Ubisoft has stirred up a huge amount of excitement over the announcement of the next major Assassin's Creed title, Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Assassin's Creed has always been a massively popular franchise, and in recent years, becomes one of the most heavy-hitting triple-A titles of the year.
The series' pivot away from stealth-action gameplay towards heavy RPG mechanics ever since AC Origins in 2017 has been a divisive development for many old-school fans, but the fact remains that the new AC games have been massively popular where the older style of games may have run their course. One thing in particular that was taken to the next level in the new AC titles has been historical accuracy, attention to detail, and scale.
That incredible historical accuracy breathed life into the worlds of recent Assassin's Creed games, and that same focus will certainly be carried forward into Assassin's Creed Valhalla's rich historical setting. However, the place where that attention to history really shone was in the Assassin's Creed Discovery Tours, which were able to highlight all of the work and expertise that went into crafting each hyper-accurate, densely packed, and breathtaking setting. Without any official confirmation, there is still a question of whether or not AC Valhalla will also come with a Discovery Tour, and if so, what it will look like.
Previous Assassin's Creed Discovery Tours
The Assassin's Creed Discovery Tours are arguably one of the most benevolent moves made by a major video game studio in recent memory. They allow players to experience the entire map and every area both of Assassin's Creed Origins and Odyssey, replete with parkour mechanics, fast-travel, and eagle vision, with all the combat and story elements removed. In each version, there are multiple guided tours with narration by experts in archaeology and history, complete with academic citations, reference photos, and illustrations. To top it all off, the Discovery Tours can be had for $10-20, often going on sale or even being offered for free.
The production quality present in the Discovery Tours is unprecedented and has frankly never even been approached by any other educational video game. That's only possible because the full Assassin's Creed games with DLC and microtransactions are so incredibly profitable, but Ubisoft was in no way obligated to go the extra steps to create the Discovery Tour after all of its research and consultation went into the base games. It wasn't too much extra work. All of the information had already been collected and put to use to make exploring ancient locales in the games' stories feel as immersive as possible, but presenting all of that material in such an engaging, fun, and accessible platform is something that is tragically rare in the video game industry.
Some players might even prefer the Discovery Tours to the full games. One of the primary joys of an Assassin's Creed game is in exploring ancient history up close and personal, with a level of interaction and immersion that can't be had anywhere else. Discovery Tours offer all of that, and for fans who dislike the new combat systems or don't care for Origins' and Odyssey's storytelling might find them just as rewarding than the games that made the tours possible. Ubisoft itself is clearly passionate about the Discovery Tours. It recognized the positive reception to AC Origins' tour and put even more work into the tour for AC Odyssey, adding progression, rewards, several times the content of the first tour, and essentially making the tour a full-fledged game of its own.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla's Discovery Tour
Assassin's Creed Valhalla will be making several changes to the formula established by AC Odyssey. Different loot and progression systems along with an updated eagle vision mechanic will set Valhalla apart from its predecessors. One thing that isn't changing though is Ubisoft's passion for making engrossing, immersive, and stunningly accurate depictions of ancient history. Given the success and popularity of the previous Discovery Tours, it is unlikely that Ubisoft would curb the content here. There is a considerable subset of Assassin's Creed fans eagerly waiting to hear confirmation of an Assassin's Creed Valhalla Discovery Tour, even more so given the huge popularity of Norse and Viking culture in video games and other media.
There will likely be several Norse-themed big-budget games coming out in close proximity to each other, including the rumored God of War 2, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, and Elden Ring. If anything, that shows a huge interest in Norse mythology among gamers, and Assassin's Creed Valhalla will certainly be the most historically accurate of all of these prospective launches. If Valhalla gets a Discovery Tour, it may just be the best possible way for avid gamers to learn more about real-world Vikings and their mythology, which just goes to show the potential that games have for stirring up interest and teaching about some of the most incredible parts of the real world.
Not making an Assassin's Creed Valhalla Discovery Tour would be a huge missed opportunity, and for that reason alone it is almost guaranteed that there will be one. The real question is when it will release, and how much content it will contain. Both previous Discovery Tours released roughly a year after the launch of the base game, so fans who are eagerly awaiting Valhalla's Discovery Tour will likely have quite a bit more waiting to do.
However, it is also not too much to expect that the next Discovery Tour will go above and beyond even Odyssey's tour, allowing players to roam even further and discover even more information. Here's hoping that Ubisoft continues to create Discovery Tours for future games even as the series evolves and changes, and that perhaps other developers will learn from its example and also make similar content for its own titles.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla releases Holiday 2020 for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.