Monolith Productions truly broke new ground with Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, especially when it came to the Nemesis system that premiered with the title. Unfortunately, the controversial microtransactions in Shadow of War, the highly anticipated sequel, have seemingly stunted the series and the eventual evolution of the Nemesis system.
Oddly enough, this mechanic still hasn’t made the move into the main stream the way open-worlds and souls-like currency economies have proliferated games over the years. So, with Monolith Productions moving on from Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, there is now a vacancy in titles launching with a Nemesis style system, and next-gen consoles may be the best place to revive it.
The massively increased processing coming from next-gen consoles, along with the insanely quick load times, could open up for the Nemesis system to appear in a number of different titles and across different genres. In Shadow of Mordor, the mechanic explores what wandering enemies and a system of opponents that remember and learn from previous encounters can do in an open-world environment. However, any structure can make good use of this system, from brutally difficult metroidvanias to more structured titles with a mission based approach to level design.
From Software’s upcoming title hasn’t actually been announced to be transitioning from the originally planned PS4 and Xbox One release, but the lack of news may suggest that the release may be delayed until Elden Ring launches with next-gen consoles. If this is the case, then the extended delay on development, or at least the radio silence coming from the developer, could open up an opportunity for the game to introduce new mechanics to the Souls-like genre. In fact, introducing a Nemesis mechanic could be what separates Elden Ring from previous games from the developer by including enemies that grow stronger and learn over time, possibly even fitting into the lore.
This could take a number of different forms, either by spawning stronger opponents in areas that have been either repeatedly farmed or traversed, similar to the way Ashina Castle slowly altered over time as the world of Sekiro gradually changed. Combining this with Dark Souls 2‘s admittedly imperfect despawning system could lead to a world and level design that slowly becomes more difficult as players continue to explore the world and it evolves around them. Granted, this is only the tip of the iceberg for Souls-likes, as the same could be applied to bosses, where encounters that gave the player the most trouble could return to join the final boss or guard the path to the final area.
One of the best genres for a Nemesis system could in fact be horror, with older titles in the Resident Evil series tiptoeing around this type of mechanic before. Similar to how Resident Evil 7 managed to revitalize the series by reinventing the series’ approach to horror with a first person view, Resident Evil 8‘s massive world may have the opportunity to do the same by reviving older systems. Specifically, Resident Evil 2 and 3 were originally advertised as having enemies like Mr. X and Nemesis who would follow the player around and could appear to stalk them at any time.
In the case of Resident Evil 8, however, it may be better for the series to push this even further, possibly merging the already existing Nemesis system for Resident Evil‘s Tyrants with the Regenerator from Resident Evil 4. Taking an already terrifying enemy and making him hunt down the player across a large map with increasing difficulty with each new encounter could elevate what was already a highlight of the best game in the series. So, while Resident Evil already has a terrifying enough Nemesis system in place, pushing forward with a similar system to what is present in Shadow of Mordor could reinvent how the series tackles horror.
Looking from how the Nemesis system can enhance horror, as well as Souls-likes, one of the largest influences it could have on Next-Gen gaming is in the Looter genre. From that perspective, Counterplay Games could be one of the best choices for implementing this mechanic with the upcoming Looter-Slasher Godfall. Leaning into the looting mechanics, with defeated enemies, or enemies that manage to beat the players opening up new loot pools as an added reward for overcoming a difficult obstacle.
A Nemesis that follows the player throughout the world, hunting them down as attempt to grind out more loot or simply make their way through the story, could make Godfall a welcome twist on Looter mechanics. Having a somewhat reliable loot source stalking the player instead of the other way around, means that all someone would have to do is wait for the fight to come to them. However, this will have to be a brutally difficult fight to win in order to best offset the availability of a quality loot pool always waiting to catch players off guard.
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