Hood: Outlaws & Legends Review

Steal from the wealthy… and die making an attempt

I bear in mind Robin Hood being an enthralling animated fox however here is a recreation based mostly on the legend that you don’t need your youngsters to play.

At its core, Hood: Outlaws & Legends is a straightforward recreation the place 2 groups of 4 gamers compete whereas sneaking round enemy guards in an effort to snatch a key from the Sheriff, unlock a vault, carry a treasure chest to an extraction level, and use a crank to load it onto a ship. Whichever workforce will get the ultimate crank wins the match and contemplating matches can go on wherever from 10 to half-hour, the final moments may be fairly thrilling. The gameplay itself is much like most melee stealth video games the place you’ll be able to sneak up behind enemies to execute them, use character-specific weapons and skills, and throw numerous objects. There are additionally intelligent mechanics similar to opening doorways and decreasing ropes to create shortcuts and you’ll even declare spawn factors which generally is a essential step in direction of victory. All of this works collectively fairly properly and I discovered myself captivated by all of it for, frankly, far longer than I most likely ought to have been.

One facet of Hood: Outlaws & Legends that is improbable is its assortment of traditional characters as you’ll be able to select from the enduring ranger Robin Hood, a hunter referred to as Marianne (Maid Marian), the brawler Little John, and a mystic named Tooke (Friar Tuck). Every one has a novel weapon and talent in addition to another traits and equippable perks that unlock as you degree up. Whether or not you are bashing skulls with John’s hammer, assassinating guards with the sneaky Marianne, sniping opponents with Robin, or therapeutic your allies whereas revealing the close by enemies with Tooke; it is an excessive amount of enjoyable to make the most of and grasp every character’s distinctive gameplay gimmicks.

One other noteworthy gameplay mechanic is how one can talk together with your teammates with out the necessity to truly discuss to them by way of chat though that clearly helps. Particularly, you’ll be able to level at numerous factors of curiosity similar to merchandise containers, enemies, and such then faucet a button and that factor will turn into tagged and present up on everybody’s radars after your character notifies their workforce by way of an in-game voice clip. It is cool stuff that provides you a strong benefit as you attempt to sneak round and achieve a leg-up in your opponents.

On the draw back, Hood: Outlaws & Legends would not look all that nice for a PS5 recreation. For starters, the character fashions are fairly lifeless and generic. I want that they had extra weight to them and had been animated extra fluidly as a result of that will have made the gameplay much more fulfilling. Talking of which, it is a very darkish recreation which makes traversing the extra complicated maps a chore as a result of it is simple to face a darkish wall and see nothing however blackness as you scratch your head questioning the place you must go. The Souls collection dealt with this finest since you all the time have slightly mild that brightens up darkish corners each time you end up going through one.

Lastly, I want that Hood: Outlaws & Legends featured extra content material as a result of after taking part in it for just a few hours, it began to turn into very repetitive. There are solely a handful of maps and one specifically saved arising time and again which was extremely irritating. Positive, the maps are considerably intricate and huge however is it actually an excessive amount of to ask for extra? I’d have additionally cherished to see extra recreation modes in an effort to alleviate the tedium. Even when there have been single-player missions, that will have gone a good distance so as to add replay worth.

Hood: Outlaws & Legends options a formidable amalgamation of gameplay components that can have you ever hooked. Nonetheless, its total gameplay loop will begin to turn into monotonous prior to you’d hope attributable to its repetitious nature.