Gangs of Sherwood Hands-On Preview – Friar May Cry

It’s a tale that’s been retold since at least the 15th Century: Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men steal from the rich and give to the poor. Numerous attempts have been made to turn this philanthropic do-gooder’s tale into a playable experience, most recently with an asymmetrical PvPvE multiplayer title. However, character action and Little John are two terms that you don’t often see together, at least not until now. As the second title that Nacon presented as part of their BigBen Week, we recently went hands-on with the upcoming Gangs of Sherwood.

It wouldn’t be a proper Robin Hood tale if it didn’t focus on the dynamic between Robin Hood’s crew and the Sheriff of Nottingham. Yes, once again the tale of stealing from the rich and giving to the poor is the focus of Gangs of Sherwood but with a twist most players won’t have experienced. The quartet of Robin Hood, Friar Tuck, Little John, and Maid Marian have been taking some classes in modern action titles to the point where each is a viable powerhouse when it comes to character action titles.

While Gangs of Sherwood can be played solo, the adventure supports up to four players in total in online co-op. Matchmaking is your standard ‘Person A hosts and Persons B-D join in’ so far with no hooks for quick play to jump into a stranger’s game, at least from what I could see during the two mission preview. Instead, one person hosted while the other either waited for an invite or monitored the server browser to see their session pop up. Given the smaller venue and the team’s focus on only showing off half of the playable cast so far, my play session was limited to playing as Friar Tuck myself while my compatriot played as the titular Prince of Thieves. A hub area serves as the mission selection area and training grounds while players can interact with the NPCs they’ve rescued so far.

The big-bodied Friar Tuck was your typical bruiser type in Gangs of Sherwood, wielding a massive spiked hammer and capable of charging both light and heavy strikes for wider shockwaves or flame elemental attacks. There wasn’t yet a way to maintain a weapon charge and roll or evade out of harm’s way to continue the combo but it was brought to the attention of one of the lead combat designer devs who was interested in looking into ways to expand on the action. Meanwhile,  Robin Hood was a combat archer with a lot of ranged potential with the ability to launch many copies of Star Arrows at a given target as he builds up a particular combo. Ground and air dashes both serve as ways to avoid and mitigate damage while Friar Tuck also has a floating energy shield that blocks incoming strikes.

Character customization seems limited to purchasing new abilities and modifiers in limited slots (which are unlocked throughout regular play). Only a couple of skills were available for Hood and Tuck, so I did not yet have a chance to see the depth of character customization going forward. I was told that these remain the core systems of progression, as gold earned from completing missions and side quests fed into the power system.

As players progress through each mission, they obtain a level of power that appears to be a sort of level boost for attack damage and health pool (with an appropriate heal as well) that’s exclusive to that mission playthrough; start another run to track down missing wanted posters or captured NPCs and you’re starting out again at the base level. Cashing in gold acquired at a mission checkpoint is an easy way to boost that power level. It’s a novel system that will make Robin Hood’s crew feel more effective as the mission progresses but I would like to see the mechanics in greater detail to discover if speed running a mission at lower power has much impact on Robin Hood’s overall fighting capabilities.

So far, two of the four playable characters feel unique from each other while fitting together as complimentary playstyles for the character action. While Robin Hood has some melee capabilities, his archery prowess from the back lines while a melee powerhouse like Friar Tuck takes point can be a complimentary duo that’s perfect for clearing out the various colleagues of the Sheriff of Nottingham. 

The slightly futuristic steampunk aesthetic is something I’ve only seen on the surface level and would love to see in greater depth, with energy weapon wielders and mechanical automatons filling out a large roster of enemy types. I’m eager to take a deeper look into the setting for Gangs of Sherwood and have a deep dive with the development team in the near future to discuss the title in depth. 

Gangs of Sherwood will be available later this Fall across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S|X, and PC (Epic Games Store and Steam).

Written by Kai Powell