Ask a fan if they want to see more of Assassin's Creed Mirage hero Basim, and you'll likely get a resounding yes in response. One of the most intriguing characters in the franchise's recent history, Basim already ranks among the few of its hooded heroes to appear in multiple games — in 2020's Valhalla as a central figure, and then in 2023's Mirage which featured a younger version of the character as its star.
The fate of Basim post-Valhalla remains a signficant hanging plot thread, while fans have also yearned to see more of the character between the events of the two games (such as his meeting with Valhalla character Sigurd in Constantinople, centuries before Ezio visited the city). But Ubisoft seems uninterested in entertaining either scenario while cooking up new Basim content, instead working on a new story chapter without any extra lore for the Hidden Ones, and anything that might impact the series' modern day.
Five years on from his first introduction, Basim's story will continue in Valley of Memory, a side-story set within the events of Mirage itself. Launching for free on November 18, the expansion will see Basim visit AlUla, now a UNESCO World Heritage site in modern day Saudi Arabia.
Why an excursion to what is now Saudi Arabia? And why for free? It's hard to imagine any Assassin's Creed fan reading this not drawing their own conclusions, following multiple reports which have discussed the expansion's funding by Saudia Arabia's controversial Public Investment Fund, which has invested in a growing array of video game companies, and last week formed part of the $55 billion deal that will see EA go private.
Publicly, Ubisoft has shied away from discussing the expansion's funding, though previously told IGN that it had retained complete creative control over Valley of Memory's content. Internally, however, Ubisoft has reportedly responded to concerns from developers by drawing a distinction between Saudia Arabia's ruler Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the PIF itself, whose chair is also Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
To hear Ubisoft tell it, AlUla was simply a location Mirage's team wanted to explore. "AlUla has always impressed us and was considered for the main game instead of Baghdad," producer Vincent Maulandi-Rabbione said during a recent presentation to press, attended by IGN. "We had access to experts, resources, archeologists, while maintaining a complete creative freedom on how we would create the content."
Certainly, AlUla seems to fit visually with the Assassin's Creed series' sense of exploration and parkour. The site features thousands of years worth of history for players to learn about, and geographically it's only as distant from Baghdad as Mirage's existing sequences set within the Assassin fortress of Alamut. But while the concept of AlUla may have existed on a whiteboard within Bordeaux during Mirage's original development years ago, art director Florian Salomez told IGN that no actual work on the region began until Valley of Memory's development began last year.
Assassin's Creed Mirage: Valley of Memories Screenshots and Concept Art
Discussing the content's main concept, Salomez said the expansion's narrative added "a new piece to Basim's coming of age story, and why he chooses the path that ultimately define him." (Oddly, it will also be Bordeaux's second Assassin's Creed add-on about a protagonist searching for a long-lost parent in as many months, following its work leading Assassin's Creed Shadows expansion Claws of Awaji.)
"Before his final mission in Baghdad, and before the series of events that lead to the end of the game, Basim hears about his long-lost father Is'haq," creative director Olivier Leonardi said. "[He] is mentioned in the game many times, and he's even mentioned in Valhalla. We know he abandoned Basim as a child aged 7. Now, Basim hears Is'haq may still be alive in the wondrous valley of AlUla. It's so important to him, that he goes on this long journey to get answers."
Valley of Shadow sounds subtantial, which makes its addition for free all the more surprising. Ubisoft estimates it contains around six hours of new gameplay spread across a new in-game region with five districts. Familiar Mirage mission types are back, alongside new missions where you chase down stolen goods and gain opportunities to learn about AlUla itself.
Alongside all of that, the Valley of Memory update will add several improvements to the main Mirage experience, not least an impressive-looking challenge mode that lets you replay missions from both the new expansion and the main Mirage campaign with additional objectives, which feels a lot like the franchise's classic 'Full Sychronization' rewards. There's a reward track to unlock additional in-game items by testing your prowess here, and you'll be aided by additional game-wide tool upgrades that allow, for example, smoke bombs to now dissolve bodies, or blow darts to pierce armor.
As a free gift to fans, Valley of Memory feels generous — even if its setting and choice of storyline are not something fans asked for.
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