Last year, Assassin's Creed Valhalla took gamers on an action-packed journey through the era of Vikings and their ninth century expansion into the British Isles. As Eivor, players must form alliances and fight enemies, all while traversing a carefully crafted open-world meant to recreate the era in an authentic manner. Just like with other games in the history-spanning series, Valhalla presents a great opportunity to learn about different eras and ways of life, and Ubisoft is once again using its work and research to create a unique educational opportunity.
Edutainment games are nothing new, but while the genre is typically associated with titles meant to teach young children basic concepts, the Discovery Tour games make a strong case for rethinking that premise. Like its predecessors, released alongside Assassin's Creed Origins and Odyssey, Viking Age gives players a new way to explore the map while learning about the real-world history that inspired the game and how the developers brought it to life.
Discovery Tour: Viking Age provides eight combat-free quests for players to complete, each of which provides insight into the lives and cultures of the Anglo-Saxons and Norse peoples living through the era. While these can be completed in any order -- or ignored entirely in favor of freely exploring the map -- the quests follow the same characters over the years. Completing these and interacting with the glowing yellow markers unlocks new Codex entries with information on things like daily life, religion, mythology, politics and culture.
Not everything is solely about the past, though. Interacting with blue markers unlocks Behind-the Scenes anecdotes on Valhalla's development. While many of the entries covers how the developers used their research and historical consultants to make the game both fun to play and as accurate as possible, perhaps more interesting are the places where those interests were in conflict. For instance, the developers choose to depict certain animals and vegetables in consistent, distinct colors to make them easily recognizable to players, even if they would not have actually appeared that way. Insights like this provide an idea of how much work goes into game development and the creative decisions developers have to make.
Discovery Tour's focus is clearly on the world rather than gameplay, but there are some moments that make interesting use of Valhalla's mechanics and mini-games. For instance, while there's no combat or physical fights, there is a duel of sorts that makes use of the main game's flyting mini-game, which requires players to choose the best retort that fits their opponent's verse. Still, what matters most are the slice-of-life quests that let players experience the Viking Age through the eyes of merchants, monks and kings.
In addition to the Codex entries that can be found by exploring the world, some are unlocked by going through the story, providing historical context to the events taking place. Listening to the dialogue and reading Codex entries will give players useful information to correctly answer questions that NPCs ask, though giving incorrect answers never comes with any real consequences. Instead, these serve as low-stakes mini-quizzes, and the responses for why the other answer was wrong can actually provide an interesting perspective of the era.
While simple, Discovery Tour: Viking Age does a great job of immersing players in Assassin's Creed Valhalla's historical and cultural inspirations, teaching players about the era in a unique, interactive way. Plus, the fact that it can be purchased separately (at least on PC for now) makes it a more accessible educational tool for all ages.
Developed by Ubisoft Montréal and published by Ubisoft, Discovery Tour: Viking Age is available as a free content update for Assassin's Creed Valhalla. It can also be purchased separately on PC, with standalone versions for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Google Stadia and Amazon Luna scheduled for 2022. A review copy was provided by the publisher.