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Ubisoft's  Assassin's Creed series has always taken great inspiration from history, with games set as far back as Ancient Greece and as recently as World War I. In recent years, Ubisoft has begun paying tribute to the histories that inspire them with a game mode called Discovery Tour.

No one would accuse the plots of  Assassin's Creed of being historically accurate . Over the course of the series, players have engaged in combat with the Pope, been responsible for the assassination of Julius Caesar, and looked for alien artifacts in the midst of the American Revolution. But the Ubisoft team has always gone to great lengths to create an atmosphere that transports players back to the time periods of the game. The environments have been increasingly lovingly rendered, and everything from architecture to the routines of the NPCs has been used to make the game at least feel authentic, even if the plot isn't.

Related: Assassin's Creed's Problematic History with Playable Female Characters

Discovery Tour is a game mode that was first introduced in  Assassin's Creed Origins . Discovery Tour allows players to wander the world of  Assassins Creed at will, but removes all combat and quests. It's perfect for those who want to spend time looking at the details of the game without worrying about triggering an overzealous guard or accidentally wandering into a hyena den. Additionally, Discovery Tour offers guided narrated tours of certain cities and locations, with glowing lines providing a suggested route. While the usefulness of this mode as a potential teaching tool has been debated in reviews, it nevertheless provides an opportunity to wander a massive game environment and take in the sights, appreciating not only the history, but also the game itself.

Which Assassin's Creed Games Include Discovery Tour?

Discovery Tour was introduced with  Assassin's Creed Origins,  but  Assassin's Creed Odyssey elevated the concept further. Tours were no longer simply narrated, but were led by an in-game NPC, often a historical figure. Exploration was also gamified by giving players the opportunity to earn avatars to use in the Discovery Tour mode by doing things like completing a certain number of tours. Players could also test their knowledge at the end of tours by taking quizzes from the tour guide. In the case of both  Assassin's Creed Origins  and  Assassin's Creed Odyssey , Discovery Tour was added for free as an update to the base game, but the mode can also be purchased as a standalone game, a great option for those who just want to traverse the world without delving into the complicated plots of  Assassin's Creed .

Ubisoft recently announced that Discovery Tour will return in  Assassin's Creed Valhalla  and be released some time in 2021. It's likely Ubisoft will continue their model of making Discovery Tour free to those who already have  Assassins' Creed Valhalla and as standalone purchase for those who don't.  The newest edition of Discovery Tour will give players the option to explore Viking culture in England without the stress of potentially being murdered by said Vikings.

Next: Assassin's Creed: Why Assassins and Templars Hate Each Other

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla  releases on November 10 on PC/Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Google Stadia, with a November 12 launch on PlayStation 5.

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• OS: Windows 10 (64-bit versions only)
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• Memory: 6 GB RAM
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 or AMD R9 270 (2048 MB VRAM with Shader Model 5.0 or better)
• DirectX: Version 11
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• Additional Notes: Video Preset: Lowest (720p)
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• Memory: 8 GB RAM
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• Additional Notes: Video Preset: High (1080p)

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Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s Discovery Tour is an inspiring journey through ancient Greece

The world needs more games like this one

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After playing Assassin’s Creed Odyssey ’s Discovery Tour for a while, I went for a long walk and I began to daydream.

My fancies were about the beauty and wonder of the ancient Greece I’d encountered in Ubisoft’s new release; an educational addition to its historical combat game , Assassin’s Creed Odyssey . It seemed to me that the game had succeeded, because it inspired me to spend time thinking about history and my place in it, as opposed to merely taking on board a little more information about that particular world.

I wondered what it would be like if our society decided to dedicate a tiny proportion of its wealth to creating more and better products like Discovery Tour. What might our children become, if we encouraged them (and ourselves) to spend time deep inside the lessons of history, science, ethics and humanity, instead of skating above them aboard textbooks?

Education is often, unfortunately, a bit of a chore. Books (a format that I revere) must work very hard to grab the attention of today’s reader. But games like Discovery Tour aren’t merely picturesque diversions about the ways of people who are long dead. They are joyful journeys into useful knowledge.

Any child let loose on this game for a few hours is going to come away with as solid an understanding of ancient Greece as might be gained from an expensive semester in university. This is the magic of walking through a colorful world, seeing what we believe history was like in action. These lessons aren’t so much “learned” as inhaled.

Of course, we’ve had educational games for decades. But they are often poorly funded, and of dubious entertainment value. The difference with Discovery Tour is that it is built on a lavishly budgeted videogame, in which the world of ancient Greece was superbly researched, written, painted, animated and populated.

