Who does not know the tale of Robin Hood to the Gangs of Sherwood? A man who steals from the rich and gives to the poor. Over the years we have seen many takes on this iconic story but I don’t think I have seen one that has put you in a Medieval Futuristic dystopia before. That is the setting that Gangs of Sherwood have gone for and I have to say I kind of dig it. When I first saw the gameplay and the trailer I was super stoked to jump in and see what Nacon & Appeal Studios have done with the legend himself Robin Hood.
I was provided with a copy for the PC so my review will be based on my experiences with Gangs of Sherwood while playing on PC.
Gangs of Sherwood is an action 1 – 4 player game set in a reimagined world of Robin Hood. Fight the armies of the Sheriff of Nottingham who, thanks to the Philosopher’s Stones, is more powerful than ever. Lead the rebellion as one of the Merry Men to free them from the Sheriff’s oppression. You get to play as either Robin Hood, Little John, Maid Marian, or Friar Tuck while you team up with three other players to take on various missions. With the four characters, there is one that will fight your play style as you can customise what skills and equipment you have to fit you and your team.
Each character comes with their playstyle. Friar Tuck has a massive club that dishes out big melee damage, Little John punches everything, Marian is a fleet-footed duellist and Robin Hood has his iconic bow. No matter which character you pick it is all about combining light and heavy attacks to fight off your foes. An example of this would be that Robin Hood can summon magic arrows when hitting enemies and they will stay on the field until you use a charge shot from your bow.
When you do this all the magical arrows fire at that enemy and deal huge damage. Each character has their gimmick that as you progress, will get to unlock more abilities to better your versatility when running missions solo or in co-op.
In the first few Acts, I enjoyed the combat, but it became quite repetitive when I’d found my build and just ran it. There is looting but it doesn’t go beyond providing a small attribute buff or a few coins for you to repurchase gear and upgrades at the main hub area. I feel like it could use more fleshing out and the ability to customise your characters more could help propel the combat and gameplay that bit more.
Your characters level up during missions which means at the being of a mission you might find it tough but by halfway, you are walking over everything that comes your way. I haven’t seen this done before and feel like there needs to be a balance when it comes to the level to stop you and your team from becoming OP. You do get the occasional side-quests and NPC to talk to but they don’t offer a big amount to the overall story and lack any real impact.
Graphically Gangs of Sherwood looks good. The art style, environments, and character designs I loved and the blend between the two styles (futuristic and Medieval) was amazing. However, there were obvious graphical problems with animation clipping, janky movements, and the occasional lagging and frame drop. It made me wonder whether this game was fully polished before release.
The audio starts enjoyable with the British comedic tone but after an hour or so of gameplay, you just wish the character would take a breath or stop making jokes about Maid Marian’s many brothers who by the end of Act One get sick of seeing and wonder just how big is her family. The little puppet-shows you get at the beginning of a mission are cool and reminded me of Punch & Judy. Though it does feel like the script tries so hard to push some comedy that it falls flat after the first few laughs.
When it comes to replay value, Gangs of Sherwood has you covered. With the four playable characters, co-op with up to four players it makes every mission feel different even if you have done it a few times already. This is thanks to the different skills and abilities the four characters have and not every player plays the same. It is slightly frustrating trying to party up with other players and I found it a very tedious process but when you do manage to party up it does make Gangs of Sherwood so much more fun.
The main story can be completed quickly so having the chance to go through it possibly four times if you want to do a run-through with each of the characters does flesh out your playtime. However, it does depend on how much you want to play through the same thing repeatedly.
Conclusion
Gangs of Sherwood quickly showed signs of promise with its fun spin on the classic Robin Hood tale and colourful combat but fell flat about halfway to the finish line with its lack of depth in certain areas (looting) and graphical bugs. The story is okay but nothing to write home about and the combat can quickly become repetitive after playing a certain character for multiple missions in a row.
The co-op side of it is fun when you eventually manage to party up with people but I found myself just going into missions as I was sick of hanging around. Gangs of Sherwood fosters the idea that you will need to grind a bit as you won’t have all your character’s abilities by the time the credits roll. For an asking price of £34.99, it isn’t too bad but I’d maybe do your research into Gangs of Sherwood before taking the plunge. I enjoyed my time playing as the Merry Men but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I was hoping to and for that reasons, I’m giving Gangs of Sherwood a 6 out of 10.
Gangs of Sherwood Trailer
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