Assassin’s Creed Odyssey appears to have taken a few inspirations from the famed Nemesis System of Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, complete with foes that have unique stats to giving players the choice to recruit or slay their enemies.
In an interview with GameInformer, creative director Jonathan Dumont elaborated on the ins and outs of the game’s Mercenary System in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. As discussed, players will get a bounty on their head if they commit crimes, with each criminal act increasing their notoriety level. The higher the notoriety level, the more you will be sought after by mercenaries. Now, this is where the few similarities with the Nemsis System kicks in.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey starts with 50 mercenaries that are sourced from the game’s list of hand-crafted characters or randomly generated ones. These mercenaries are similar to the deadly Phylakes in Assassin’s Creed Origins, but have their very own unique abilities, gear, and strengths and weaknesses. “It’s endless Phylakes,” said Dumont.” Additionally, some mercenaries are even accompanied by a ferocious bear to scare the bejesus out of criminals like you.
Fighting mercenaries can be difficult, but beating them has some cool rewards. Firstly, you can acquire great gear by slaying these bounty hunters. Furthermore, you can recruit them as a crew for your ship to benefit from their special abilities. For example, players can utilize a mercenary’s active ability to deploy on-foot crew members for a limited amount of time.
There will be no shortage of mercenaries in the game, as new ones will take the place of slain or recruited bounty hunters. GameInformer also stated that each notoriety tier has special benefits for players.
Arguably, the Mercenary System fittingly suits the RPG-heavy focus of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and adds more complexity to the game. We’ll see for ourselves how it all comes together once the game hits shelves on Oct. 5, 2018 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
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