Gangs of Sherwood PS5 Review – Gangs of Sherwood is an exciting take on the classic story of Robin Hood and his band of merry thieves. Borrowing from the concept and ideals of 2021’s Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance, developer Appeal Studios has turned a classic story into a fun action title with a surprisingly solid battle system and co-op gameplay.
Gangs Of Sherwood PS5 Review
A Steampunk Retelling Of A Classic Story
Gangs of Sherwood features a fun world combining a traditional medieval setting with steampunk technology. This setting provides a unique take on the story of Robin and his friends as they look to take down The Sheriff of Nottingham as he rages war against the citizens. The game’s story isn’t what it is about and is not precisely showcased with big cutscenes and cinematics.
That doesn’t mean that its characters don’t have fun. I loved hearing the backstories of Robin Hood, Little John, Maid Marian, and Friar Tuck. The four heroes have great banter between them, and each has their motivations for stopping the Sheriff and his armies.
Each location you visit across the nine campaign missions holds a special place for one of the characters. I enjoyed learning about their backgrounds, how they are reacting to the situation, and how it affects the places they hold dear.
Fun Level Design With Branching Paths And Secrets
Gangs of Sherwood is a pure action game that takes you across various locations, from burning cities, lush forests, and desolate mines. Each location is detailed, and some have stunning visual landscapes. Furthermore, they come filled with local hazards and branching paths. The various paths lead to the exact location and chests that provide more gold for your party and the Relics you can equip.
Some of these paths benefit specific characters as well. There’s blocked paths and hidden rooms that can only be accessed by the type of character you have. Little John and Friar Tuck are the heavy hitters, and Robin and Maid Marian are the agile characters.
Each of the two sets can destroy barricades and lift heavy objects blocking their path, while the agile characters can squeeze through tight paths and use their grappling hook to traverse high-elevated locations.
When playing in co-op, the branching paths force players to sometimes split up to progress based on their character. It’s another fun addition that keeps things different, and I immensely enjoyed it.
Spread The Wealth To Upgrade Your Heroes
One thing I found interesting is the upgrade system for collecting relics. Relics are found in treasure chests that you can equip for various bonuses. These can include healing yourself after striking an enemy and increasing your critical damage. However, these Relics are nice to have, but you don’t get to keep them.
Once you finish a stage, you must find these Relics again in the next stage. What’s worse is you can only equip one Relic at the start of the game, and it takes a while to unlock more spaces to equip more Relics.
Money is used to unlock everything in the game, from new abilities and skills for each hero to upgrading your skills and acquiring new cosmetic outfits. Money is also used to increase your power during stages. When you reach checkpoints, you donate money to your camp and its people, which wins you favor. This favor increases the damage you can do and gives you an extra health bar. You can upgrade your favor up to four times.
Great Action Combat With Unique Character Playstyles
Combat is the bread and butter of Gangs of Sherwood, and it’s pretty enjoyable. You have your primary light and heavy attacks, but as you upgrade your skills, you can unlock more combo attacks and even juggle your enemies Devil May Cry style.
You even get rated during battle based on how well you’re doing. In addition to regular attacks, you can parry blows, counterattack, pull off cool-looking finishers and utilise the environment to attack foes. Examples include dropping containers by shooting down the ropes and holding them up, or Igniting gas coming out of maintenance holes to enemies ablaze.
Each hero is unique, and each one should fill a different playstyle. Robin is your long-range hero with plenty of quick sniping shots. Little John is a powerful DPS dishing out damage using a unique heat gauntlet that you charge up by holding the attack button to build up its heat and then unleash powerful fire strikes.
In co-op, the action is even more frantic, and combining combination moves can be fun. It requires real teamwork to make it all work, but it looks spectacular when it does. I should also mention that the game isn’t a walk in the park. Even on the easiest difficulty, the game can be pretty tough if you’re playing solo, but having more people join you means even more enemies to face off against.
Stellar Voice Work Accompanies A Great Soundtrack
The difficulty ramped up fast from mission to mission, and by the time I was halfway through the campaign, I found myself dying multiple times at a time and losing all my gold to revive myself rather than restarting the stage I was on.
Visually, the title is hit-and-miss. At times, it features pleasant, lush environments with beautiful landscapes, but at other times, it’s pretty bleak and looks like a last-gen title. The voice work is overall solid, and I enjoyed each hero’s performance. The soundtrack fits the world perfectly, and the orchestral soundtrack mixes the steampunk and medieval settings to provide a unique take to the score.
Gangs of Sherwood is a fun game to play solo but shines with three other friends. The combat is surprisingly deep and offers many abilities to combine and pull off great combos. The game can be challenging, but hearing the heroes’ great voice work and backstories is still worth hearing. If you’re looking for something fun to play through with your friend, Gangs of Sherwood won’t disappoint.
Gangs of Sherwood releases on November 30 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC.
Review code kindly provided by PR