Ubisoft has just released the latest entry in its Discovery Tour series, this time taking players to the Viking Age. The games are based on Ubisoft’s own Assassin’s Creed series, and since 2017's Origins they have allowed players to explore the historical areas of the main games for more educational purposes.
Discovery Tours of Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece allowed players to learn more about the period’s people, landmarks, and mythos with research Ubisoft conducted in collaboration with some of the world’s leading historians.
We’ve had the chance to sit down with Maxime Durand (the World Design Director of the Discovery Tour: Viking Age) and Ryan Lavelle (Professor of Early Medieval History at the University of Winchester, who helped consult on the game) to discuss what’s new with this entry in the series, what its educational potential is and where the series might go in the future.
- Check out our Assassin’s Creed Valhalla review
- Everything you need to know about: Assassin's Creed Infinity
As the third entry in the Discovery Tour series, we were most interested to find out what players could expect this time around or if there is any change from what Ubisoft has released before.
Maxime Durand explained that “the biggest change with the Viking Age Discover Tour is that we've gone much deeper into researching the history of the era.”
This knowledge gave the time the chance to explore the era in an all-new way, this time using quests to relay information rather than passive tours. Players will still be learning about history but will be much more involved.
To give us an example of what we can expect, Durand said that “one of the quests has you play as a Norse merchant who wants to sail for England. Before they can leave they need a ship and a crew, so they’re going to have to build one, find people to help sail the ship and make various decisions about how you’re going to reach your destination.”
The hope is this agency will give players much more ownership over the stories and what they’re learning through these experiences. The team wants to make this an immersive video game, but not take away any of the educational value.
One way the educational content is being maintained is through historical markers – little factoids spread throughout the Discovery Tour’s landscape that players can click on to gain a deeper understanding of the period as they move around.
Ryan Lavelle was one of the historians and archaeologists brought in to help check these facts but also consult on many aspects of the game’s look and feel to ensure Ubisoft was creating as authentic a representation as possible.
“Let’s take King Alfred, the ninth century King of the West Saxons as an example," says Lavelle. "We might not know exactly what he nor his court looked like, but it’s my job to help ensure what players see is conveying the right feeling of the period. This would be by explaining the sense of majesty his court should impose, details about the court operate and how decisions were made at the time as well as smaller details about how King Alfred would have always traveled with a bodyguard.”
If the creative team stumbles into any gaps in our current understanding, Lavelle and other experts are able to advise on what would be the most plausible option to help create a complete experience for players to enjoy.
Sometimes difficulties in researching an era can inspire how players engage with the world. Durand explains that when researching England’s history there were many paper documents that could be studied, though Nordic history instead relied on oral tradition to pass information down, adding that “We can then leverage those differences in what the players experience to make sure we’re not just giving away information but that we’re doing it in an interesting and accurate way.”
The research wasn't the only difficulty for the team, though. The Viking Age is an era so so ingrained in our popular culture that the team was worried about modifying the vision that has been created by mass entertainment.
However, their goal is to always go deeper than what’s been seen previously to really educate players on what the period was like.
That doesn’t mean the Discovery Tour is a boring snooze-fest. Ubisoft wants to make an engaging, interactive history that all kinds of players can enjoy. Lavelle admitted that, as a player, he’s a huge fan of what he’s played of both Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Discovery Tour: Viking Age.
“I wouldn’t go as far to say it was life-changing, but experiencing history in this way has certainly created a strong memory for me," says Lavelle. "I’d seen screenshots and bits of gameplay already but getting to immerse myself in the world, crossing from Scandinavia to arrive in ninth-century England – even if it wasn’t Wessex which is my area of specialism – and seeing how Viking Age halls and villages are represented. It was so exciting to be immersed in it all.”
This immersion offers teachers a chance to have their students explore the history, and discuss the world in ways they might not have been able to otherwise. While Discovery Tours aren’t ever going to replace the kinds of communication and nuanced thinking that can be provided by a textbook, Lavelle believes they have enormous potential.
“I just finished a class today actually with some third-year students where I'm teaching about Alfred the Great. In a future seminar, I’m hoping to bring in a laptop and explore the environment and the past with them. Even if what we’re seeing isn’t exactly what the world looked like, it can certainly help to lead a lot of discussions and can give the students a better feel of what the period was like.”
You can’t mention immersion in gaming without thinking of VR. We took the chance to ask if we might ever see a Discovery Tour come to virtual reality.
Chuckling slightly before admitting he’d been asked the question before, Durand said that “Creating the Discovery Tours is already quite a big challenge and this would create a lot of very different challenges, but creatively we definitely could [create a VR experience].
“Hopefully if everyone plays the Discovery Tours and it reaches a point that makes sense for us, who knows what we will see? I would look forward to that. We never used to have Discovery Tours and now we do.”
The Discovery Tour: Viking Age is available now. On consoles, it is available to all owners of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla for free. On PC it will also be free to Valhalla owners and can be purchased as a standalone game for $19.99 / £16.99 / AU$29.95
- Best PC games: the must-play titles you don’t want to miss