This is much, much more than a set of interactive index cards, interspersed with images and voice-overs. It’s a look at a real world where people walk around, dogs bark, buskers play songs, birds flutter about, the wind troubles trees, waves sing along sandy beaches.

This living version of ancient Greece is smaller than the real thing, but it includes a sense of the place, its landmarks, and a series of teachers ready to walk me through its mysteries.

I take on the role of a character from the original game. The default is the original game’s misthios Kassandra , but I unlock new characters as I travel the world. I find myself most comfortable in the guise of the child Phoebe.

She can run, climb, ride a horse and sail around Greece, which encompasses many islands of startling variety, as well as disparate locations including cities, temples, islands, quarries, ports, forests and mountains. I am free to poke around to my heart’s content. Or I can choose to be immediately transported to famous locations, like the Acropolis.

At these locations, Phoebe meets a guide, who is generally a famous person from that time. My guide for a tour of the Acropolis is Aspasia, the wily partner of Athenian leader Pericles. After an introduction, Aspasia invites me to follow a pathway, with various stops along the way, where I gaze up at statues and buildings, as they likely looked 23 centuries ago. These stops trigger short vignettes that explain the thing I’m looking at. I’m also offered optional extra information in the form of text and images.

At the end of the tour, Aspasia greets me again. I can ask her to quiz me on the information I’ve learned. The quizzes are appropriately straightforward, aimed at students of all ages.

Discovery Tour isn’t merely interested in the great buildings of the past. I can also tour a family home. I can familiarize myself with the economic management of Athens’ port Piraeus. I can hang out with Socrates and get a primer on his grand philosophies.

It all adds up to a magical tour of a time and place that previous generations only saw through stuffy textbooks, or poorly researched (but fun) movies. Discovery Tour melds together solid research with a Hollywood sense of the spectacular, and of engaging storytelling.

I’ve loved ancient Greece all my life. I’ve read many books on the subject, and once spent a month traveling around Attica and the Peloponnese. I’m impressed with Discovery Tour ’s ability to retain my attention and to teach me new lessons. It’s left me understanding more about the ancient Greeks, but also wishing that we lived in a world where products like these, on every subject imaginable, were freely available to everyone.

As it is, Discovery Tour is a rarity; an educational game with sumptuous production values and the heart of a genuine teacher. It’s available for free, from today, to anyone who owns Assassin’s Creed Odyssey on PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One. As a PC stand- alone product, it costs $19.99.

Assassin’s Creed Discovery Tour is available now on PlayStation 4, Windows PC and Xbox One. The game was reviewed on PC using a final “retail” download code provided by Ubisoft. You can find additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here .

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Experience the World of 'Assassin's Creed: Valhalla' in the New 'Discovery Tour: Viking Age' (EXCLUSIVE)

Oct. 27 2021, Published 12:15 p.m. ET

Released as one of the first games available for the highly sought-after PlayStation 5 , Assassin's Creed: Valhalla was the newest installment in the Ubisoft franchise, bringing players on an adventure through the Viking age in Norway and England.

But if hunting people down isn't really your thing, Ubisoft has a new way to immerse yourself in the world it's created with Discovery Tour: Viking Age . Ahead of the game's launch, World Design Director Maxime Durand talked with Distractify about the work that goes into these games and what exactly the Discovery Tour is.

What is a 'Discovery Tour'?

There are only three Assassin's Creed games that have Discovery Tour versions to them. Valhalla is the most recent one. Usually released long after the original game, the Discovery Tours are meant to be a more accessible gameplay experience for everyone who wants to explore the historical time periods crafted in these games.

"With the Discovery Tour , the idea is that we wanted to reuse the game environment and reuse things that have been built for Assassin's Creed , but we wanted to create a different type of game," Maxime told us.

"We wanted to create something that could be accessible for anyone and could provide a safe space to learn history, built in the environments that were created originally for Assassin's Creed, " he continued. " It's really a video game that is meant to teach history using in-game environments, built by Ubisoft, and it's for everyone."

While the original games are rated M for mature audiences and are often centered on quests where the protagonist has to quite literally assassinate others, the Discovery Tour games are meant for all audiences.

Before Assassin's Creed Valhalla Discovery Tour: Viking Age was released on Oct. 19, there were two other Discovery Tours: one for Ancient Egypt (from Assassin's Creed: Origins ) and one for Ancient Greece (from Assassin's Creed: Odyssey ).

