Announced last year by Focus Home Interactive and developer Sumo Newcastle, Hood: Outlaws and Legends offers an interesting spin on the traditional Robin Hood myth. This third person action game pits two teams of four players against one another as they attempt to become the first team to escape with the treasure. Drop in, steal the key from the heavily armored Sheriff, locate the vault, then liberate and extract the treasure. With four very different characters to pick from, players will have to contend not only with the roaming AI on each of the five base maps, but also the other team looking to escape with the treasure.
The Player versus Player versus Enemy aspect forms the linchpin of the entire experience and should be familiar to those with experience playing games like Crytek's Hunt: Showdown while also mixing in a little bit of the co-op elements from Assassin's Creed Unity. The core game mode in Hood: Outlaws and Legends is Heist, with the two teams representing Robin of Locksley and the Earl of Huntingdon. A training mode is also available for those who only want to go against the AI State guards, either with a full team of online players or three AI opponents.
The game features four distinct characters all based around the classic tale of Robin Hood, each one bringing a certain specialty to benefit the group. Robin represents the Hunter class, armed with a bow, a smoke bomb, and his ultimate ability which gives him an explosive arrow. Marianne is the assassin archetype. John is the Brawler, specializing in melee attacks, opening iron gates, being able to block or parry attacks, and getting a big damage buff. Finally, Tooke is the mystic who can heal the group and use his flail to cause some big melee damage against enemies. Unlike a game like Marvel's Avengers, there are no restrictions on how many of the same characters players can select. This means that teams can consist of four Robins, if so desired.
Upon starting the experience after running through the tutorial, players will be dropped into the Outlaw Camp. This area is the player's personal hub where they can change characters, practice their moves against dummy targets, and check out challenges. Nearly everything in here has progression tied to it, upgraded through playing the game, earning XP, and spending gold. This, in turn, helps to unlock new features, gear, and abilities while characters can unlock new perks that provide passive abilities, new cosmetic outfits, and weapons as well.
Even with only five maps available at launch, they're all diverse and large enough that players won't be taking the same path twice. Levels offer many routes to the goal with plenty of optional routes like ropes that can be shot down, capture points to provide quick respawns upon death, and even zones being locked down if a player is spotted by an enemy. Similar to Apex Legends, the game also features a well-thought-out ping system that makes communication a breeze even if a player doesn't want to use voice chat.
Visually, Hood looks good but likely isn't going to be a visual showpiece for next-gen systems. However, Sumo has made sure to leverage the updated technology by reducing load times and keeping the game near 60 FPS with ray-tracing. For PlayStation 5 owners, they'll be getting a little more next-gen bang for their buck thanks to additional DualSense features. The enhanced haptics and audio speaker of the controller help the player feel and hear the bowstring being pulled back, while depleting the stamina meter will cause the resistances on the triggers to increase.
Gameplay-wise, Hood: Outlaws and Legends places a priority on stealth. Being able to take out enemies quickly and quietly will help get the team to the goal much faster. Enemies can be assassinated from behind instantly, even when engaged in combat. Stealth kills have limited animations, so players will likely be seeing the same thing over and over.
When spotted, players will need to fight their way out of a jam and that's when things start to fall apart. Melee combat feels a bit clunky, with Robin and Marianne reduced to basic light attacks, while Tooke and John get both light and heavy strikes. Even then, combat is fairly basic, without special attacks or combos, and managed by a fast-draining stamina meter. When it runs out, players will need to let it refill in order to swing again or dodge.
When facing an enemy team, Hood really flexes its tactical gameplay, as teams have tons of options for how to approach their goals. For example, the team can wait for the other team to do the dirty work and then strike. While matches tend to start slower-paced and more methodical, things quickly escalate as various goals are completed. Chaos typically ensues near the end, as one team is attempting to extract the gold by placing it into a basket and using a winch system to move it to safety. During this final phase, one team attempts to winch the gold to safety while fending off AI guards and the enemy team.
The match becomes even more frantic and tense as the meter slowly fills, signaling the approaching end of the match. The prize for the winning team is gold, which is put through the Scales of Justice for a decision to be made. In true Robin Hood fashion, players will need to decide how much they want to keep and how much they want to give back to the people. Giving back awards more perks and skills, but Gold is also required in order to make purchases back at the camp.
When the game works as intended, there's a lot of fun to be had from it. The problem is, the game does suffer from a few issues that can really hinder the experience. During the early-access weekend for those who pre-ordered, server stability was a massive issue with disconnects happening frequently. Worse yet, the game's matchmaking process is extremely slow in connecting players. Throughout multiple tests over numerous nights (even after the game's official launch on May 10), connecting 8 players into a lobby before being able to start a match took unnecessarily long, typically 5 minutes or longer. Ultimately, it's very inconsistent. Thankfully, crossplay is enabled by default, which gives the game a larger pool of players to pull from.
In addition to server and matchmaking issues, the game has a number of other problems and general oddities that hurt the overall immersion. These range from AI pathfinding issues, where alerted guards seemed confused as to where to go, to clipping through foliage when walking through it rather than having it realistically move around the player. There was another time where rain and wind outside were coming through a castle's roof.
Hood: Outlaws and Legends offers players a fun and tense experience but it is oftentimes held back by technical problems, glitches, and other minor issues. When it functions as expected, Sumo Digital's game feels unique, especially when compared to most online experiences. Considering there's no narrative or single-player campaign to fall back on, the game will ultimately live and die based on its community. While many of the game's problems are not game-breaking, the server issues could be the Achilles heel if not addressed. With extensive free and premium Year 1 DLC plans already in place, Focus Home Interactive and Sumo Digital are hoping that the allure of new content and the dynamic elements of its game will keep players coming back.
Hood: Outlaws and Legends is available now on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X. Game Rant was provided a PS5 code for this review.