Gangs Of Sherwood review – taking from the poor

Gangs Of Sherwood – no one’s going to be merry playing this (Picture: Nacon)

The legend of Robin Hood is reinterpreted as a four-player co-op game set in a steampunk version of medieval England, but is it any good?

Every few years, Hollywood remembers that British storytelling classics like King Arthur, Robin Hood, and Sherlock Holmes are public domain and so has another attempt at making money out of them without having to pay a licensing fee. It’s been a long while since this has thrown up anything interesting and more often the resulting film turns out to be another artless cash-in that bears little or no relation to the original stories. Although, if nothing else, it does help to keep the names alive for a little while longer.

Although video games work with the same copyright laws it’s surprisingly rare for them to make use of public domain concepts. There’s always been a steady supply of low budget, seemingly interchangeable, Sherlock Holmes games, but nothing that ever goes mainstream. And while Arthur and the Roundtable are often alluded to in fantasy games they’re rarely featured directly. That’s still doing better than Robin Hood though, who only occasionally appears in video game form.

That seems strange in hindsight, given the ever increasing inequality of the world, but one of the only successful representations of the legend in the modern era was in Mike Bithell’s Volume from 2015. That was a stealth game set in a near future corporate landscape, where Guy of Gisborne was a company CEO. And yet it’s still far more authentic to the mythos – and a considerably better game – when compared to Gangs Of Sherwood.

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Gangs Of Sherwood is set in a steampunk version of medieval England, which is absolutely fine as an idea, even if it comes across as silly rather than fascinating, with all the lion-faced mechs and flying machines. It’s the message behind Robin Hood which is important, not the characters or the plot points, so messing around with the details is perfectly fine… in theory.

Although it can be played solo, Gangs Of Sherwood is primarily advertised as a four-player co-op game. On that basis It’s not to be confused with Hood: Outlaws & Legends from 2021, which we never reviewed but is more firmly multiplayer-only and doesn’t seem to have been very successful. By comparison, Gangs Of Sherwood is trying to be the modern day equivalent of a scrolling beat ‘em-up. Something like Final Fight or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles but with steampunk Robin Hood characters.

Knights Of The Round is one of the best of the genre, so that’s a perfectly fine idea, but obviously it all depends on the game being good or not and, unfortunately, Gangs Of Sherwood is not. Tonally, it’s all over the place, with the whacky steampunk machinery and wisecracking heroes juxtaposed against a very grim portrayal of daily life for the peasantry, which seems as if it’s left over from another entirely different concept for the game.

Each of the four characters fulfils a typical class type, with Maid Marian being an assassin type, Little John a tank, Friar Tuck a healer/defence player, and Robin Hood a ranged fighter. Again, that all makes perfect sense, and it’s clear that Warhammer: Vermintide and its ilk has also been another major influence. The problem with Gangs Of Sherwood is that while the characters all have their different weapons and abilities the combat is so simplistic it barely ever makes any difference.

The combat is basic, but so too is the AI. Gangs Of Sherwood is so incredibly easy that If anyone cared enough this would be one of those games they teach a goldfish to play or beat using a Guitar Hero controller, since it requires almost no skill to just mash the attack button and aim vaguely in the right direction. To make it all even more pointless the game is constantly awarding you A and S ranks for fights, as if it’s Devil May Cry and you’ve actually achieved something.

Gangs Of Sherwood – note the giant howitzer in the top right (Picture: Nacon)

The bosses are especially pathetic, particularly if you’re playing with more than one player, with a reverse difficulty curve where things get even easier the further you progress, as you learn to game the system and unlock more powerful attacks and buffs. There are all sorts of increasingly complex combos but they’re rarely necessary, with the game’s low difficultly actively discouraging experimentation.

Despite all this, it’s impossible to unlock anywhere close to all the abilities on a single playthrough, with the game apparently expecting you to want to go through it all again and again. Given how uninvolving the level and side quest design is, that seems hopelessly optimistic, with little to keep your attention the first time round, let alone the third.

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Something has gone terribly wrong here, because genuine skill and effort has gone into making elements of the game. On a technical level the graphics aren’t great, but they’re not terrible either and the art design is fun, with all the bright colours and chunky characters having an appropriate arcade quality to them. The little pre-mission puppet shows are also neat, and proof that this isn’t just factory-made shovelware.

We can only guess at whatever’s gone wrong with the game’s production but that doesn’t change the end product, which is mindless, tedious, and obnoxious. The fact that there’s a germ of a good idea hidden inside it only makes things worse and will likely ensure it’s even longer before Robin and his Merry Men get another chance at video game fame.

Formats: PC (reviewed), Xbox Series X/S, and PlayStation 5
Price: £34.99
Publisher: Nacon
Developer: Appeal Studios
Release Date: 30th November 2023
Age Rating: 16

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The legend of Robin Hood is reinterpreted as a four-player co-op game set in a steampunk version of medieval England, but is it any good?