The two original games were more narrative-focused, taking players on a sort of tour throughout the area. Discovery Tour: Viking Age is more interactive than its predecessors, with eight quests for players to complete as they explore the area.

"The idea is that it's not a narrative anymore. ... We're just living the story of the characters that we created custom made to enhance learning and engage with the subjects that we wanted to talk about," Maxime said.

Will there be more 'Discovery Tour' games in the 'Assassin's Creed' franchise in the future?

While the continuation of a franchise is largely dependent on a game's performance and reception once it's released, Maxime told us that he hopes there will be more Discovery Tour games to come — though it is an involved process to create them that involves even more historical research than the base games have.

"We start off with the given environment and we start with the opportunities that are in the game environment and the character designs that are available, and then we do more research," he said.

"We look at school curriculums in various countries, and we try to come up with what subjects could be interesting for schools. ... Then we go into greater depth with that, doing more work with historical consultants."

Maxime said that the games have been used in classrooms and museums internationally, offering a hands-on history lesson for players.

"I think everyone loves the idea and I just hope that we can have the opportunity to create more of them," he told us.

Discovery Tour: Viking Age is now available for free to all owners of Assassin's Creed: Valhalla or as a standalone game.

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Discovery Tour: Viking Age Standalone Edition Available Now

Ready your longships, because the Discovery Tour: Viking Age standalone version launches today for Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One. The standalone version allows curious players to explore and interact with Viking history and traditions — without needing to own Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (for which Discovery Tour: Viking Age ’s content is also available as part of a free patch).

The Discovery Tour series is an immersive educational experience inspired by the worlds of Assassin’s Creed . Viking Age expands the formula from the previous Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece installments, pivoting to put narrative and interactivity at its center. Viking Age takes historical figures and original characters, and places them in narrative-driven quests that teaches players about the era through immersion. Discovery Tour: Viking Age features a storyline with eight quests spanning Norway, England, Asgard, and Jotunheim, and gives players the opportunity to experience the ninth century from both Viking and Anglo-Saxon perspectives.

“The Viking Age is a rich and complex era that we absolutely wanted to highlight in a Discovery Tour ,” said Maxime Durand, world design director at Ubisoft Montreal. “With our new approach, players are placed at the core of a unique interactive experience where they see history in the making through the eyes of the people of the time. We’ve designed Discovery Tour: Viking Age to be both fun as a videogame, and effective as a learning tool.”

To ensure Discovery Tour: Viking Age is useful as educational material, Ubisoft developers worked closely with historians, archaeologists, and academics to create the most accurate and up-to-date content for the game. Viking Age covers eight different topics for players to engage with: war and politics, daily life, religion and magic, myths and legends, law and justice, art and culture, and trade and economy. Ubisoft also partners with the faculty at McGill University to develop free curriculum guides for teachers and students to help them make the most of Discovery Tour in the classroom.

Do you have what it takes to go a Viking? Download Discovery Tour: Viking Age today and step into the shoes of merchants, monks, and kings for a contemporary experience of ninth century England.

Discovery Tour: Viking Age

Assassin's Creed® Valhalla

Discovery Tour: Viking Age

• View history

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Discovery Tour: Viking Age is the Discovery Tour mode for Assassin's Creed: Valhalla . It was released as a free downloadable add-on on 19 October 2021 [1] and is available for free to those who own the base game, or for purchase as a stand-alone version on PC.

• 3.1.1 War & Politics
• 3.1.2 Daily Life
• 3.1.3 Religion & Magic
• 3.1.4 Myths & Legends
• 3.1.5 Science
• 3.1.6 Law & Justice
• 3.1.7 Art & Culture
• 3.1.8 Trade & Economy
• 3.2.1 England
• 3.2.2 Immersion
• 3.2.3 Research
• 3.2.4 Scandinavia
• 4 Characters
• 6 References

Gameplay [ ]

In the game, players are able to freeroam and explore the maps of Norway and Anglo-Saxon England and learn about both countries' histories. Unlike previous installments which employed the use of guided tours, Discovery Tour: Viking Age will see players assume the roles of various characters and take on quests with the aim of bringing them closer to the material by putting them at the center of it. [2]

Memories [ ]

Learnings [ ], war & politics [ ], daily life [ ], religion & magic [ ], myths & legends [ ], science [ ], law & justice [ ], art & culture [ ], trade & economy [ ], behind the scenes [ ], england [ ].

