'Assassin's Creed Discovery Tour' Lets You Explore Ancient Egypt Without Assassinating People

The latest DLC for Assassin's Creed: Origins is unlike any that the franchise has offered in the over 10 years since the series first came into existence. Called Discovery Tour, the DLC allows you to explore the game's setting of Greco-Roman Egypt without having to accomplish missions or assassinate anyone.

Instead, you can explore the world at your own pace, and if you want to learn more about a particular area, there are 75 guided tours to help you learn more about places like the Pyramids or the Great Library of Alexandria. You can also play the game from a variety of perspectives, by playing as one of 25 different characters from Julius Caesar to a little kid.

The impetus for this new feature of the game comes from the fans themselves. Because the different games in the franchise take place in different historical periods, they've introduced fans to a broad scope of history, and the fandom itself is replete with jokes, memes and serious discussion about the history found in the games. In addition, teachers have actually used the games in classrooms to talk about history - though obviously, the parts that involve killing people can be problematic in that setting.

"So, you know, for years, with all the previous games, we really noticed that we were really making history everyone's playground," said Jean Guesdon, Creative Director of Assassin's Creed: Origins. "We were making players curious about history."


When Assassin's Creed Origins was being developed, the design team was already utilizing a lot of research - not just the history of the big players in the region, but also everyday life, from the architecture to the landscape to even what kinds of roof tiles were used in different parts of Alexandria. That level of detail, says Dr. Evelyne Ferron, a historian, and consultant to the game, helps people understand everyday life in ancient Egypt.

"So that's what is good about the game. When you walk through it, you really realize, actually, that the desert is not just yellow sand," she said. "There are so many colors and stuff. It can also make them realize what was everyday life for an Egyptian, wealthy ones, poorest ones - living in the Nile Valley, living closer to the desert edge. And the Greek lifestyle in Alexandria, which was really different, too."

Ubisoft also hopes that this new game mode helps a broader audience - including teachers in classrooms - learn more about ancient Egypt. A course in Egyptology at UCLA has already employed it in its curriculum, and the mode itself lends itself to education.

"Once you take out the violence, and I think that's great for families, actually... they don't have to play with the violence, and everything - [they] just sit all together and learn about mummification, about how pottery was made, how temples were built, and what it looked like," said Ferron. "And everybody can learn the same kind of information. So I think for families, it's a great educational tool, actually."

A number of historians, including Ferron, helped to write the guided tours in the game. Parts of the tours also highlight where there is controversy among historians and there aren't settled answers yet. And for budding game developers, there are also parts of the tour that highlighted where the game deviated from history in order to make for a better gameplay experience.


Building a gameplay experience that just involves learning about history presents its own challenges, according to Maxim Durand, Ubisoft's resident historian for the Assassin's Creed franchise.

"It's a technical challenge for us, also, as game developers, because developing a game like Assassin's Creed and then developing the Discovery Tour are very different," he said. "With the Discovery Tour, he continued you want to engage through learning, and the pace is very slow. That's why we figured out technical solutions to make this slower pace comfortable. You take the player and the visitor and tell them, 'Just take your time, and listen, and learn about history, and about the way that we also adapted history to this game with the behind the scenes station.' So it's really a different experience that is more about the immersion of the past."

The Discovery Tour is now available either as a free download for people who already own Assassin's Creed: Origins or for $19.99 as a standalone game.


I'm an Associate Editor covering science and cutting edge tech.