Gangs of Sherwood has the bones of something incredible. The unique spin on the Robin Hood legend and moderately stylish combat keeps the action engaging. But a lack of polish and balance makes the co-op brawler a pain for solo players.
One benefit of cooperative play is that we can often ignore certain pressing issues which affect the quality of an otherwise lackluster game.
When you’re goofing off with friends engaged in the chaos of multiple combatants delivering flashy, devastating blows to a screen full of fodder, you often don’t notice grueling difficulty spikes. When playing solo, enemies can easily gang up on you, especially when targets are hard to lock on to or even see. Bad checkpoints and mission resets sting a lot less when a buddy can simply revive you. And when half your attention is engaged with good conversation, a game’s lack of polish might not stand out so much.
Gangs of Sherwood is simply better when playing cooperatively with a pack of buddies who want to beat the snot out of bad guys and have some simple fun.
This isn’t to say Gangs of Sherwood is a bad game. In fact, I frequently had a blast with it. But I can definitely say my issues with Appeal Studios’ refreshing take on the Robin Hood legend compacted the more and more I played in my room alone.
Praise has to be given to the world of Gangs of Sherwood which technically still takes place in the guise of 14th Century England. In this reality, however, King Richard discovered a magical jewel called the Lion Heart which imbued society with incredible technological advancements. Melding steampunk, high fantasy, and science fiction, players will see flying fortresses, skyscraper-high artillery cannons, mystical daggers, flamethrowing tanks, and castles made of stone.
As expected, the Sheriff of Nottingham seizes the power of the Lion Heart and uses it to exert his tyranny over the people. Robin of Locksley, Maid Marian, Little John, and Friar Tuck and their gang of rebels and innocents set the stage to rob the Sheriff of his power. That power includes a force of an average army equipped with swords, shields, and spears. But the Sheriff also has a devastating, magical arsenal at his fingertips. Thankfully, that same power seems to have been infused with Robin and his band of Merry Men. All their attacks possess an otherworldly power to better aid them in the destruction of evil.
The longevity of Gangs of Sherwood‘s story does little to surpass the general premise of Robin and his group leading a resistance and overcoming evil. The game’s dialog, writing, and voice acting is moderately passable to help the plot chug along. Players bounce across a number of areas from villages under siege to wooded hideouts infested with all manner of bandits and fiends.
Stating the obvious, Gangs of Sherwood has a fascinating premise and uses that paintbrush to give players rooms and baddies to devastate. It asks little more and little less. That efficiency didn’t pose a problem for the actual gameplay but I would have preferred a deeper journey into this world. Gangs of Sherwood often ping-pongs between camp and creepy with its jester Alan-A-Dale providing rhyming reflection. There’s humor and drama as the Gang fights its way to the heart of its tyrant. But not only is that journey over quite short if just playing for the campaign’s sake, it’s merely decent rather than exceptional. And that’s a shame.
Gangs of Sherwood often is stretched to the limits of Appeal Studios’ ability. This wide-eyed development studio is obvious rife with talent, yet that focus is often pulled in multiple directions. Budget titles shouldn’t necessarily be criticized for their lack of triple-A polish but that doesn’t always excuse shortcomings that tend to impact the experience in a negative way.
This game does strike me as a brilliant jumping off point for universe exploration, however. And it’s fitting that the core gameplay manages to hold up to scrutiny quite well.
A 3D brawler where the player is tossed into a mostly linear path and tears through a few waves of enemies is what you should expect. Imagine the calmer, more guided aspects of Final Fantasy XVI. Though Gangs of Sherwood does not reach the complexity of a Devil May Cry or Nier: Automata, there are interesting ideas here.
My first character I used was Marian, who is meant to be a nimble assassin that applies a kind of phantom dagger to enemies and can have them stab all at once for a “Flux Attack.” Though the game’s verbiage can be mildly convoluted with special descriptors for each four characters, don’t get too confused. Players string together light and heavy attacks for combos that build up a lettered style gauge.
Robin and Marian are the lithe, agile characters who emphasize critical strikes. Little John and Friar Tuck wield devastating heavy attacks. I especially loved Little John’s “Heat” attacks where players can hold down the attack button briefly to charge up his gauntlet’s damage in between combos. Touches like this give Gangs of Sherwood a mechanical complexity that I didn’t at first expect or appreciate until I spent time with each character and understood their viability in different scenarios.
Most of the enemies players encounter are grunts that can be taken out in a matter of hits. Ranged jerks can interrupt your brawling and larger foes and bosses usually require more than just constant assault. There was enough enemy variety in various encounters that players can’t just blindly pummel foes with no thought. But really, the game is meant to be played cooperatively.
I say this because Gangs of Sherwood solo is simply not as fun as it could be. Firstly, the game’s difficulty feels tailored to cooperative play. As players earn experience and level up, they don’t earn passive upgrades like more damage and health. Instead, they unlock new combo opportunities which, while effective, don’t increase survival. The game’s targeting system leaves a lot to be desired, especially when felling one enemy and trying to move on to the next. Knocking someone back and then trying to attack the nearest threat sometimes doesn’t work because movement isn’t completely fluid.
Worse, falling in battle solo means that players have to spend a portion of that round’s stockpiled gold to revive. Reviving with more health requires more gold and there’s potential to just run out. Death means that players also have to start a level from the beginning and if death comes 20 minutes in at the boss… well that level must be replayed in full. The tendency of enemies to gang up on a solo player, take hard to time potshots from a distance, and generally hit hard means that Gangs of Sherwood is more punishing than it often should be. I played a bit on the hardest difficulty and struggled at the end of Act 1. Yet even on Normal, I had trouble keeping my health up to outlast the swarm of the Sheriff’s men.
Distractions exist in the level where players can take a side path or access a barred section. Often these reward with stockpiles of gold or modifiers that buff the Gang in helpful ways. At first only one slot for these modifiers is available but it takes time to unlock more. I appreciated this touch to reward thorough players but some paths actually require a specific character to open, usually one for Robin and Marian or John and Tuck.
Once you’re grouped with friends, Gangs of Sherwood almost becomes an entirely different game. Difficulty is no longer exacerbated by concentrated mobs. Now everyone can go in and unleash hell. While the game is by no means a technical showpiece, the amount of characters and attack effects on screen without slowdown did impress me. Chaos benefits a game like this in virtually every way and it’s a shame that Appeal Studios couldn’t find a happy medium for solo players.
Gangs of Sherwood may be inhibited by its own limitations but I can’t express how great of a time I had once it fully released and I could merely link up with a full group of players. It may not be a game that has a great deal of permanence in this busy season and packed year but it does deserve appreciation and respect for its tenacity. Such a unique setting and basic, engaging combat are luxuries we so often forget about.