• Jorvik's Architecture
• Landscaping England
• York the Haunted

Jorvik —now called York—is a great example of how Anglo-Saxon and Norse civilizations merged over time. Its multiple docks and narrow streets filled with exotic supplies welcomed international traders year-round

To represent this thriving hub, Level Artists and Level Designers used Coppergate one of the city's most notorious landmarks.

Known at the time as the "Cup Street"—where merchants sold handmade cups and pots—it was taken as a reference and extended to the rest of the town. With its small wooden houses and stalls built tightly together Jorvik contrasts with stone-built Anglo-Saxon towns.

To replicate England's diverse flora was no small feat. The developers wanted it to be accurate and help players navigate the map.

First, the World Design team created a Season Map: England was divided into four areas, each allocated a season.

Each season had its own variety of vegetation, from grass to trees, and its own Humidity Layer, which helped determine the type of soil in each area: lush, dry or wetland.

With these in hand the Level Artists and Designers could implement the right type of flora in the world, and created different landscapes using rocks and trees. Therefore, each region has diverse but coherent scenery, engaging players to explore the map meticulously.

Rumor has it York is one of England's most haunted cities!

Built by the Romans , it is said that ghosts of fallen soldiers still roam the city, inspiring a locally-brewered beverage—the Centurion's Ghost .

To emulate this mystical atmosphere, Level Designers took the opportunity to place an underground location reusing Roman-era abandoned sewers. It's a way for players to walk around unnoticed...

Immersion [ ]

• Colouring the World
• Mysterious Forests
• On Liquid Gold
• Photogra-wha?
• Safe and Sound?

As it turns out, early medieval times were full of colours, from paintings and clothing to flowers and vegetables! To break the prejudice against the this time period, Artists, Modelers, and Texturers made sure to implement vivid colours where they could.

But as always, it's a fine balance to find between gameplay needs and historical accuracy. In some cases, developers chose to stick with one colour despite Historians' complaints.

For example, pigs and carrots in AC Valhalla are pink and white respectively; although pigs at the time were brown-ish in complexion and carrots had a wide range of colours, from white to purple.

Level Artists and Designers used different types of forest to structure England's king:

- oak trees, ivy, and rowan in Wessex - heather fields, Scots Pine trees, moss and willow trees in East Anglia - beech trees, bluebells , and autumnal birch trees in Mercia - tundra bushes, Western gorse , with dead and frozen trees in Northumbria

Ubisoft Sofia even recreated Wistman's Wood in Hamtunscire using the pictures the development team took during their scouting trip!

To do so, they integrated old medium-sized trees, a smattering of rocks, a soupcon of moss, and a bit of fog to complete this ominous atmosphere.

"Honeymoon" referred to the Scandinavian practice of giving newlyweds a moon cycle's worth of mead (a beverage brewed with honey , water, and yeast).

But honey was valued by Angles and Norsemen alike, it was then vital for the developers to represent the bee-keeping practice as faithfully as possible.

Depending on each region's real flora, fields of flaxseeds, poppies, and heather were designed and implemented by Modelers and Level Artists—the flowers used a seamless way to guide players through their environment.

The beehives, seem from afar, also act as a natural marker (a beecon?), and are surrounded by NPCs collecting the honey.

Photogrammetry is an innovative technique for in-game textures.

Determined to illustrate accurate surfaces, the Graphics team travelled to England to capture every inch of stone walls and pavements, sometimes for twelve hours straight! A three-metre wall would take 250 pictures, stitched together by specialized software.

The final result is a 3D file with colours and depths, designed into tileable textures. These textures are then used by Level Artists and Modelers to add onto buildings.

To push this realism further, the Graphics team also added uneven silhouettes with protruding stones, slate angles, and damaged areas.

Creating an immersive world also includes the sounds triggered when Eivor interacts with her/his surroundings.

Shown here are coloured surfaces that play a specific sound when the player walks on them. Yes, every item with sound and animation is labeled in the game's engine!

A brown square indicates a wooden sound, while yellow squares signal a fabric-like sound. When the player walks on or touches one of these hidden squares, the noise it's linked to triggers automatically.

But there's another side to this coin: with this system, developers were also able to create noise traps that can reveal the player's presence to nearby enemies!

• The Assassin's Artillery
• The Music of AC Valhalla
• Use Protection
• Welcome to Asgard

200 unique weapon models were designed for AC Valhalla .

After thorough historical research, Modeling Artists had the difficult task of designing realistic but spectacular weapons. Talk about a brain-twister!

