrated as central characters in the game. We had almost nothing to know who they really were. But we relied on their work to ask ourselves: “what might he possibly be doing in the brotherhood?”.

Thierry Noël: We often think of the great people, the political and social events of the time, but the research also obviously includes the environment, the social and political context, very important for authenticity: what happens in the street, the art, exchanges, commerce, dynamics of society, language…

Historians known as “of floor” (“de sol”) are dedicated to answering the most direct and pressing questions from the creative teams of the studios. In Paris, there are half a dozen of us doing longer-term studies, on everything that needs a little more detailed research – if necessary, by seeking external expertise from historians, linguists, archaeologists who may be useful.

A day is therefore a lot of research and a lot of reading, with the extraordinary luck of now having access on the Internet to high quality collections and documents. At a time too – and before Covid – we also organized inspirational trips to the field. Unfortunately now there are a number of restrictions in this direction, but it was part of our range of actions.

Why is it so important to stick as closely as possible to a semblance of historical truth?

Sarah Beaulieu : It’s in the DNA of the license Assassin’s Creed to show an era and a way of living. Although it is something that is done very little, we are ultimately approaching a historical reconstruction — obviously taking some liberties.

More than in the DNA, the team very quickly took on the responsibility of paying homage to this very little-known period. When we started working on Baghdad in the 9th century, no one knew what it looked like, what had happened there, unlike in the European Middle Ages for example where we all have images in our heads.

So we wanted to show what this city was like at the time. And in particular, how important it was in world history, the inventions that were made, the translation work that took place there…

Thierry Noël: We also have fans who are very demanding and very informed. Whether through direct, personal knowledge, or because when the existence of a new opus is revealed, it generates interest among them and they begin to read a lot.

There are real requirements, real expectations. I think it’s one of the most pleasant things, at the heart of the very experience ofAssassin’s Creed.

There is also a question of consistency. And to have something that is unique, strong, particular, authenticity is the best solution.

This is a very important question in the context of a video game, to maintain a question of immersion. Any inconsistency, anachronism or anatopism — something out of place — is quickly noticed. Sometimes, we don’t necessarily manage to verbalize it, to see it. But the brain knows it.

Did you allow yourself some liberties?

Jean-Luc Sala: We had to shorten certain things, to offer a slightly more “compact” experience; not to put as many mosques, as many prisons as there were, so as not to have duplicates in the buildings, for example.

In terms of “metrics” – as we say in our gaming profession – of the streets, we had navigation obligations. To be able to ride a horse or camel, fight or even have the camera move fluidly around the player, these roads had to have a certain width, which was not necessarily the case in 9th century Baghdad.

On the contrary, we really wanted to keep certain historical markers, the double enclosure in particular. However, it doesn’t make much sense in the game to pass a wall, then find a moat… and a wall once more. It’s frustrating. Finally, we tried to stick as close as possible.

To put into context certain objects, environments and protagonists who cross paths with the character in the game, you have developed a Codex. Was it because you had too much content that it was disappointing not to include?

Thierry Noël: It’s always like that. For Assassin’s Creed Unity for example, where it was necessary to select only a dozen emblematic buildings of revolutionary Paris. Every period is interesting. But there, we had a lot of knowledge that we wanted to talk regarding. There are so many things to say that indeed, it was a solution, the Codex.

There is always an educational dimension in Assassin’s Creed. This time, the Codex is integrated into Mirage to provide the opportunity to learn more regarding the history of Baghdad and the history of the Muslim world in general. It’s a whole series of small thematic approaches, which say more regarding the “House of Wisdom”, science, religions, the society of the time, and give meaning.

Assassin’s Creed, it is of course this extraordinary adventure action game. But there is also this way of doing things and discovering history differently. THE Codex is a useful extension.

The Codex in “Assassin’s Creed Mirage” (2023). Ubisoft

What was your favorite part of developing this game?

Jean-Luc Sala: Every day, I was happy to work on this project. There were several stages. The first was to get everyone on board, with this documentation work to know where we are going, to draw on all the sources to be able to condense as best as possible.

One of the best moments, too, was walking above the reconstructed Baghdad, even when it was still just cubes, and looking around me. I said to myself: “this is huge”. We paid homage to one of the three largest cities in the world at the time.

Sarah Beaulieu : This comes from my background in cinema and theater, but it was working with actors. When we see them take on the voices of the characters for the first time and bring them to life, it’s always moving.

Especially since the work of authenticity continued to find actors whose origins matched those of their characters and did not have “fake accents”. By doing further research, we found the right people. All the actors were wonderful.

Thierry Noël: Personally, it is the human and cultural diversity that we found in Baghdad. It’s probably the most exciting thing, to work on all the religions, the cultural groups that might be found at that time, their particularities, the way they lived together in the city. I like social issues. And there we have an absolutely fascinating example of society.

On the same topic :
⋙ Baghdad in the 9th century: how was a completely disappeared city reconstructed for the game “Assassin’s Creed Mirage”?
⋙ Syria at the time of the “Hashashins” sect
⋙ General knowledge quiz: have you noticed these anachronisms in these historical films and series?

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