Assassin's Creed Mirage Devs Talk Valley of Memory DLC And…

Concrete information has finally surfaced about the upcoming Assassin's Creed Mirage DLC expansion. After its most recent venture into Japan, the series will shift focus back to Assassin's Creed Mirage, introducing a whole new adventure in a unique location.

The Valley of Memory DLC appears to have its fair share to offer with its setting in the Valley of AlUla, an area removed from the urban hotspot of Baghdad. The Best War Games caught up with producer Vincent Maulandi-Rabbione and creative director Olivier Leonardi, both of whom discussed how the new DLC brings the classic gameplay of Assassin's Creed Mirage to a wilderness environment and how the series' dedication to historical accuracy guided the team's approach. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

The Devs Behind Assassin's Creed Mirage Talk Valley of Memory DLC

The Best War Games: You've mentioned that the Valley of Al-Ula was one of the original settings considered for the base game. Why was it skipped over for Baghdad?

Leonardi: When we said we wanted an OG experience in Mirage, you immediately think about an urban environment—something that favors the parkour experience. I think the decision about Baghdad was really about 'How can we go back to the roots? How can we go back to this kind of world that's condensed into a city?'

In-game, there's very little exploration of Baghdad's outskirts, and I think the choice to focus the action in the main city is what directed us back then.

The Best War Games: You touched on how some of the classic Assassin's Creed pillars, like parkour, have always excelled in city environments. How did you apply those original pillars to the more open area of Al-Ula?

Leonardi: Absolutely, that was one of the main challenges; we knew we wanted to preserve that kind of experience. We had to design new ingredients that would fit this new environment, but that would still offer the same kind of experience as what you would find in the more urban areas.

We had to work more on this specific aspect to preserve the very nature-oriented direction of the new location, while still having the same kind of parkour experience.

The Best War Games: Did parkour need the most focus? By comparison, were pillars like stealth and assassination easier to incorporate?

Leonardi: They're definitely easier, because parkour needs rules—very specific rules, whether it's the distance of a jump, or the way you transition from a climb to a vault or a jump. There's definitely a lot of opportunity for stealth action in what we call 'The Wilderness', either in the south of the map, or even the gigantic northern part of the region.

In fact, you have the same opportunities for playing pure stealth as you do full-blast combat! For example, some of our neutral upgrades make the body disappear without a trace, while others produce a lot of noise. There are options that cater to either playstyle.

History And Valley of Memory

The Best War Games: One of the most interesting aspects of Mirage is how certain areas had to be imagined in-game due to the lack of records on Baghdad, such as the House of Wisdom. Was Al-Ula easier to recreate? Is the history there easier to see, or were there many areas where you had to take educated guesses?

Leonardi: No because it's happening now. The digging, the excavation, and the unveiling of this different civilization that occupied that land is actually happening now. The rediscovery of Al-Ula is actually very recent; we can say the last 15 years.

We had the chance to work with experts on site via the French agency for Al-Ula, which is supervising the digging in most of the areas around Old Town in the oasis. They have archeologists dedicated to just the old town or just the oasis, or just the Lion's Tomb site, or Dedan city—not to mention all the Nabataean tombs that make up the northern of the map.

From the very start, we could speak directly to the heads of archaeology who specialized in a certain era or location. In terms of reproducing the world, that was much easier for us because they were feeding us pictures—actual pictures of objects they were digging, and actual pictures and blueprints of everything that they were actually discovering.

There was more of a direct kind of relationship with them, so if we ever got our representation wrong, they were very quick to correct us. An urban setting like the Old Town could look a little bit like Anbar, or some other neighborhoods of Baghdad, but there are some very specific elements, like the venting system on the rooftops. We had immediate and direct feedback from them to actually create something that is as accurate as possible.

The Best War Games: That's fascinating. Does the fact that such a rediscovery is ongoing change the process?

Maulandi-Rabbione: It does! There are some locations that are the same now as they were in the ninth century, but there are some where there are only barely footprints. We really had to discuss with the archeologists, and they'd say, "We're not sure, we are still digging, so we might come back to you on that in a few months or not." It was really fascinating as well to work with them on the names of locations, on how locations were named at the time.

One example we had is that one of the locations was named Qasr al-Farid, and that was set for months. They were saying, "Yeah, it's Qasr al-Farid." But just recently, like weeks ago, they said, "We found some new Nabataean translation, and it was not named like that at the time. The name is going to be changed in all official papers in the coming weeks and months. You can put the official name in your game, and you will be the first to use the correct name."

Assassin's Creed Mirage's History and Story in Valley of Memory

The Best War Games: Changing gears to the new Stolen Goods activity, how does that thematically tie into what Valley of Memory is all about?

Leonardi: We didn't reveal much about the main quest, but we revealed something about the robbers. The robbers, the new faction, we know are attracted here by wealth and by anything that the caravan is carrying, so the stolen goods are actually a direct link to the nature of this new faction.

The first civilian character you are exposed to is called Hind, and she's going to introduce the new faction as one of its victims. She introduces you to this new Stolen Goods activity, as she's actually the person to whom you need to get the stolen goods back, because she's going to redistribute them to the population. It's not just 'I take the stolen goods, I put them in my pocket', they're something you're going to give back as a good act to the local population.

That's closely related to the nature of the new faction: they're robbing, they're stealing, and they're even storming the houses of the recently deceased and stealing what they have. It's not just affecting the travelers, but the local population, so Basim, being Basim, is going to have to do something about it. So it's helping the local population get rid of the new faction, and, as we've hinted many times, this new faction will have something to do with the disappearance of his dad.

The Best War Games: Some of the DLC's bigger themes are about reconciliation, closure, and destiny. With us knowing what happens at the end of Assassin's Creed Mirage and Valhalla, what role do those things play in who Basim is?

Leonardi: It's really the whole theme of the coming of age, putting your past behind you. This is a real kind of wound for Basim: he's been abandoned since he was seven and raised as a street thief, and he was absolutely traumatized by the slaughtering of the children by the Caliph. He has to get answers about why he was abandoned, why the Caliphate was pushing his dad away. What happened in those 10 years since he was separated from his dad? With the answers he's going to get from pursuing this new quest, he's going to close another chapter of his past life. Then, you're ready to start the last act—the moment where you become someone else as well. We really wanted to place that at this moment, because it's another kind of door we can close so you can proceed with you to the next chapter."

Assassins Creed Valhalla Basim Up Cloe 6

The Best War Games: When it comes to learning about this history, were there any little things that stood out to you?

Leonardi: We've heard so many stories about this place! Every call we have with the experts, they're telling us new stories—like recently, they've discovered some Chinese cups and dishes; no one knew that the Chinese actually visited this place in the middle of the desert. Every time we talk to them, we discover new things.

We also discovered that there's a certain time of year when the sun is placed a certain way, so it casts a specific shadow on a specific building in the Old Town. From that there came a whole celebration about nature, and about the Nabataean mastery of how you gather rainwater—because the water that's in Al-Ula is only brought by flash floods, so you have to make the most out of 10 minutes of a strong rainstorm. You have to collect, gather, and redistribute inside the oasis.

Well, something that's not known by everyone is that there's a giant network of tunnels that carries the water to different points in the oasis, completely underground (they're called qanats, and they're specific to this area). Al-Ula only exists because the Nabataeans became masters of collecting rainwater, which is crazy.

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