The flail was also added to the arsenal as a unique form of weaponry, even though flails weren't used by soldiers in battle but by peasants during harvest.

To enjoy these weapons even more, new fighting styles were created. Players can now fight with a weapon in each hand—the dual-wielding —or hit foes with their shield !

Music is at the core of AC Valhalla ' s experience, defining territories and moods. To create an acoustic dichotomy between Norsemen and Angles, Norway's music borrows sounds from rituals and daily life, while England's music revolves more around the Church .

In total, it's 5 hours of music that were composed through the collaboration of Jesper Kyd , Sarah Schachner , and Einar Selvik .

But the music doesn't stop there!

To the uncontrollable delight of AC Black Flag fans, sea shanties were also added to AC Valhalla . They are sung as Eivor sails on the longship , by none other than Einar Selvik— skald Bragi in the game!

Shields played an important role in the Viking and Anglo-Saxon fighting techniques, and in AC Valhalla as well.

Used in the game to differentiate clans and factions, each one has its own shape, paint model, colour pattern and emblem.

A new gameplay element was also added: the shield degradation. With each hit, an enemy's shield loses a piece until it's destroyed, and players can also now attack using their shields.

Little known fact: it was common for vendors to walk around the battlefield, supplying clients with replacements shields and weapons! What an we say, Vikings were resourceful!

Being the land of mighty gods ], Asgard had to be scaled accordingly.

To create this sense of magnitude, Level Designers played on heights, with towers that reach up into the sky to meet the immense branches of Yggdrasil , the mythical world-tree.

The wolf Fenrir went through the same fate. Indeed, the infamous beast is ten times the size of a normal wolf, thanks to the Character Modelers.

To set AC Valhalla ' s Asgard apart, developers focused on depicting the myths of the Viking sagas , with doors to other realms , well of Norns , and so on, combined with glimpses of Eivor's past life and memories .

A shame it will all be destroyed come Ragnarök !

Research [ ]

• A Humble Abode
• Animus, Translate 'Skål!'
• Long Live the King

The castles of England were meant to be seen from afar by anyone seeking refuge. Except, rulers didn't really account for their castles also attracting Vikings!

All fortified areas in AC Valhalla were inspired by the castles the development team visited while in England: Portchester , Derby , Goodrich , Housesteads Roman Fort at Hadrian's Wall ... The Castle Trefaldwyn in Wales inspired the fictional Caustow Castle , a fort in the Scriopescire region.

In AC Valhalla , castles are a telltale sign of great bounty to collect during raids , and lords will often retreat behind a castle's protective walls when fleeing from Eivor.

They can run but they can't hide!

It seems that Vikings and Ango-Saxons could roughly understand each other at the time, as both of their languages sounded similar and had diverged only a few centuries before.

To help actors during records, the Voice Design team relied on linguists, such as Runoloist Maja Bäckvall ( Uppsala University ).

Lines were then written in three versions: in English or context, in the original language (Latin, Old Norse, Old English), and in phonetics for accurate pronunciation.

Interestingly, it felt quite natural for Icelandic actors to pronounce Old Norse. They wouldn't need a dictionary if their great-great-great-great-grandparents were around to translate!

AC Valhalla is set during a tense political climate. English kingdoms were fighting one another as well as trying to ward off Viking attacks.

Hence, maps are displayed in the game as battle plans. To help players visualize friends and foes, chess pieces were designed.

The 3D Modeling team first created items inspired by an early Scandinavian chess set, the Hnefatafl , which was combined with the Lewis chess pieces . Found in Scotland , they were crafted out of walrus tusks and whale teeth in the 12th century.

This design merged English and Scandinavian heritage into a unique item.

As King Alfred is a historical figure, Artists and Modelers had a lot of documentation to help with his design.

With pre-established features (age, height, backstory) kept as accurate as possible, his appearance had to represent his royal demeanor but also his weakened state—he suffered from Chron's disease .

This contrast was made through the design of his clothes, hair, and facial features.

As one of the main characters in AC Valhalla , seen up-close in multiple cinematics, it was imperative to design every detail meticulously. So much so that it took ten days to design his hair!

• Take a Leap of Faith
• The Die is Cast
• The Longhouse
• The Myth of Horned Helmets

As the monastery of Ely has been destroyed. Level Designers and Artists had to draw their inspiration elsewhere. More specifically, from the Saint-Martin-du-Canigou Abbey in France .

