Assassins’ Creed Mirage is out now, bringing the series back to basics with a game focused on one of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s most intriguing characters. This adventure follows Basim as he goes from Anbar street thief to expert Assassin in Baghdad while hunting down members of The Order of the Ancients. As a prequel, there are some things about Basim as a character you might already know going in. Still, learning exactly how Basim stumbled upon these revelations is entertaining itself.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage is shorter than other games in the series (at around 12 to 17 hours to complete), but most of the noteworthy reveals are saved for the story’s ending. If you want to know how Basim discovers who he truly is or just need to read a recap of the narrative’s major events, this is an overview of everything that happens in Assassin’s Creed Mirage and how it concludes in spectacular fashion.
How does Assassin’s Creed Mirage begin
Assassin’s Creed Mirage begins with a brief narration from modern-day Assassin Brotherhood Mentor William Miles. In the game’s only Animus-referencing narrative segment, he admits that he was worried people would learn the wrong lesson from Basim’s story. He now recognizes that his story “has much to teach us” and is now sharing it. He then sets the stage for its ninth-century Baghdad setting, the threat that is The Order of the Ancients, and Basim’s humble origins and eventual challenging of the Creed’s ideals.
This intro then transitions into a dream sequence for Basim, where a creepy jinni attacks him. Upon awakening, he’s comforted by his friend Nehal, and they set out to complete a contract for their friend Dervis in Anbar, a smaller city close to Baghdad. After pocketing some people and stealing a shipping ledger, Basim and Nehal learn that Dervis is working with a member of Hidden Ones named Roshan.
Roshan initially rejects Basim when he asks to come with her on a mission to retrieve a chest from the Caliph’s Winter Palace, but he and Nehal end up sneaking off and trying to get it anyway. Upon successfully infiltrating, they learn that the Caliph is working with The Order of the Ancients. They get to the chest and find a mysterious device inside it that gives him a vision of one man torturing another. The Caliph catches Basim doing this, and Nehal stabs and kills the Caliph.
While Basim and Nehal escape and he discards that device, Roshan recovers it and explains that Basim is now a wanted man and in danger. After discovering that many of the children he helped protect in Anbar were murdered due to his actions, he goes with Roshan and starts training to become an Assassin for the Hidden Ones. While he struggles to balance his mind and body, he eventually passes the necessary tests at Alamut to become a Hidden One and gets an eagle companion named Enkidu.
Taking on The Order of the Ancients
Fellow Hidden One Nur eventually returns to Alamut from Baghdad injured, causing Roshan and Basim to return to Baghdad to take on The Order of the Ancients. From here, a large chunk of the game is spent taking down The Order of the Ancient members. Along the way, Basim assists a growing Zanj Rebellion led by a man named Ali and reconciles with Nehal, who tempts Basim to learn more about The Order of the Ancients and the device they found despite Roshan’s refusal to let Basim know more about those things.
Basim assassinates The Order of Ancients members Al-Ghul, Al-Rabisu, Al-Pairka, and Al-Mardikhwar, honing his skills, and getting more ingrained and friendly with the people of Baghdad as he does so. That said, Basim gets another horrible jinni vision every time he kills one of those people. Despite frustrations at Roshan’s overprotective leadership, Basim still does his best to stay loyal and carry out his assassinations for the Hidden Ones.
Eventually, Basim discovers that the Head of the Harem Qabiha is The Order of the Ancient’s influential leader, Al-Bahamut. Roshan initially says that she’ll be the one to kill Al-Bahamut, afraid Basim will be tempted by the information she possesses. Basim convinces Roshan to let him do the assassination, and he heads to the palace to confront her. First, he finds her son Abu in its Bathhouse. He recognizes that Basim was there when his father died and asks if Basim doesn’t plan to stop until everyone is dead.
Basim lets him live and confronts Qabiha in a secret passage underneath the palace. Qabiha taunts Basim, saying that he doesn’t know his true nature. Instead of killing her, Basim does what Nehal suggests and asks Qabiha who he is. She says the secret is buried under Alamut, but Roshan kills her before Qabiha reveals more or takes him there. Roshan urges Basim to purge himself of his internal strife and be content just being an Assassin, but Basim refuses. Angry, Roshan tells Basim she’ll kill him if he returns to Alamut and leaves.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage’s ending
At the hideout where they stayed as street thieves, Nehal convinces Basim to go to Alamut to find answers. They go on a long and perilous journey across the desert to get there, leaving Baghdad behind. When they get there, Basim is ambushed by members of The Order of the Ancients who gained political permission to attack the base. Upon reawakening after being saved by a recovered Nur, he fights through the enemy forces left here, making his way to the temple in search of Nehal and answers.
Once he’s at the temple, another Assassin named Rayhan explains that Basim is the key to the temple beneath Alamut. Basim decides to unlock it and get what’s there before The Order of the Ancients can, but Roshan tries to stop him. They fight, and Basim wins, stabbing but not killing Roshan. After defeating her, Basim goes further into the temple, reuniting with Nehal, who oddly seems to have an understanding of the place.
This is a temple of the Isu, the civilization that inhabited the game’s world before humanity. Within it, Basim finds what looks like a mix between a stasis pod and a sarcophagus. After opening it, though, he sees Nehal. This leads to a significant revelation that recontextualizes a lot of scenes: Nehal technically doesn’t exist and never has. It was Basim who killed the Caliph at the start and chose to defy The Hidden Ones. Nehal and the jinni in his dreams are just aspects of his personality connected to Loki, the Isu Aesir he saw tortured when he first stumbled upon the device in the winter palace.
Basim quells the jinni and, despite being sad he’ll never see her again, merges with Nehal to regain the memories and knowledge of Loki. Despite his defiance, Basim re-emerges from the temple and is let back into the Hidden Ones. This comes at a cost: Roshan abandons the Hidden Ones, and Enkidu rejects Basim, clawing at him and leaving a scar on his face. Basim ends the game eager to reunite with the Isu who tortured him. This neatly leads this game’s ending into the story of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, where Basim confronts Eivor, the reincarnation of Odin.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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