Posted in: Games, NACON, Video Games | Tagged: Gangs Of Sherwood, NACON, preview

Gangs Of Sherwood Preview: Merry Men With Future Tech

Nacon was awesome enough to give us a chance to preview Gangs Of Sherwood, as we explored this new action co-op title coming this October.

Nacon recently invited us to a special event where we got to try out several games, one of them being the co-op action game Gangs Of Sherwood. This is one of those games that, when we first saw it, we weren't entirely sure what to make of it, but it looked cool. The premise is that you're playing a modernized version of Robin Hood, but specifically in a time of steampunk-meets-futuristic-tech. A lot of the characters you know and love from these beloved stories are here, but the vast majority of them have been changed to reflect the world they are in. In essence, a lot of the elements of the story are in place, but altered in a new way to bring life to the tale, as well as the gameplay in general. We were given a couple of hours to play it with one of the devs, and here's what we took away from the preview.

Gangs Of Sherwood has been designed to be a 1-4 player action title that will have you embarking on an adventure where you will attempt to thwart and attempt to overthrow the forces of the Sheriff of Nottingham. However, as you can see from the imagery we have here and the trailer down at the bottom, you are doing it in a world where many of the names and faces have been given an update to fit in a world where technology is a driving force. You still have people running around with swords and arrows to do battle, but it does help when the swords are electrified and the arrows follow their targets. The game does follow a good chunk of what makes the tale of Robin Hood what it is. You are one of four of his Marry Menas you can choose to play as Robin, Maid Marian, Little John, or Friar Tuck. You'll head off on missions to stop the tyranny happening in Sherwood as life has been made miserable here in what has become a dystopia ruled by fear.

This game is primarily designed to be a co-op title, but you can play solo if you don't happen to have a friend along to help you. You'll choose one of the four characters and head off to take on the Sheriff's men and stop them from doing irreparable harm to the people and the town. Part of the preview gave us a tutorial on how to work the characters, as each one has its special attacks and abilities that are tied to certain buttons. Everyone can do something special to help in battle, and while the commands are the same, the output is very different depending on who you pick. As you may have guessed, Robin Hood is more of a long-range fighter who utilizes arrows, but can also go in for close combat when necessary. The dev who played with me chose Friar Tuck, who is more of a tank that goes full melee with a giant mace. Our first mission led us to find Alan-a-Dale, who is more of a weird actor in this world, but also serves as the guide to the story.

You'll set up base in an old church that serves as a place to train yourself, plan missions, and become a home for people who are seeking refuge from the Sheriff. Aking to many RPG titles, over time, the church will fill out with people who are willing to help you in different ways, such as selling goods and crafting weapons for you to use in battle. You'll also use this place to spend points on a skill tree where you'll unlock abilities to help you in battle. But unlike other versions of a tree, you'll be able to pick and choose what you use rather than accumulate them into your arsenal. At one point, I chose an ability that healed me whenever I did certain kinds of damage to enemies, and it paid off big time when I started getting overwhelmed by the Sheriff's forces. These will be key for you to mix and match to get the best out of whatever character you play so you don't die as quickly.

Keeping things a bit spoiler free, we went on a few different missions during our Gangs Of Sherwood demo. The first was to stop an attack from happening on the city, as the Sheriff had decided it was a good idea to firebomb the people. Throughout the level, we were challenged in different ways to use our skills, which included utilizing ziplines, ropes, exploration, and other aspects to not just take down enemies, but to save villagers who had been captured and imprisoned during this attack. The second was to stop them from using a weapon of great power that was causing the attacks, running into Sir Guy of Gisbourne on a few occasions as he served as the main boss for this challenge. A lot of this level relied on puzzle solving as well as figuring out enemy patterns. So it's not just the same gameplay over and over with new mechanics; they will challenge you as you go.

Gangs Of Sherwood was pretty fun, and the story was a cool take on the legend fo Robin Hood. I see a lot of the appeal and would love to see where this particular story goes. There are so many more aspects that weren't really revealed, and we didn't have a ton of time to explore during the demo, but overall it was a super positive experience. However, I will admit a good chunk of that was because I was playing with someone else and having fun with them. It'll be interesting to see if I have that same experience solo or if I'll need to find others to truly get the most out of the game. For those of you interested, you can watch 17 minutes worth of the gameplay we experienced below in a new video, as the game will be released for PC, Xbox Series X|S, and PS5 on October 19th.

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