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As someone with a history degree, one of my biggest gripes about the Assassin’s Creed series is that it, oftentimes, isn’t historical. While Ubisoft’s iconic franchise is period-set versus a shot-for-shot historical recreation, I’ve never quite managed to see past its inaccuracies, and yes, you’re free to call me a stick-in-the-mud. But Ubisoft’s new mobile game is taking the focus off of stealth and parkour, instead focusing on individual storytelling and exploration. Developed by UK-based startup Sugar Creative, Discovery Tour: Medieval Baghdad drops you into the world of Assassin’s Creed Mirage, but strips back the action and focuses on the history.
Discovery Tour: Medieval Baghdad is a new, Ubisoft-backed mobile game set during the events of Assassin’s Creed Mirage. Your job, when compared to the chaos of zipping around rooftops and dodging guards, is pretty simple: wander around, take in the sights, talk to the locals, and solve various puzzles. In many ways its reminiscent of OG point-and-click adventure games like Myst and Riven, but infused with a healthy dose of Assassin’s Creed DNA.
We see a sequence that tasks you with using an astrolabe (a big, disk-shaped 2D model of the sky) to mirror constellations, as well as a codex which lists various historical artifacts and showcases them in-game alongside their real-life counterparts.
There’s also an eavesdropping sequence inspired by the mainline games, where you have to move a set of sliders to filter out the background and bring the conversation to the forefront. A successful snoop earns you information on the person of interest, as well as a breakdown of their real-life function. We also see Discovery Tour’s equivalent of Eaglevision, which allows you to pick out specific objects and analyze them more closely.
Designed as both a teaching tool and a fun way to idly wander around a virtual version of 9th Century Arabia, Ubisoft’s Discovery Tour: Medieval Baghdad is out right now – yes, now. It’s available on iOS and GooglePlay.
If you’re yet to take Ubisoft’s latest for a spin, check out our Assassin’s Creed Shadows quest list to see how your journey through feudal Japan will play out. Alternatively, if its Discovery Tour’s brain teasers that have lured you in, we have a list of all the best puzzle games.
Would you like to see other Assassin’s Creed locations get the Discovery Tour treatment? Let us know on Discord – a wander through Renaissance Florence does sound rather nice.
