New leaks say next Assassin's Creed game will be called Mirage, set to be revealed in September

The next game will see the return of Basim Ibn Ishaq in a Baghdad setting.

New leaks have emerged about the next Assassin's Creed game, which up until this point, has been known under the code-name Rift. These leaks come from YouTuber j0nathan (https://www.youtube.com/c/j0nathan), who claims in a recent video that the proper title of the new game in the franchise will be Assassin's Creed Mirage. The new instalment will be set in Baghdad between 860 and 870 CE, and will be a return to the gameplay style of the older AC games, claiming that stealth will be a heavy focus, much like the original first game.

This new game staring protagonist Basim from Assassin's Creed Valhalla, was originally seen as a expansion for Valhalla, but Ubisoft decided it best to develop it into a full standalone entry. The Bloomberg report that leaked information on Rift has said that it will feature Basim, and will be smaller than the most recent games (Origins, Odyssey, Valhalla) and will have a emphasised feature on stealth gameplay.

These different reports that are circulating match up together, and journalist Jason Schreier states on Twitter that the game will "return to basics".

The new leaks from j0nathan outline things like:

• Multiple cities to explore, separated by desert and rivers like the Kingdom of AC1

• Several RPG elements removed - no more dialogue choices, no gender choice, and no more level system

• The Eagle Vision is back but so is the "drone bird"

• Basim will be able to use the String Dagger to eliminate his opponents

• There will be "Visions of Loki" for how Loki manifested into Basim's body and consumed him

• Ubisoft is secretly preparing the remake of AC1 based on Rift/Mirage's work. They will reuse a large part of the assets

• AC1 Remake should be integrated into a Season Pass which will also include DLC in Constantinople

• Released in Spring 2023

https://twitter.com/Mr_Rebs_/status/1564581556731219974?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1564594729668444162%7Ctwgr%5E09ef6ebb18dfa5c946cd6ce58023c6af8613d467%7Ctwcon%5Es3_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fmetro.co.uk%2F2022%2F08%2F30%2Fassassins-creed-mirage-is-out-next-spring-and-has-no-rpg-level-system-17268502%2F

Some of these claims however, do go against what Schreier has claimed himself, including the rumour that Ubisoft will be remaking AC1, and that there will be multiple cities to explore.

If the rumour is true that Ubisoft are reusing assets from the first game, then we could see all if not some of the three cities we were able to explore in the first game (Jerusalem, Acre, and Damascus).

The most focused part of these rumours are though, that the gameplay will be returning to the classic style that the first AC games had. Social stealth, blending in, tailing--these could all make a return and replace the current RPG gameplay systems that haven't really reached their full potential in recent entries.

The claims that j0nathan is making do sound rather intriguing for an AC fan, as stealth gameplay has been poorly used as of late, especially in the most recent entry--Valhalla.

Assassin's Creed Rift/Mirage has not been officially announced, or confirmed by Ubisoft; rather the most recent announcement by the studio is their live service game Assassin's Creed Infinity. This is planned to have multiple settings and timelines, with regular content updates.

We should be able to make sense of what Ubisoft has in store for us during the upcoming Ubisoft Forward 2022 event, which will take place on September 10.