Assassin’s Creed Shadows is the hotter, newer Assassin’s Creed game that just received an expansion, but, strangely, it is not the only Assassin’s Creed game to get a substantial piece of DLC in 2025. As was previously announced, 2023’s Assassin’s Creed Mirage is also receiving some free story-based DLC called Valley of Memory, and Ubisoft just released a wealth of details about it ranging from its release date, what it’ll contain, about how long it will take to complete, and what will be included in the free update it coincides with.
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Assassin’s Creed Mirage‘s free Valley of Memory DLC is coming out on all platforms on November 18th and will explore AlUla during the ninth century. AlUla is in modern-day Saudi Arabia and about 1,500 kilometers (roughly 960 miles) southwest of Baghdad, which is where most of Mirage‘s campaign takes place. Like some other Assassin’s Creed expansions, AlUla will be its own separate map. This map will house plenty of rocky terrain and a few urban environments, some of which pay homage to real historical sites (which players can read about in the game). Other areas required some creative liberties since most relevant documentation has been lost to time. However, scholars in Ubisoft’s reveal stream stated AlUla was a busy intersection of cultures and commerce since it connected various parts of the region.
Valley of Memory will take place just before the final events of Mirage, which might be obvious for those who have rolled credits on the game. Protagonist Basim is drawn to AlUla based on a lead that reveals his father, Is’haq, may still be alive there. Mirage creative director Stéphane Boudon said this rewind in time will show players why Basim “chose the path that ultimately defines him,” likely referencing Mirage‘s finale and Valhalla‘s many Basim-specific revelations. Valley of Memory creative director Olivier Leonardi also noted the team wanted to explore this thread concerning Basim’s father more in the base game.
Ubisoft claimed Valley of Memory will take around six hours to complete and will have a few different side activities for players to engage in, like new contracts, parkour challenges, folk tales that give more insight into the local culture, a quest type relating to the new sneaky thief faction, and the ability to play the oud, a guitar-like musical instrument from the Middle East. Black box missions are returning, too, which give players a wealth of ways to achieve their goal.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage‘s Free Update Is Adding Many New Features
Valley of Memory is coming alongside an update that will also affect the base campaign. Players can now replay missions and contracts and receive rewards based on new challenges that range from only killing the target to not using Eagle Vision. Animus Mods were not shown, but were described as ways players can “bend the game’s rules.”
There will also be more visual filters that aim to recreate the look of Assassin’s Creed Origins and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, both of which sit alongside the classic greenish filter that launched with Mirage that is meant to emulate the first game’s pallette. Two new difficulties — a nebulous mode called Medium+ as well a very hard Master Assassin setting — and a custom difficulty with various adjustable parameters will also be in this update. Players will even have more options during gameplay after this patch since each tool has been given one more upgrade level and all level one nodes can, thanks to a new skill, now be equipped at the same time.
Ubisoft is also adding many quality-of-life features surrounding the parkour. Players can now manually jump, which can be toggled on or off in the settings. Back and side ejects will also have another similar option aimed at more hardcore players, as now it can be toggled and won’t be dependent on there being a handhold to jump to. It essentially means skilled players can leap in more directions without safety restrictions. This more open mindset has resulted in a new modernized control scheme that is mostly centered around putting freerunning on R2/RT (instead of X/A) so the player’s thumb can more easily control the camera.
While a free and seemingly hefty update for a two-year-old game is likely to going to go over well with many players, some have raised concerns about this expansion as a whole. Ubisoft reportedly received funding from Savvy Games Group, a company founded by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, to develop Valley of Memory. The PIF bought SNK, is part of the recently announced leveraged buyout of Electronic Arts, and has stakes in various gaming companies like Nintendo, Take-Two Interactive, Activision Blizzard, and Embracer Group.
Ubisoft, while noting it had full creative control, declined to comment on its alleged partnership. Some of the game publisher’s employees, though, have raised questions about this reported deal, citing humans rights abuses by the hands of the authoritarian Saudi state. One relatively recent example is the alleged state-backed murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, but this sits alongside other abuses like sentencing dissidents to death for online posts, executing activists and journalists, forced labor, and killing migrants at the Yemeni border. Funding and getting more involved with widely beloved hobbies like video games, professional wrestling, and comedy is seen as the regime’s way of whitewashing its record to the wider public.
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