We knew it was coming, but now we have some exciting new details about Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s non-violent educational mode. Following the development of Discovery Tour expansions for Assassin’s Creed Origins and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey – dubbed Discovery Tour: Ancient Egypt and Discovery Tour: Ancient Greece, respectively – Discovery Tour: Viking Age is releasing on October 19.
As with the previous two Discovery Tour experiences, Discovery Tour: Viking Age is based on the historically grounded game world developed for Ubisoft’s most recent Assassin’s Creed game. In this case, that’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, with its setting in ninth-century Norway and England.
Discovery Tour: Viking Age invites players to discover more about the history, cultures and traditions of the time through exploration, and interaction with real artefacts. Developers Ubisoft Montréal have stripped out the brutal R-rated action of the main Valhalla game to make Discovery Tour more classroom-friendly.
Of course, the Discovery Tour games have an educational function, so scientific and academic credentials are important. Discovery Tour: Viking Age has been developed in collaboration with historians, archaeologists and museum partners such as Hampshire Cultural Trust (HCT), The British Library, The Réunion des Musées Nationaux – Grand Palais photo agency, York Archaeological Trust, The National Museum of Denmark, and Preston Park Museum & Grounds.
Viking Age promises to be a little different from other entries in the Discovery Tour series in that it puts narrative and storytelling at the heart of the experience. Players will be able to live out the stories of various Viking and Anglo-Saxon characters, stepping into their shoes to have adventures and interact with the world around them. That certainly sounds more fun, immersive, and effective for knowledge retention.
The Discovery Tour: Viking Age expansion will be free for owners of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla on all platforms. At the same time, from October 19 you’ll be able to buy the PC standalone version of Viking Age via Ubisoft Connect and on the Epic Games Store. Plus, in a first for the Discovery Tour series, in early 2022, the standalone experience will be available for PS4/5, Xbox One/Series, Stadia and Luna.