Despite the construction being two centuries older than AC Valhalla ' s time period, it offered interesting architecture for the players to enjoy: atop a hill for great scenery, a cloister to clear the perspective, and the bell tower to provide an iconic viewpoint .

Finally, an underground tunnel was added, a unique feat perfect for a surprise attack.

But some things remain accurate! Several eels were placed in the waters circling the monastery—a nod to the feature that gave its name.

Even warriors get some playtime.

Indeed, it seems that Vikings played board games that involved throwing small objects, such as carved wooden figures. However, the team couldn't find any clear rules for these games.

But all hope wasn't lost; the developers at Singapore Vengdu and Montreal studios all came together to invent new rules and mocked-up their prototypes in a tabletop simulator.

Everyone on the team could experience (and enjoy!) the evolving versions of the Orlog 2.0.

A first physical prototype was also made, using real dice that were painted over. The game of Orlog was (re)born.

AC Valhalla ' s version of the Orlog was so loved by fans that Ubisoft partnered with PureArts to produce real life Orlog sets!

As longhouses were at the centre of Norse communities, it was only natural that they'd be at the forefront of AC Valhalla .

Just like any true Viking, Eivor hosts feats, plans battles, and sleeps in her/his longhouse. But what about its design?

The Art Direction team first took a scouting trip to Lofoten , Norway, to immerse themselves in the land and bring back references. From these pictures, Modelers and Artists designed variations of paint patterns, carved animals, frescos etc. for players to enjoy and use to customize their settlement.

Anglo-Saxon longhouses, on the other hand, were designed with different materials, such as hay and lime, and less detailed engravings. Can't have them steal the show!

To make it short: Vikings did not, in fact, wear horned helmets.

The misconception came from the Wagnerian opera, The Ring of the Nibelung (1876). Horned and winged helmets were then part of the actor's costumes, a way for the warriors to seem more grandiose on stage.

Ever since then, depictions of Vikings wearing big horned helmets were in plentiful supply, and this wrongful image has persisted to this day.

Beside the fact that horned helmets would have been anything but practical on the battlefield, it seems that the very few ones found by archeologists were only used for ritual purposes.

- Who's ready to be the party pooper come Halloween?

Scandinavia [ ]

• Creating Eivor's Longship
• Designing Stavanger
• New Game, New Crest

Can't make a Viking game without an awesome longship!

After all, Norsemen are renowned for their boat -building craftsmanship to this day.

To do it justice, Modelers (Montreal) built the dimensions and shapes, while Artists (Singapore) created 48 different variations of longboats with stunning designs inspired by Norse mythology.

The outcome speaks for itself: a slick, clinker-built hull for hydro-dynamism, shallow keels to sail in low waters, and even a removable mast to pass under bridges!

May you have fair winds and following seas!

Stavanger , as with many cities in Assassin's Creed: Valhalla , is based on an existing city.

To reconstruct it, Level Designers and Artists used maps, pictures and drawings by Archaeologist Jean-Claude Golvin as references, adding alterations for gameplay purposes.

While not all towns resembled Golvin's drawings, some iconic details helped give a "Scandinavian signature" to the towns and settlements of the game, easily recognizable by players.

Narrow streets, docks, and a salient longhouse in the distance... They all incite exploration and the need for adventure.

It's difficult to set oneself apart in a sea of Viking-themed media. But it was the challenge Marketing and Art teams faced when creating AC Valhalla ' s visual identity. Together, they designed logos and crests, and selected fonts, colours, and interfaces.

As a result, fifty different logos were created for the brand to find the right fit: the two-axes logo on the bottom right of this picture.

The turquoise colour was added early-on, as a nod to the aurora borealis that illuminate the Norwegian skies.

Two axes (for dual-wielding) form the the A of Assassin's Creed.

At their end, the outline of a longhouse rooftop, with delicate engravings to underline Norse crafting skills.

Finally, the faded grid in the background serves as a reminder of the Animus simulation.

• The Creation of Eivor
• White Landscapes

Every detail matters when designing a main character. Personality, backstory, mannerisms... Eivor the "Wolf-Kissed" must have a noticeable scar and tattoos to represent past events, beliefs, and clan affiliation.

A mood board was made with various references, from Mad Max ' s Furiosa to Major Motoko Kusanagi in Ghost in the Shell , which allowed Concept Artists to create composition (silhouettes, shapes) and concepts.

Then, the Character Modelers designed the details (hair styles, tattoos, outfits, an even leather stitching), while Animators focused on body movement and facial expressions.

