Gangs of Sherwood

Four-player fighting is all too frivolous and all too fleeting.

Like its babbling crew of outlaws, Gangs of Sherwood tries to compensate for its fundamental shortcomings with a brash persona and propulsive energy. It’s a fastpaced, four-player shooter-slash-brawler with a vividly drawn alt-fantasy world, a knockabout comedy tone, and lively combat. Unfortunately, these colourful distractions fade away all too quickly, revealing Robin Hood rummaging through your purse as he tries to lift $58 out of it.

The setting of Gangs of Sherwood takes the familiar Robin Hood tale and plonks it in an alternate, sci-fi history. Generally I’m not a fan of gaming’s fixation with alternative takes on Robin Hood. But Gangs of Sherwood quickly won me over with its vivid combination of steampunk and medievalism. For what is clearly a budget title, Gangs of Sherwood chews through some impressive scenery, with dramatic backdrops and some monumental combat arenas.

Combat shows initial potential. Whichever character you play as, battles are about combining light and heavy attack combos to deal massive damage to enemies. For example, Robin’s baseline moveset involves using close-range melee attacks to generate magical ‘star’ arrows that hover in the air around the battlefield. By hitting an enemy with a charged shot from your bow, you can unleash these purple arrows at enemies all at once.

So what’s the problem? First, Gangs of Sherwood is far too easy. Your characters don’t just level up across the game. There’s a separate, in-mission levelling system that gradually bolsters your health as you progress through the map. This means missions are always hardest at the start, whereas dying requires active effort beyond the halfway point. Moreover, combat is so formatted around arena-based encounters that it becomes deeply repetitive, and while characters initially have pleasing skill progression, later abilities tend to be less useful or less interesting.

The main missions are enjoyable enough to fly through, but little of the story has any lasting impact. And at just five hours long, the game wraps up so fast that you won’t have unlocked all your character’s abilities by the time the credits roll.

VERDICT

Shows initial promise, but both the script and the systems run out of steam before the end of its brief running time.

Rick Lane

Robin’s Star Arrow ability is a little confusing at first, but can be supremely powerful.

I didn’t expect the depiction of Nottingham to be THIS realistic.