Gangs of Sherwood (PlayStation 5)
Official GBAtemp Review
Product Information:
- Release Date (NA): November 27, 2023
- Release Date (EU): November 27, 2023
- Publisher: Nacon
- Developer: Appeal Studio
- Genres: Action, Adventure
- Also For: Computer, Xbox Series X|S
Game Features:
Robin Hood is an enduring tale of a heroic English outlaw who famously was of the people and for the people, by taking back from the rich and giving to the poor. Whether or not this figure is historically accurate, or even existed, is neither here nor there, but the presence of this game is real and the themes are interesting and relatively engaging.
The game is primarily for up to four players to team up for cooperative play, though you can complete the game as a lone wolf the fun factor will sadly be a mere fraction of its intended enjoyment.
With an odd medieval-steampunk mash-up of styles going on, Gangs of Sherwood pits you against the Sheriff of Nottingham's army through the futuristic dystopia of Locksley and gives you wave after wave of enemies followed by a mini-boss, then a few more waves of fodder that invariably crescendo into a proper boss battle.
A Tale As Old As Time
The game begins in Major Oak with a somewhat cybernetically enhanced four-armed Alan-a-dale setting the scene through his poetic puppet shows. These shows give a little backstory and pave the way for you and your compadres to get hyped up for your next mission, but don't get too excited just yet, there are caveats all along the way that will drain any joy from this experience.
As the story goes, The Sheriff of Nottingham has stolen the "Lion Heart" a sacred magical stone he uses to power-up his army and oppress the people. Your gang of resistance fighters must regain the balance and prevent the sheriff from taxing the heck out of the residents.
You get to choose your character first and foremost, with Robin Hood (archer), Little John (brawler), Friar Tuck (medic) and Maid Marian (assassin) rounding off the gang. Each character has their unique traits and each one has a core ability that can be used to progress into different areas of each mission. Each character has "shards" which are perks that enhance your playstyle, like giving you multiple shots with an arrow, or having homing shots, or higher-powered ammunition for example.
You also have a grappling hook/lash for aerial attacks and traversal, meaning that you can grab an enemy in mid-air and continue adding to your combo counter, and you can also interact with contextual traps and environmental quirks to help take down your foes. Lastly, there is a feature called "Rebel instinct" that unleashes powered-up attacks to take down the most oppressive enemies.
Clunky Systems Throughout
At the end of each wave of enemies, you get an evaluation of your skills similar to Devil May Cry with a rating system that favours combo-hit-count and swiftness over variety and style. Hammering the R buttons, yes, the R buttons are the method of button bashing in this title, and it's not comfortable to play, which is weird when you consider that an FPS centres around the triggers, but a beat-em-up traditionally employs the face buttons as your primary input for delivering a smackdown.
The cooldown on this system makes zero sense. You fight a wave of baddies, you get rated, and the rating meter then drains until you find another group, so essentially the feeling is that you must dash around to the next fight to maintain the combo bar and keep your rating high. The downside is that you have tasks to complete, like destroying four engines or something equally fetch-questy to move forward, and so the meter drains to zero and you could not have possibly added to it. Perhaps this should have been cut off when you're graded and then restarted when you enter a new battle.
I have to admit that I completed 33% of the game in my first sixty-minute sitting and then I rather unexcitedly finished the rest over a further 2-3 sittings, but I never got any form of enticement from the game. It was a trudge, it was monotonous and it felt like I was playing a PS2 or PS3 game that has basic combat, basic graphics and clunky controls throughout.
The levelling up method is all that draws you through, and the compulsory donating of your spoils back to the people as a nod to the "steal from the rich to give to the poor" adage is good, but not enough to give you the impetus to go find more gold and upgrades in order to bolster your donations to the needy.
Most critically: I couldn't get past the fact that the game feels dated and tired though it desperately wants to look stylish and modern. Environments are nothing to write home about, the objects and collision with them are questionable, enemy AI is mindless, and even traversal of the city and forests is basic and uninteresting. Nothing stands out or wows you, and nothing pushes the system to show you something neat or nuanced for this game in particular.
I had to remove the motion blur too as, in motion, the game was somewhat of a smeared mess when running through the various places, so taking that setting off improved the visual impact of the environments for me, but it's not enough for me to say that I was pleasantly impressed with the environments because honestly there isn't a vast amount to praise here.
You Have To Be The Band Of Merry Men
Playing with friends undoubtedly lends itself to better experiences, so perhaps this game should have been a purely online/local pursuit for 2-4 players rather than retain the single-player mode that doesn't allow you to combine characters or do anything overly enjoyable.
Unfortunately at the time of writing, not one of my friends has bought this game yet, so I could not experience the camaraderie that goes hand in hand with online multiplayer, but it shouldn't take my friends to make this game good, surely?
Gangs of Sherwood had such promise, but for me, it doesn't deliver enough depth to be able to wholeheartedly recommend regardless of its obvious shortcomings. While multiplayer bolsters any case for playing this game, by and large, the single-player experience is massively lacking any enjoyment or replayability unless you love grinding your ass off for the overly expensive in-game items and costumes.
At £49.99 this game isn't quite as affordable as £25-35 games, nor does it deliver as much as you would perhaps want from a £50 title. Heck, it doesn't even deliver a 15-20 hour single-player experience within the same range as say Assassins Creed Mirage did with a slightly lesser £44.99 price tag, so bear that in mind if you do decide to drop your hard-earned cash on it.
Check out some gameplay for yourself and see what you think, because I know some games resonate with some more than others, perhaps this game was not for me.
Gangs of Sherwood Gameplay Overview:
Verdict
- Four-player cooperative play
- A semi-interesting take on the original story
- Combo/rating system
- Clunky gameplay
- Uninspired combat
- Voice "acting" is cringe
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