Finally, actors Magnus Bruun Nielssen and Cecile Stenspil were cast to give Eivor a voice, tailored to her or his personality.

For player's to recognize their surroundings easily, developers wanted to create a clash between the English and Norwegian maps.

Thus, Norwegian landscapes are covered with ice and snow, with little road to travel by land. While ancient Scandinavia wasn't as barren as we're made to believe, the harsh and uninviting land depicted in AC Valhalla means to push the players towards England and continue Eivor's journey.

To do so, Level Artists, Tech Artists, and Level Designers used the Lofoten Islands as a visual reference to emulate its rough landscapes. Through shapes and outlines, the designers made the world feel treacherous, while England's flora is lush and lively.

Characters [ ]

Gallery [ ].

• Promotional media
• Screenshots

References [ ]

• Assassin's Creed
• 1 Assassin's Creed (series)
• 2 Basim Ibn Ishaq

June 6 , 2024

Assassin's Creed Mirage - Now available on iPhone and iPad

Enjoy the Assassin's Creed Mirage experience on iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPad Air and iPad Pro with M1 chip or later, and discover Basim's journey on the go.

Explore Baghdad with optimized graphics, and customize your touch controls or use your favorite controller for a personalized experience.

Play the beginning of the game now for free and keep your progression once you've purchased the full game! Until June 20, you can buy Assassin's Creed Mirage on the App Store at a 50% discount.

Visit Other Assassin's Creed Channels:

Immersion, scale, and rhythmic visuals: how the Assassin’s Creed Symphonic Adventure concert raises the bar for video game music experiences

A complete gaming concert experience

The Assassin's Creed Symphonic Adventure concert recently came to London's Southbank Centre for two nights of its latest tour. As a fan of the series, I've had my eye on this concert for a while – it seemed different from those that have come before. 

It promised around three hours of immersion in the franchise with a live orchestra and choir accompanied by supporting HD imagery and game footage. It absolutely delivered on this promise. 

In short, it is the best video game music concert I've ever been to. It is exactly what video game music concerts should be like – and, frankly, aspire to.  

Eagle vision

There are a few factors which helped set this particular concert and experience apart from; each working brilliantly in conjunction with one another to create something truly special.

First, each game – every mainline entry in the series, played through in chronological order of their historic setting – was represented faithfully and with accuracy. More importantly, each was shown in a way that condensed full-length stories down to short, punchy experiences that even those unfamiliar could follow. Considering that the Assassin’s Creed games can vary in length from linear 15-or-so-hour adventures to sprawling 100+ hour open-world experiences, it’s no easy feat to condense each one to a similar short presentation of about a dozen minutes or so. 

The curation and selection of the imagery and, naturally, music for each game's condensed story was deliberately and expertly done. There was the right mix of game trailer action, as well as in-game cutscenes and gameplay action tacked together with few visible seams or bumps that strung together the game’s story, but also gave the audience some of the best scenes and events from those games. There were even some dialogue and in-game audio additions too which further helped the imagery 'pop' and become more than just a background.

Each game was interspersed with various modern-day scenes showing the Animus device too – again, this wasn’t just a collection of compressed games, to be rushed through, the whole experience was cohesive, deliberately, and well-structured, and had a thread running through it. 

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Synchronizing the audio and visuals like this, with beats, combat blows, and events mapped to the tempo of the music elevated the experience enormously

Importantly, this being a music concert after all, the selection of the tracks from each score to accompany those scenes was nigh-on perfect too. The large-scale London Contemporary Orchestra and Kingdom Choir brought tunes and tracks to life that were deep within games’ soundtracks, rather than just a replaying of each entry’s main theme. Tracks that were clearly written by composers for key parts of games were selected, only reinforcing the clarity of the storytelling on offer, and showing that careful curation of tracks is the best way to bring games to life in an immersive live experience. 

For example, the track ‘Ravensthorpe’ was played alongside footage from Assassin's Creed Valhalla where Eivor and their Viking band build their village, also called Ravensthorpe; ‘The High Seas’ was played alongside Edward Kenway and his pirate crew; and ‘HomeStead’ was selected to accompany parts of Assassin’s Creed 3 when protagonist Connor is seen visiting Davenport.

Quality curation of both those elements really made in-game moments like sailing the high seas in Black Flag , the Lisbon earthquake in Rogue , and the Battle of Thermopylae-intro to Odyssey (and much more) to life in a tangibly experiential way.

