Assassin’s Creed Origins’ new educational mode is a violence-free tour through ancient Egypt

My favorite part of an Assassin’s Creed game isn’t the epic story, or the thrill of running across the rooftops of a huge, bustling city. It’s definitely not all of the neck stabbing. Instead, the moments that really stick with me are the quieter ones, where I have the chance to really appreciate the detail that’s gone into creating these historical settings, whether it’s ancient Rome or industrial era London. Unfortunately, often those moments are disrupted when I accidentally enter a restricted area, or when the story forces me to assassinate someone to proceed.

Today sees the release of a new “discovery tour” for Assassin’s Creed Origins, and it feels like it was designed specifically for players like me. A completely separate mode, the educational tour does away with the violence and story that are at the core of Origins, and instead gives players a guided look at the realities of ancient Egypt, where the game takes place. It’s sort of like one of those audio tours in museums — except here you can climb a pyramid or ride a boat down the Nile while you learn.

The tour takes place in the same virtual rendition of ancient Egypt as the core Origins story campaign, but one where most of the video game aspects have been ripped out. There’s no combat, no experience levels, and no collectibles to find. When you first start the tour, you’re greeted with the following message:

“With content curated by Egyptologists and hundreds of images sourced from museums and libraries around the world, we hope to share with you the passion that inhabited us for the four years it took to develop Assassin’s Creed Origins.”

From there, things begin with a look at the city of Alexandria and how it came to be. A golden path appears before you, and as you walk along it you’ll come across various points of interest. When you reach them, the game pauses and a narrator provides some insight into the history of the city and how the developers at Ubisoft went about recreating it for the game. You’ll learn about why the city was of such strategic importance, despite the fact that its soil and the surrounding sea provided some logistical challenges for creating a large settlement. The tour also explains how the developers figured out just how large to make Alexandria’s iconic walls.

Once that initial tour ends, the mode opens up quite a bit. You’re essentially free to go wherever you like, and the mode features than 70 guided tours that cover everything from everyday ancient Egyptian life to the construction of the pyramids to lives of key figures like Cleopatra. You can stumble across these tours on your own as you explore, or select the ones you want to delve into from the main menu and map screens. You can even choose which character you want to inhabit as you explore. You can wander the cities as Origins protagonist Bayek, or you can be Julius Caesar or Cleopatra. It doesn’t actually impact anything, but the multiple characters are a fun touch.

For me, the most fascinating part of these tours has been seeing some of the finer details of the game, the ones that most players simply run past as they go from one mission to the next. The stories of Assassin’s Creed games tend to play fast and loose with history — there are moments in the games where you fistfight with the Pope and hunt ghosts with Charles Dickens — but the level of accuracy and detail put into the worlds is remarkable. Here you get a better look at all of that detail.

One guided tour takes you step-by-step through the religious rituals in a temple, while another explores the different domesticated animals in the game. You’ll crawl through dark crypts, torch in hand, and pilot a boat across the Nile. There are close-up shots and explanations of beautiful paintings and hieroglyphics. One of the more intriguing tours takes you inside the Great Pyramid of Giza, and explains how the developers pieced together the internal layout without firsthand evidence, instead relying primarily on various archaeological theories.

For the most part, the various tours focus on the real details of ancient Egypt and its residents, and even provide a look at the reference materials the game’s developers used, from artifacts and maps to the drawings of famous archaeologists. But the tours also showcase the ways in which history was altered slightly in the service of better game design. Claustrophobic tunnels were widened so players could navigate them more easily, while one particular chamber, which in reality is made inaccessible by a series of stone slabs, was made into a space players could venture into.

Origins isn’t the first prominent game to add an educational component. There’s a school-focused version of Minecraft, complete with a new version of The Oregon Trail, and strategy game Civilization V was retooled for high school students. But the exploration-heavy style of Assassin’s Creed, combined with the stunningly detailed world built by the developers at Ubisoft, makes it a more inviting experience. Playing doesn’t feel like a history lesson. It’s more like a chance to seek out the most interesting parts of ancient Egypt, and then learn more about them on your own.