Gangs of Sherwood [Review]

Gangs of Sherwood is a fantasy steampunk style game of the story of Robin Hood. The setting is a nice and new way to change up a very familiar formula. Everyone knows the story of Robin Hood, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor–it’s been done quite a few times. It’s not usually done in a mature way however. Gangs of Sherwood takes the story of Robin Hood back to its roots and is actually a bit violent, as the gang takes care of their enemies and keeps their helmets as a trophy. While it’s a more realistic portrayal of the story, the fantastical setting still makes it feel like a fable.

As for the game play, the game is pretty simplistic and reminds me alot of a more polished Dungeons and Dragons Dark Alliance or one of my favorite games, a lesser known game by Bethesda, Hunted: The Demon's Forge. This game features two buttons to attack, a dash button, and a block button, with the combination of R1 and R2 players can string together combos once learned. It’s something that’s very easy for new players to pick up and get going. The characters themselves also have similar combos, which is helpful for switching characters. Every character seems to have a pop-up combo, something I enjoy a lot in games. It’s often seen in fighting games or even games like Devil May Cry. There's nothing more satisfying than slapping a bad guy into the sky and then jumping up to greet them and destroy them with a devastating combo before slamming them to the ground. It takes only three buttons and you knock or throw an enemy into the air for you to hook shot to and attack. While it may seem really simple, it makes it easy to switch characters, which is critical in a game like this. Since only one person can be each character, this means that when joining another gang, you can play whatever roll is left without frustration.

The game had quite a bit of charm, from the characters to the setting to even the NPCs. My personal favorite was the traveling puppeteer that also acted as the narrator who continued to push his luck with the legal system. As for NPCs, there was a particular one that we saw across multiple levels, trying incredibly hard to resuscitate someone that seemingly was harmed in a fire. Even though it was the same skin and animation repeated, it was entertaining to see his determination. We created our own lore for this poor soul. He was always going to different battlefields trying to lift some dead guy off the ground. His heroic deeds shall never be forgotten. It’s nice that the game was able to give personalities to their characters like this, because frankly, the voice acting was on the same level of a B-movie. The main characters sound great, and I personally love friendship banter. It reminds me a lot of the banter to Final Fantasy 15, and that's pretty good company to be in. As for the non playable NPCs, the charm was left up to character designs and personalities, and luckily they were able to give us that.

While the game is fun, I did have some difficulties. Mainly with making a multiplayer lobby. For some reason the game wouldn’t allow me to make a “friend only” lobby, my teammates were only able to join my game after I made the lobby public even though we’re friends on Xbox. Another frustrating thing was there were some blockades that didn’t make much sense. A few of the barriers that only Little John and Friar Tuck were able to lift seemed short enough for the player to jump over, which made a few parts a bit confusing.

Overall we really enjoyed this game and it was exactly what we were all looking for, and anyone looking for a fun adventure game to play with friends should give this game a look. Gangs of Sherwood is now available on Xbox Series System, PC and Playstation 5.