Hood: Outlaws & Legends is definitely worth the shot, pun intended.
Whenever we think about outlaws, our imagination drifts towards fierce men and women living on the edge of society, a group of bandits fighting for freedom and to preserve their way of life. And possibly, along with bike gangs and cowboys, The Merry Men of Sherwood are the finest examples of what an outlaw is. That is where the power of the myth of Robin Hood comes from and that’s why Hood: Outlaws & Legends works so well.
Hood: Outlaws & Legends is a game that is both so familiar and similar to other titles in the genre and, at the same time, feels so unique, mainly because of its setting and core mechanics. If you are looking for some team-based PVP action that tries to bring something to the table, then this game is right in your alley.
Hood: Outlaws & Legends is an objective-oriented team-based online competitive game that perfectly blends elements of stealth, assault, and strategy. In this game, each player poses as one of the Merry Men and Robin Hood himself, and each one of them embodies a different class with its own abilities and quirks. The motivations of your characters are pretty straightforward: Hood and his men are fighting against the tyranny of the Sheriff, who serves only the interests of the king.
It is through stealing from the rich and giving back to the poor that the group tries to bring some balance to an unjust world. The cycle of the game is always the same: infiltrate the fortress, steal a key that opens the chamber in which the treasure is kept, and flee the place.
But here’s the catch, your group of Merry Men is not the only one to do the same, as a rival gang is also trying to accomplish the same feat, and that’s where the competition begins. The first part of every assault pits the players against the AI, and that’s where the stealth part of the games takes place. Because once the players are trying to get to the treasure and make it out alive, all hell breaks loose and both teams will try to kill each other and redirect the AI characters’ attention towards them.
To make things worse, once you acquire the key and try to unlock the treasure chest, you will face the wrath of the sheriff, a relentless and invulnerable character who you can only stagger, in the same vein as Nemesis, Mr. X, Lady Dimitrescu or the Xenomorph in Alien Isolation.
While only four classes may seem underwhelming, the truth of the matter is you actually don’t need more, and the vast array of customization options make it feel like there are plenty of different characters for you to choose from. You have John, the aggressive brute; Robin, the sniper; Marianne, the stealthy assassin, and Tooke, the flail-wielding mystic. Robin’s arrows and Marianne’s mini crossbow can deliver powerful shots and encourage healthy distance, while Tooke’s flail and John’s hammer can take unsuspecting opponents out of combat.
In terms of special abilities, you have Tooke’s healing and enemy highlighting, Marianne’s ability to turn predator-style invisible and perform a series of easy sneak kills, John’s insane mode, and Robin’s explosive arrows, so everyone has great reasons to be selected, and no one character feels redundant or unnecessary.
This game is not about being the strongest but to be the most clever. In this sense, it translates the guerrilla tactics used in fiction by robin hood and his men. You will need to strategize, communicate, and outsmart your enemies, whether IA or human, and not succumb to the ever-present temptation of going in guns blazing. It’s a mental game as much as it is an action game.
Unfortunately, unless you have a solid group of players to play with, this game will feel like you can see all it has to offer rather soon. After a couple of hours, the game might seem a bit too repetitive and monotonous. This of course changes drastically when you play with a close group of friends and play constantly against human opponents instead of trying to outsmart the AI all the time. On top of this, you have to factor in the clunky melee combat system, which feels like can be improved to feel a bit more fluid.
Finally, the game debuts with a handful of maps, inspired by English medieval aesthetics, with everything you can expect: walled villages, coastal fortresses, castles, and the whole shebang. However, precisely because of this it becomes a bit too predictable and obvious, because, on a visual level, they feel way too similar. Unlike other medieval-looking sceneries, like the ones of Assassin’s Creed or For Honor.
This should not be an issue except that the maps are fixed, which means that, while the areas for you to infiltrate are quite interesting, once we know all their secrets, repetitiveness may come soon as there are no other ways to shake the game up.
All things said, Hood: Outlaws & Legends is definitely worth the shot, pun intended. Perhaps the Robin Hood mythos is not your cup of tea, but this game at least tries to add something new to the team-based formula. Where Hood: Outlaws & Legends triumphs it does gloriously, and where it fails, there feels like there is plenty of room for improvement. Perhaps with some DLC in the shape of new classes, more maps, and some additional game types, this game could go from interesting to magnificent. Just like For Honor did back in the day.
Also, check our Hood: Outlaws & Legends PlayStation 5 review.
