Assassin’s Creed Odyssey: Naval Combat

All this month, IGN has been releasing videos around the upcoming launch of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, and although the game doesn’t seem to be getting as much attention as when Assassin’s Creed Origins launched – due perhaps to the similar nature of both games – there still seems to be plenty to get excited about. Let’s take a look at some of the recent news: Naval Combat.

Naval Combat

Via Ubisoft Quebec, IGN released a detailed video surrounding naval combat in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. Unlike past games that involved navigable ships – looking at you Black Flag and Rogue – the ships in Odyssey are actually steered by oars, and not sales, making them much more agile in the water, changing the way players will do naval combat.

Instead of wide swings to line up cannons, players will have the ability to quickly maneuver their ships to avoid incoming rams, setting themselves up for a good hit, or quickly evading and incoming arrow attack. Arrows and javelins are the name of the game here, not cannot balls. Players will even have the option to use fire arrows, setting enemy ships ablaze, forcing them to potentially stop what they are doing while crews douse the flames.

Ships will be broken down into segments that players can launch attacks at. The more vulnerable spots on a ship will be highlighted to allow attacks to be focused on those areas. Should you ram a ship and split it into two pieces – which is very possible and a great way to deal a significant blow to a ship – the pieces remain part of the world and sink to the ocean floor, allowing you to dive down and perhaps loot some treasure you didn’t realize was on board. While we have no indication how long those ships will remain on the ocean floor, it would be cool to see them stay there for a significant period of time.

What’s a ship without a good crew, right? In Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, players will be able to recruit enemies to add to their crew, including a number of high ranking officers. It appears that any regular grunt soldier can be added to your crew – as generally fort captains need to be killed in order to successfully complete the area – and the process appears pretty easy. Simply sneak up behind an enemy, knock him out, and recruit him.

Of course there is a cost to having these people join your cause, and like weapons, these crew members are ranked. Yes, you can get a legendary shipmate, just like you can get legendary weapons. Just remember: recruitment costs money, and the better the soldier, the more expensive the recruitment costs we would imagine.

Are you excited for Assassin’s Creed Odyssey? The game launches this October, and we will hopefully have a review around launch!