2023-09-03 12:46:01
When Ubisoft revealed Assassin’s Creed Mirage last September, it also announced that Basim Ibn Is’haq, the master assassin who brought Eivor to the Order of the Hidden in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla in 2020, was back. This time, however, he would be the playable protagonist. His journey in Mirage takes him from street thief to initiate of the order of Hidden One and finally to the master assassin we see in Valhalla.
Basim is getting his own game, the first time in franchise history that a character who has already appeared in another Assassin’s Creed is getting his own main game as the protagonist. After playing Mirage for regarding two hours for Gambling informants last cover, I came away excited to learn more regarding Basim’s journey and see his progression, both narrative and mechanical, in October’s full release. But I was also curious how developer Ubisoft Bordeaux decided to bring Basim back. As it turns out, his story (or lack thereof when we meet Basim in Valhalla) and his connection to the series’ first protagonist, Altair Ibn-La’Ahad, whose events in Assassin’s Creed take place in 1191, around 300 years following Mirage, are one. key factors.
“Basim was a very intriguing character, creative director Stéphane Boudon tells me at the Ubisoft Bordeaux office. “He was mysterious. And it was actually really perfect to tell (the story of his youth) because it creates a parallel with Altaïr. It’s not really the same story, but when you play (Assassin’s Creed), you live the life of an Assassin who will have to rank up to prove himself worthy of the Creed, and for Basim, that’s exactly the same.
Boudon explains that with Mirage serving as a spiritual homage to the first Assassin’s Creed and Basim for Altair, this parallel in the two Assassins’ journeys was important to the team. He says that with Basim coming from Baghdad, the team was more and more excited regarding his trip because of this city, which was the cultural and technological epicenter of the region during its golden age period. from the 9th century.
World and Quests Director Simone Arseneault says he was particularly excited regarding the type of Assassin fantasy that Basim allowed the team to enjoy. He notes that Kassandra covered the Greek demigod fantasy, EIvor the Viking fantasy, and the Bayek the Magus and ancient Egyptian fantasy. With Basim, it’s a return to the classic Assassin’s Creed fantasy: a guy who learns very well to kill, stealthily.
“(In open-world RPGs), it was less regarding Credo,” Arseneault tells me. “It was still there, but it was much less the case. When you play Assassin of the Hidden Ones – which is what we do with Basim – you want every player who plays him to be closer to home, because we know how he’s going to end up. We play the story of Basim, and he ends up in Valhalla as a master assassin; we mightn’t let you become a rogue gunslinger mercenary, for example – that wouldn’t work for him (because) there would be a gap in his narrative.
Instead, Arseneault says the team focused on player control and freedom in how Basim plays rather than how he progresses narratively. You can choose how to approach quests and contracts, what outfits he wears and what benefits he gets from them, what tools and implements you use, and much more. “Instead of giving you freedom in the way it evolves, we give you more freedom in the way you play,” he adds.
Arseneault says familiarity hasn’t affected quest design much with Basim, a character players are already familiar with. “The only thing it changes is that you try to avoid having a goal that’s the opposite of what Basim would do; basically that’s what you’re trying to suppress, but the freedom is still there, in your microactions.
“(Basim) will never say, ‘I’m going to assassinate everyone,’ because it’s not Basim,” he says, alluding to players having the ability to do just that in Assassin’s open-world RPG games. Creed. “That’s the difference. We try to bring more choice in the actions rather than in the result. The result will be that he will take down his target, stealthily or not, with great or bad success. But he will have killed his target and it will be good for the Hidden ones and for his progress (…) to become a master assassin.
Art director Jean-Luc Sala says it was tricky but exciting to design Basim in a new light for Mirage.
“We know what’s going on in Valhalla with Basim, so it’s a very different Basim,” he says. “There’s a turning point in his life, bringing the Valhalla Basim, but before that we want to make him a fully-fledged assassin – the lovable character you can relate to, (who) you can truly relate to and fear the when he will no longer be that Basim.
My working time didn’t include anything in Mirage’s narrative, so I can’t speak much to her as a character, although I enjoyed her twists in Valhalla. With a new voice actor – this time, Lee Madjoub – and a new period of story and city to experience as Basim, I’m excited for the full release in October. I’m mechanically sold on Basim as an Assassin, and I can’t wait to see if Ubisoft Bordeaux will add Basim to my list of favorite series protagonists.
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