The latter missions are more traditional. The former involves set-piece engagements with preset traps you trigger by shooting arrows at targets in the trees, pits that you can lure enemies into, and Merry Men hidden under leaves. There are many types of missions as well, although they fall into two general categories-cash-generating ambushes of convoys on the forest roads and major town expeditions that advance the plot. Multiple mission choices are typically available, so you can pick and choose based on whatever strikes your fancy. Then you decide on a mission, gather the Merry Men you want to take along-you get to select renowned figures like Will Scarlet, Little John, and Friar Tuck, along with fictional nobodies who fill out the ranks-and get started. The map itself details the forest and the five surrounding districts of Lincoln, Nottingham, Derby, York, and Leicester. Missions are accessed through a map, which you can consult in Sherwood Forest. You can train in combat and archery by visiting an area with a drill instructor and tree-mounted targets, gather apples (helpful when you need to distract guards) by walking under a nearby tree, hunt for food by visiting the spit, or dig into the feasting table to recover health. Every action available in Sherwood Forest is accessed this way. If you want to make arrows, or leather for coin purses, you send somebody to the designated hut to begin work. Everything must be manually created by assigning Merry Men to workshops set aside for the production of specific items. It functions in a similar way to bases in traditional real-time strategy games, with structures operating as small factories.īut resource production in Robin Hood isn't simply a matter of erecting a building and watching numbers increase. In the woods, you have a Swiss Family Robinson-style home in the trees that serves as your headquarters for the remainder of the lengthy campaign. After two opening missions on your own that get you acquainted with the game engine and introduce the first of many allies who become the famed Merry Men, the scene shifts to Sherwood Forest. The leader of these groups is Robin of Locksley, who joins up with a group of rebels after returning from the Crusades to find his properties seized by the Sheriff of Nottingham. Robin Hood is a third-person, isometric-perspective game, and, like Commandos, the game is all about guiding a team of units through missions by avoiding the watchful eyes of sentries. Scenic Sherwood Forest, Robin Hood's base of operations. In fact, the only significant arguments you could raise against the game would be that it has no multiplayer play and that its production values are a bit out of date. An entertaining and well-written storyline, an impressive mission design that includes diverse objectives, and a lively combat system that involves more than simple mouse-clicking have been brought together in such a way that the complete game works on nearly every level. Fortunately, German developer Spellbound Studios has just released Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood, a clever new take on the old English tale that blends elements of the Kevin Costner and Errol Flynn movies with real-time gameplay in the style of Pyro Studios' tactical strategy game Commandos. Even though he's one of the most colorful figures of Western European legend, Robin Hood hasn't had much luck making his way to the PC.

Game robin hood the legend of sherwood