AC Origins Getting a Discovery Tour Mode in Early 2018
Assassin’s Creed Origins, the upcoming AC game set in ancient Egypt, will be getting an educational mode. The Discovery Tour, as Ubisoft is calling it, will be released as a free update in early 2018. There’s no mention of specific platforms, so we’re hoping all three will get it. It’s going to allow players to explore the game’s world at their own pace, without interference from pesky guards, wild animals, requests, missions or story.
It makes sense when you think about it. They’re already making a vast and supposedly detailed world – why not give players a chance to appreciate it? The game will get in the way of that, with markers constantly popping up, guards attacking you on sight and a story of an ancient order of superheroes being shoved down your throat. The discovery tour will leave all of that out, and simply let you wander the recreation of ancient Egypt.
The mode will be separate from the main game, and it’ll feature interactive tours made with the help of various historians and Egyptologists, allowing you to learn more about mummification, the Pyramids, Cleopatra, what life was like in Memphis or Alexandria, and more. Here’s what creative director Jean Guesdon had to say about it:
This is something we’ve wanted to do for a long time, that we’ve been asked to do by teachers, by institutions. Discovery Tour is another way to enjoy the beauty of the world we’ve recreated. It’s a more educative mode, so it’s clearly focused on education and on bringing to people actual facts, more academic knowledge. When you start to tour, you will have a path that will lead you from station to station, in order to learn more. For example, the mummification process, from the cleaning of the body to the removal of the organs, up to the ritual of the opening of the mouth. I hope that teachers will seize this opportunity to present that to their students, so they can learn with this interactive medium.
It sounds nice. Ubisoft seems to be pushing the classroom angle a bit too hard – I’d honestly just appreciate a way to turn the game into a walking sim. Especially if it’s as detailed and sprawling as they claim.
