In a recent rapid-fire interview, Assassin's Creed Odyssey creative director Jonathan Dumont revealed a feature that he fought hard to include in the upcoming action role-playing game: enemy recruitment. For the first time in the franchise, enemies can be recruited to fight for Alexios or Kassandra, whether at land or sea.

This system, which was compared to the Nemesis System in the Middle-earth video game franchise, sees these characters become at-sea and on-land bonuses, with the recruited enemies and NPCs giving various bonuses to naval gameplay. Examples of this effect in Assassin's Creed Odyssey include better flaming arrows, increased damage when ramming other ships, and more.

Moreover, once these characters are recruited, they become known as "lieutenants" and can be called to land via the "Call to Arms" skill, which sees these recruits becoming distractions. In fact, Dumont stated, “You’re also able to call them as a distracting mob when you’re trying to stealth around. You can point to a certain character and say ‘alright, go distract him,’ and then one of your guys is going to come in and beat him up."

assassin's creed odyssey navy

The ship has four slots for lieutenants, meaning it's safe to assume that they can either die or be swapped out for better characters later in the game. Utilizing the player character's eagle, NPCs can be analyzed to reveal their in-game bonuses, and they can then be recruited by sneaking up on them and knocking them out. Although that's just one example, it's likely there are other ways to recruit, as according to Dumont, "Almost everybody in the world can be recruited for your ship."

It was also revealed that quest-givers can be, at times, recruited once their respective quest is complete, but it doesn't seem likely that love interests could be recruited. Regardless, the overall inclusiveness of this mechanic, especially as it applies to enemies, should make for some interesting lieutenant combinations.

Considering Odyssey will be "much longer" than Origins, mechanics like this ought to see the quality of life for the game somewhat extended. Of course, with a few months until launch, it remains to be seen how effective this recruitment system is in the game, but it's pretty intriguing nonetheless.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is scheduled to release on October 5, 2018, for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

Source: Game Informer