In front of a large screen in the darkness of a video game hall in Baghdad, Muhammad Bashir happily reveals his study of “Assassin’s Creed Mirage,” a new version of the series that takes players to a fantasy world in Baghdad, with a historical dimension. Abbasid era.

According to Agence France-Presse, today Thursday, the game, published by the French company Ubisoft, takes players to Iraq in the ninth century, through the sleepy villages along the Euphrates River to Baghdad (City of Peace), which was an important center of culture and science. All characters speak classical Arabic.

Muhammad, 30, who works as a graphic designer, says: “We were eagerly waiting for some games to appear on Islamic and Arab culture, the culture and history of Iraq and the history of this region based on terrorism. Wars and Destruction,” and: “This area has beauty, spirit and life.”

In a hall with black walls and bright blue neon lights, Mohammed discovers the first steps of Bassam, the hero of the game, a thief turned skilled assassin, along with players playing football.

Hiding behind tall water reeds, the hero suddenly pounces on a guard and throws punches at him. He climbs a brick wall and then dangles from a clothesline above an alley, adventures that best represent an “Assassin’s Creed” game.

One of the spectators, watching the game with Mohammed, shouted, “There’s Iraqi music!” Says happily, Muhammad adds: “The background music is good.”

Another viewer comments: “They’re using the real names of the Abbasid caliphs,” as al-Mutawakil’s name appears on screen.

Previous glories

Baghdad appears in the game “Assassin’s Creed Mirage” with blue domes resembling the domes of mosques in the Iraqi capital today. On the banks of the Tigris River, unlike in reality, the game does not suffer from drought, palm trees stand tall. In crowded markets, coppersmiths and carpet sellers are next to each other.

The game’s producers spoke of their efforts to maintain historical accuracy.

Growing up in war-torn and conflict-torn Iraq, Muhammad says the game makes him feel “sweet and bitter.”

The young man, who runs an account on YouTube and another on Instagram to rate video games, adds: “It’s nice to see the former glories of Baghdad.”

“We’re recreating a lost and lost city, drawing its features based on the historical information we have,” he continues, adding that the game’s designers say.

“There is a bitter feeling. We know what Baghdad faced in previous years,” he continues.

Iraq’s modern history has been the source of some video games. Over the summer, the game “Six Days in Fallujah” was released, in which US Marines play the 2004 Battle of Fallujah, one of the bloodiest battles ever fought. The world in half a century.

But while “Assassin’s Creed Mirage” will reach millions and give Westerners a better and clearer picture of what Baghdad looks like, says Haider Jafar, head of the Electronic Sports Federation in Iraq, this version paints a beautiful picture. The events of the game took place during the Abbasid period when Baghdad was the capital.Culture and Science in the World.

Jafar, who owns a gaming cafe, continues that when they participate in international tournaments, they wonder, “Can video game centers and the Internet be in Iraq?”

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Mustafa Mahmood was impatiently waiting for the game. The youngster has been playing video games for 12 years and never misses any part of the game.

The student, who works as a computer technician at the hotel, continues: “We’ve seen it in previous editions in Britain, France, Greece, Norway and Egypt, so we were really excited to see the events of the Iraq game.”

Players in Saudi Arabia also highly anticipated the release of “Assassin’s Creed Mirage”.

On YouTube, the “Gamer Snack” account run by Khaled Al-Muthari, followed by more than two million people, gave his assessment of the game in mid-September after trying out an early version at Ubisoft’s headquarters in Abu Dhabi.

The player said that from the existing landmarks and the atmosphere of Baghdad, he immersed himself in the Arab atmosphere and the Islamic spirit in general.

He believed that one of the wonderful things about this edition was “the call to prayer in the mosques and the dawn prayer.”

In the English version he expresses his happiness by saying “Peace be with you”… and: “Imagine some of the characters we see in the game world praying during prayer time.”

On the other hand, he criticizes the issue of verbal synchronicity in the play, saying that the consistency of lip movement in the Arabic version was too weak.