Video games, often seen only as entertainment tools, are increasingly becoming vehicles for cultural and historical education. Game series such as Assassin's Creed are at the forefront of this trend, offering players an immersive and historically rich view of ancient societies.
The Discovery Tour Mode included in the franchise's latest games is a notable example of this evolution. This mode allows players to explore meticulously recreated environments inspired by historical periods, providing an educational experience that goes further. See examples of how Discovery Tour and the other games on our list can help you understand more about Ancient Greece and its mythology.
Discovery Tour: A Teaching Tool for Classrooms and Curious People
The Discovery Tour series consists of dedicated games that allow visitors to roam freely through ancient Greece and Egypt, as well as the Viking Age, to learn more about the history and archaeology of these settings. In short, it is like using a realistic interactive tool for study.
For students and teachers, non-gamers and gamers alike, the tool is made for everyone to explore the settings freely or, if they prefer, learn through "automatic guides" so they do not have to "walk" through the open world as though they were in an enormous interactive museum.
These visits are categorized into different themes, such as daily life, providing a broad view of ancient Greek society, for example. You can travel and learn interactively about historical figures such as Socrates and Kassandra, which gives history a personal perspective and allows players to engage more deeply with the material.
This innovative educational tool presents a vast open world that is a detailed recreation of settings, cities, and important landmarks as they are understood to have existed in ancient times. Unlike the base games in the "Assassin's Creed" series, this material, sold separately without requiring the games themselves, is not merely inspired by mythologies where events depart from reality, but is a genuine tool for learning history. Ubisoft distributes it for computers and video game consoles as teaching resources for educators, but it can also be used and explored by any enthusiast of any age or level of basic knowledge.
Other Games That Explore Greek Mythology
When it comes to the subject of “mythology,” it is not at all unusual to find games that feature mythological figures as central elements of their plots, especially when discussing games set in Greece, Egypt, or Scandinavia, for example.
The subject serves as the basis for many games and is frequently revisited across several different franchises, providing inspiration for games such as Tomb Raider and even Final Fantasy. Below, we mention other inspired games that may in some way help players better understand the full complexity of Greek mythology and also open the door to interest in others:
Kid Icarus: Uprising
It was developed by "Project Sora" studio (a group of developers assembled by Kirby's creator) solely to publish this game for Nintendo 3DS, and the studio was dissolved immediately afterward. Released worldwide in March 2012, it is the third game in the Kid Icarus franchise.
The game takes place in a universe based on Greek mythology. When the goddess of darkness Medusa returns to destroy humanity, the protagonist and angel Pit embarks on missions first against her and then against the forces of Hades, lord of the underworld. During the game, the player controls Pit through aerial shooting segments and ground segments. In addition to the single-player campaign, various collectible and unlockable items can be obtained, and several multiplayer modes are available.
Age of Mythology
Age of Mythology is a real-time strategy (RTS) game very similar to Age of Empires. To advance in the game, players need to gather resources, battle, improve armies, and build structures. In addition, Age of Mythology allowed players to choose different civilizations, each with distinctive traits related to the gods it worshiped, providing benefits that assist gameplay.
Hades
This is another excellent RPG, released by Supergiant Games, the company also responsible for games such as Bastion and Transistor. In the plot, Zagreus, son of Hades, wants to leave the underworld and climb Mount Olympus to claim his place among the gods. Helped by figures such as Sisyphus, Eurydice, and Zeus himself, he will face various challenges to accomplish his goal.
God of War
To close the list in grand style, nothing could be better than one of the most acclaimed games in history. The God of War franchise managed to combine all the brutality of hack & slash with a fantastic script full of twists. In it, Zeus's son Kratos seeks forgiveness for his sins and an end to the nightmares that haunted him, since he had been responsible for murdering his family.
God of War's success produced several sequels, including ones involving other mythologies, but that is a subject for another article.
