Game Theory: Assassin's Creed Eagle Vision Is REAL!

Assassin's Creed Mirage is the newest game in the franchise, releasing on October 12th, and promises a return to the simplicity and stealth-focused gameplay of earlier titles.

• Back to basics approach emphasizing stealth and hiding in plain sight • Focus on taking out targets and vanishing before detection • Iconic gameplay that defined the AC franchise for 15 years

The city of Baghdad feels alive and smart with NPCs reacting to every small action, creating a more real and reactive environment.

A key gameplay mechanic allowing assassins to find targets, locate hiding spots, detect items, and gather investigation clues in this smarter, more demanding game.

In earlier games like Origins and Odyssey, main characters use actual physical eagles to scope out surroundings and locate targets through falconry, an ancient practice dating back to 4000 BC in Mesopotamia.

• Eagles have eyes the same size as humans despite smaller bodies • Their eyes are flat rather than rounded, providing incredible resolution • Eagles achieve up to 24 vision, spotting prey 2 miles away • Eye muscles constantly adjust during flight to maintain target focus

The franchise's signature Eagle Vision is a sensory ability, not literal sight. It turns the world grayscale while highlighting targets in gold, enemies in red, allies in blue, and hiding spots in white.

Confirmed in the Assassin's Creed Gold audiobook, Eagle Vision functions as a sixth sense—even a blind assassin can use it, making it more akin to intuitive knowledge than traditional vision.

Eagle Vision is genetic, inherited from the ISU race who mated with Neanderthals to create the first humans, Adam and Eve. All humans now carry ISU DNA with the ability to access this sixth sense.

• Some assassins are naturally gifted from birth, like Altair, Ezio, and Edward • Others learn Eagle Vision later in life, like Evie and Jacob in their 20s • Ezio enhanced his ability to Eagle Sense, detecting heartbeats and predicting target movements • Different assassins show varying proficiency levels and specific ability variations

While genetic, Eagle Vision can be honed and developed through practice, allowing those with lower natural sensitivity to improve their skills over time.

The games suggest that people with higher concentrations of ISU DNA are more attuned to Eagle Vision, explaining why certain individuals are more naturally gifted than others.

• Active echolocation involves emitting sounds like bats do • Passive echolocation means listening to environmental sounds • Both methods use sound reflection timing and volume to determine object locations • The brain interprets sound data to create visual representations

Humans can learn echolocation in just 10 weeks. A 2020-2021 study taught 12 legally blind and 14 sighted people to navigate mazes using echolocation with equal proficiency.

Brain scans show echolocation users process sound through visual cortex regions, literally creating visuals in the brain rather than using auditory processing areas.

• Assassins in games never make noises needed for active echolocation • Humans lack specialized features like larger ears needed for passive echolocation • This explanation doesn't account for the silent, sensory nature of Eagle Vision in the games

The seventh sense measures acceleration, G-force, body movements, and head position. It helps you know you're moving in an elevator despite your eyes seeing stillness and enables balance beam walking.

• Ability to know body part positions without seeing them • Tells muscles how much strength to apply to actions • Enables climbing walls, pushing objects, and precise movements • Everyone has it naturally, but some develop it better than others

Assassins constantly use vestibular and proprioceptive senses during parkour movements through ancient cities, making these real sensory systems crucial to AC gameplay.

Every human has an intuitive sense buried deep inside. Most never find it, others take years to develop it, but for a rare few it comes naturally—similar to Eagle Vision sensitivity levels.

Synesthesia is where the brain mixes senses, allowing people to hear colors, see sounds, and overlap multiple senses simultaneously. Edward Kenway describes Eagle Vision as using every sense at once.

• Smell translates to visual light guiding to safe haystacks • Colors associate with specific sounds, smells, and textures • Neurons activate in unexpected brain regions for different senses • Creates visual representations of non-visual information

While not proven genetic, synesthesia is more prevalent in first-degree relatives, matching the familial pattern of Eagle Vision in AC games where it functions as a family gift.

Synesthesia functions differently in different people at varying effect levels, mirroring how each AC character shows different Eagle Vision strengths, variations, and capabilities.

All humans are born with synesthesia because neural pathways and sensory outputs are interlinked. By 8 months old, most brains lose these interconnections, resulting in the seven separate senses.

Adults with synesthesia never lost those extra neural pathways. If the human brain can rebuild lost pathways, everyone could potentially use synesthesia in adulthood.

• Small studies show extremely rigorous training can rebuild synesthetic pathways • Non-synesthetic people showed brain activity similar to synesthetes after training • Results were surprisingly positive despite demanding training protocols • Research is ongoing but shows promising potential

Synesthesia greatly improves memory for musical, literary, and colorful stimuli, which aligns with how important memory is for accessing ancestors' experiences in Assassin's Creed.

Eagle Vision combines the sixth and seventh senses through synesthesia—tasting color, seeing sound, and listening to smell through interconnected neural pathways.

• Synesthesia is a real, documented neurological condition • Humans can learn echolocation and rebuild neural pathways • Proprioception and vestibular senses provide additional sensory awareness • The combination creates the sensory ability shown in games

Assassin's Creed Mirage returns to franchise roots with classic Eagle Vision as protagonist Basim hones his unique abilities in a back-to-basics experience.

Understanding the science behind Eagle Vision—based on real synesthesia, proprioception, and sensory interconnection—can change how viewers perceive both the game and the real world.