REVIEW - Hood: Outlaws and Legends Is An Enjoyable First Step, But The Cross Play Is Lacking

Robin has Tooke[n] the loot.

By Jonathan Garrett
30/06/21
Reviewed on Xbox Series X.
Review copy provided by Focus Home Interactive.

Hood: Outlaws and Legends has a wonderful premise; PvPvE in a medieval setting, with sprawling maps, distinct classes, and [on paper] a balance toward stealth over brute force. In practice, things can sometimes descend into flailing madness, particularly during the endgame, but on the whole, Sumo Digital’s take on Robin Hood makes for a solid starting point.

I had been hungry for new IP, particularly since the start of this console generation, and so despite some missteps, it’s important to acknowledge the clear direction and well explained mechanics present throughout. Hood knows exactly what it is, and with an ambitious roadmap for the remainder of 2021, the foundation is definitely there. A lack of content at launch, and the absence of fully fledged cross play, are notable omissions (particularly for an unproven, budget price, multiplayer only experience) but these can both be rectified over time.

Hood excels as a stealth title; the AI is appropriately reactive, and the evolving nature of the maps (where certain areas will be sealed off, or locked down completely) gives each run a dynamic feel. Open combat is a little less consistent; ranged characters like Robin and Marianne work well, but I found both John and Tooke to be too heavily reliant on charging in with reckless abandon and overall lacked strategy.

The AI in open combat is also inconsistent at best, miraculously tracking you to a hiding spot in one instance while entirely ignoring you in another. However, the use of a stamina meter for actions like attacking and dodging does ensure reasonable balance to most encounters, and having special abilities on a long cooldown helps to mitigate attack spam.

Visually, the game is superb. Lots of fine detail, across impressively expansive environments. On Series X, the game runs very smoothly indeed, and has been well optimised for the hardware. Load times are also minimal, and cross play matchmaking helps reduce lobby formation time. However, the absence of cross platform invites and progression is a big ol’ face palm, and really doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.

Although the developers have stated they didn’t want to impose an account creation system on new players at launch, this has become par for the course these days. I’d much rather have spent 30 seconds inputting an e-mail and password, so I could play with my buddies across PC and PS5, than arbitrarily segregate the community for an entirely avoidable reason.

If the Jackbox Party Pack games can do it right with simplified room codes on a mobile device, then it stands to reason that a more comprehensive cross play feature set should have been included here before launch. Barriers to entry like this are inexcusable, particularly when the multiplayer space is already so heavily contested by competing efforts.

However, Sumo Digital and Focus Home have shown that they’re willing to absorb community feedback, and they’ve already patched in a number of balance tweaks and bug fixes. A new map has also been added, with a new character and game mode due in the weeks and months ahead. This is a longer term proposition for them, so even though there’s work to be done content wise, and the current use of cross play misses the mark, Hood: Outlaws and Legends has the potential to rebound.

A motley crew, to be sure.

WORTH IT?

At the bottom of every game review, we ask the question: Worth it? And the answer is either “Yeah!” or “Nah”, followed by a comment that sums up how we feel. In order to provide more information, we also have “And” or “But”, which follows up our rating with further clarification, additional context for a game we love, or perhaps a redeeming quality for a game we didn’t like.

YEAH!

Hood: Outlaws and Legends has a great premise and leaves a solid impression.

BUT

It’s a bit light on content, and the lack of full cross play is disappointing.

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TARPS?

At the bottom of some of our articles, you’ll see a series of absurd looking images (with equally stupid, in joke laden names). These are the TARP badges, which represent our ‘Totally Accurate Rating Platform’. They allow us to identify specific things, recognise positive or negative aspects of a games design, and generally indulge our consistent silliness with some visual tomfoolery.