Full synchronization

The icing on the immersive cake, however, was the seamless meshing of visual and audio, to the extent that on-screen action, be it gameplay or cinematic trailer clips, occurred in time and in beat with the music.

This added excellent depth and a level of premium quality to the experience. It helped make you ‘feel’ every swordfight, parkour sequence, leap of faith, multi-enemy combat encounter, and every horse ride, with the music perfectly punctuating, accentuating, and enhancing moments in the footage.

Synchronizing the audio and visuals like this, with beats, combat blows, and events mapped to the tempo of the music elevated the experience enormously. The efforts of Ubisoft and the production company, Overlook Events, took what could have been a simple yet robust and enjoyable experience and instead made it one that was truly thrilling and enthralling. I could even see the whole choir, when not performing, glued to the screen and the experience too – it was a spectacle of scale, story, and intrigue, and it pulled people in.

And it wasn’t just a flourish every now and then; it was a constant theme and feature, and ensured that the show achieved the ‘immersive concert’ it set out to be. 

The real deal

I've been to a fair few video game music concerts, and the Assassin’s Creed Symphonic Adventure is the best by far. It should now set the standard and template for those going forward. 

Compared to the previous high-profile Assassin's Creed concert I remember from 2019 that I was excited to take my non-gamer parents and fiancee to, the difference is night and day. The Symphonic Adventure is the kind of format that's brilliant for fans and new listeners alike – it's the one I wish I took my parents to back in 2019 instead of the rather simplistic and bland event that took place that year.

It feels like we're in a golden age of video game music concerts, and blending the audio and visual technology like the Symphonic Adventure achieved can ensure that concerts can now become immersive experiences and means of storytelling, as well as celebrations of games’ music.

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Rob is the Managing Editor of TechRadar Gaming, a video games journalist, critic, editor, and writer, and has years of experience gained from multiple publications. Prior to being TechRadar Gaming's Managing Editor, he was TRG's Deputy Editor, and a longstanding member of GamesRadar+, being the Commissioning Editor for Hardware there for years, while also squeezing in a short stint as Gaming Editor at WePC just before joining TechRadar Gaming. He is also a freelance writer on tech, gaming hardware, video games, gardens, and landscapes and is crowdfunding a book on video game landscapes that you can back and pre-order now too.

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Assassin's Creed Shadows fan theory over its map gains momentum after fans solve Ubisoft's riddles for more tantalizing concept art

Does this finally confirm the Kyoto setting?

Ubisoft has sent out brand new Assassin's Creed Shadows concept art to fans ahead of launch later this year, and some think it's further proof of the game's setting around Kyoto.

Last month, right before Assassin's Creed Shadows was fully unveiled by Ubisoft, the developer sent fans on a bit of a treasure hunt by providing them with a series of ciphered numbers on Twitter. When aligned properly, the numbers formed a shape, which many fans believed fit perfectly over the Kansai region of Japan , potentially indicating the game's setting.

Now, Assassin's Creed Shadows fans have received concept art of the upcoming game via the official Discord server. The event unfolded, as seen below, as an unboxing with content creators linked to riddles back in the Ubisoft Discord server, and it took the streamer below right around two hours to solve the entire thing.

What they unlocked at the end was four pieces of artwork for Assassin's Creed Shadows. You can see the snippets of concept art just below, which many are taking as further proof that Shadows will sit around the Kansai region encompassing Kyoto, Iga Province, and Tanba Province.

Completing the #AssassinsCreed Shadows - The First Mission Discord Experience also revealed some exclusive artwork for regions and locations in the game!↖️ Kyoto (Winter)↗️ Iga Province↙️ Iga Province↘️ Tanba Province - Takeda Castle (Tree Parkour!) pic.twitter.com/pO5dvJQHBg June 4, 2024

The last concept art in particular does look very reminiscent of Takeda Castle, or rather, what's left of Takeda Castle in modern-day Japan. The castle sits at the top of a hill, almost on a plateau, and can be found north of Kobe in Hyogo Prefecture. This just about falls within the boundaries established by the ciphered numbers Ubisoft was teasing fans with earlier this year.

If this is in fact Takeda Castle, it points towards Assassin's Creed Shadows spanning quite the vast space in the middle of Japan, ranging from Mie Prefecture in the southeast, all the way to Takeda Castle in the northwest. It probably still won't be anything close to the gargantuan Assassin's Creed Valhalla, though (which is a good thing in my books).

Take a look at our new games 2024 guide for a look over all the other titles set to launch later this year. 

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Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.

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