Earlier this week Ubisoft revealed an additional, combat-free game mode that will be appended to the upcoming Assassin’s Creed: Origins. Based on the concept of the old Assassin’s Creed Animus Database, the “Discovery Tour” mode will turn Origins’ recreation of Ancient Egypt into an educational, free-to-roam environment; players will be able to walk or ride throughout the game world with no story, combat, or time restrictions and be guided through interactive tours of Egypt.
“This is something we’ve wanted to do for a long time, that we’ve been asked to do by teachers, by institutions,” said Jean Guesdon, creative director for Assassin’s Creed: Origins, in Ubisoft’s announcement blog post. “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 [about Ancient Egyptian culture]…I hope that teachers will seize this opportunity to present that to their students, so they can learn with this interactive medium.” Guesdon added, “We spent years recreating Ancient Egypt, documenting ourselves, validating the content with historians, with consultants, and we feel that many more people than just the players can benefit from that.”
Discovery Tour will be entirely separate from the main game, with each aforementioned interactive tour having the authenticity of being “curated by historians and Egyptologists,” according to Ubisoft’s post, which added, “each focuses on a different subject, including the Great Pyramids, the life of Cleopatra, mummification, and more.” The Discovery Tour’s Egyptian guides will include such in-game areas as Memphis, Alexandria, the Nile delta, the Giza plateau, the Faiyum oasis, and the Great Sand Seas.
Discovery Tour mode will come to the game in a free update in early 2018. Assassin’s Creed: Origins will be available on October 27th for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.