When I first heard about Hood: Outlaws & Legends, I was extremely excited about this game. I mean who wouldn’t be? A Robin Hood fantasy heist game, where you put together a crew of outlaws and then steal from the rich and give to the poor sounds like a cool concept. I felt like Stephen Fry from Futurama and was throwing my credit card at the monitor, yelling, “Take my money, now!” The developer Sumo Digital and publisher Focus Home Interactive had a moneymaker on their hands, and I was one of the first in line.
The main idea behind Hood: Outlaws & Legends is that you and three fellow brigands must work together to pilfer spoils from the bumbling and overtaxing rich in a three-stage plan. First, you must lift a key of an awfully bad man to the vault. Next, you must break into the said vault, and finally, make off with the newly acquired goods. If it was just between your crew and the computer-controlled morons that guard the wealth, it should be easy. Unfortunately, there is a small wrinkle in this plan as you aren’t the only one seeking the treasure. A rival crew of would-be thieves also want to get the loot and will do everything in their power to make your plans fail, so they can acquire the goods for themselves.
Hood: Outlaws & Legends is all about stealth and cooperation and then when that all goes to hell, this is where the fun begins. You and your merry men/women will get to start frantically murdering NPCs and rival players alike until there can be only one crew to make off with the treasure. The best comparison I could come up with would be Assassin’s Creed meets For Honor with a splash of Robin of Loxley history on the side.
There is a lot of good things about this game, but I’m not going to sugarcoat it as there are some bad things as well. If you read a lot of reviews online, you mostly only get to see the negative perspective. So, I am going to try to inform you about both and why I think this is probably one of the better PC games I have got to play this year. First up is the design of the game. It is incredibly detailed, and the art and visual feel of the game is on point. From the scenery to the characters themselves, it makes you feel like you’re in 14th century Sherwood Forest. With the detail in the clothing and the weapons, you feel like you’re playing within a different historical era. While I was playing, I got that feel of the time of knights and kings and nobility, so yes, I was hooked from the get-go.
Although there are only a few characters. I believe that each one has his/her own diversity and play style to make them feel different from one another. When I was playing the archer, I felt like I was stealthy and, at the moment, I let my arrow fly I had the impulse of a sniper with a bow. When I played the big man, I was strong and powerful, and his hammering blows felt like I was literally crushing my opponent. When I played the close-quarter fighting female, the hunter didn’t disappoint. With her quick strikes and the use of her wrist bow, it was quick and painful. Each had its own playstyle, and in a group, you need a little of each to complete the mission.
When you get to the PVP part of the game where your crew of thieves must fend off the rival gang, the one-on-one matchups can make your characters more entertaining. Do you want to take on the archer with the brute, do you want to have the mystic take on the hunter? Each one of these characters has weakness and strengths and you must learn what would be a better fight for a better outcome. I had to put in a lot of hours to get my level up enough to really enjoy the game and unlock a lot of the skills and such to get a better feel for each character.
Some of the negative comments like matchmaking just do not exist for new players. I understand this and I feel their pain. It was not until I put in around five hours that I started getting match after match. The more I played, the better the odds of getting in a game and it became instant. I have seen a few reviews about the gameplay felt wonky at best. Well for that, I must say that for every new game that has come out you need to get a feel of how it works. It does take a while, but I had no issues adjusting to the feel and now there is no issue for me.
Now I have to say that the game is amazingly simple once you play it enough. However, the PVP part of the game can make this incredibly fun and repeatable. I am sure they could have made this game like a battle-royal-style game and I’m incredibly pleased they did not. I like the feel of you and three friends stealing from the rich to give to the poor and if someone else wants to take that from you they need to prove they are better than you. Some of the other squads seem to be impossible to put down. That just means they have played more than you. With that, I say do not get frustrated. Just keep playing and having fun. Sooner or later, your time will come, and you can be the one walking away with the loot.
If you are into Assassin’s Creed games and need that For Honor experience, then I would gladly recommend this game to you. There are still some bugs with matchmaking when you are lower level, and just like any other PVP games, there will be people who are better than you which may be seen as an excuse not to play. Hell, you will get frustrated from time to time, but if you play from a different mindset, as enjoying or learning the game, you will have a lot of fun.
This game is one of the better Team-Based games that I have had the opportunity to play. It has an amazing design, and the soundtrack is decent. The character leveling allows for more skills and with the skills, you become more of an asset to your team and a pain in the posterior to your rivals. The developers keep showing that they really care about their fanbase by correcting issues weekly and are working on bettering the game each chance they get. I honestly believe that this game and this company hit the target on every level.
Hood: Outlaws & Legends is on sale now with 2 editions. The standard edition is $29.99 and the Year One pass comes with exclusive items unlocked for the next three seasons for $49.99, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC Steam, and PC Epic Game Store.
This review was written based on a digital review copy of Hood: Outlaws & Legends for PC provided by Focus Home Interactive.
