Robin Hood - Sherwood Builders is being developed by Mean Astronauts developers, a small team that prioritises gaming, although they have been known to try their hand working on comics. Robin Hood - Sherwood Builders is one of their first releases after a series of games that have been released with varying but overall positive responses from fans.

Mean Astronauts state that they focus heavily on creating impressive cutscenes and cinematics for their games, something that can be clearly seen in Robin Hood - Sherwood Builders. PlayWay published the game, adding it to their list of one hundred games they have published to date with recent games, including the well-received House Flipper.

A free to play trial of Robin Hood - Sherwood Builders - Bandit's Trail was released earlier this month, with the full game coming soon. The Bandit’s Trial demonstrates the initial few hours of the game as well as establishing the characters and wider plot of the story. Through this trial, the mechanics are clearly explained, and a feel for the game as a whole is made available. The action-adventure RPG is well grounded in this playable trailer, demonstrating the elements the game has perfected already, as well as allowing for feedback for sections needing a little more refinement.

The story of Robin Hood - Sherwood Builders follows much of the same plot points as the legend of Robin Hood. An outlaw in the forests outside of Sherwood, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. Robin Hood - Sherwood Builders- Bandit’s Trial opens with a stunning 2D animation that introduces the characters, giving some of Robin’s backstory in the process. As someone familiar with the tale of Robin of Loxley, I was impressed with the accuracy of the cutscene and loved watching the beautiful artwork retell the story. I think someone with less knowledge of the legend would also gain a lot from this cutscene as it gives a good depiction of the world they are entering.

Within the Robin Hood - Sherwood Builders - Bandit's Trail, it is unclear how much the player should expect to see of some of the more famous villains in the original tale. Robin of Loxley was known for his hatred and defiance of both Guy of Gisborne and the Sheriff of Nottingham. The tyranny of the Sheriff is seen through the impoverished state of local villages, but a more personal hatred through interacting with these characters more directly could be well received. I would have also liked to experience more of the personal vendetta between Robin and Gisbourne and their rivalry over Maid Marian. I hope the full game expands on these characters, giving a more direct villain for the player to work against.

Having a more palpable villain may work in Robin Hood - Sherwood Builders’ favour as it would allow for a slightly more substantial story arc and increased character development for Robin and the Merry Men. In the current game, there are guards that must be evaded and beaten, but most are sprites with symmetrical faces, having little to no personality. While I try not to compare indie games to triple-A titles, I can’t help but think how Star Wars Jedi Survivor did a much better job in giving enemies personalities. Despite every droid having the same character model, if you sneak up on them, many would have drawn-out conversations or monologues, giving them a lot more interest and charm.

Within the story, there is also the band of Merry Men that work with Robin to assist him in his endeavours to help the villages in Sherwood. The first of these you meet is Friar Tuck, who will give you quests upon entering the camp. This camp also acts as a tutorial area, and the player can learn some of the RPG mechanics of Robin Hood - Sherwood Builders - Bandit's Trail. This includes the hunger, thirst, and exhaustion meters that become vital to track in the later game. In this area, you can also learn the basics of food storage, crafting and building of the camp.

Marian and Little John are the next camp members whom the player can receive quests from, and each teaches the player more about how specific things in Robin Hood - Sherwood Builders - Bandit's Trail work. Little John has a quest that introduces the stealth elements of the game. This ends up being one of the most fun elements of the game in most missions, just not the one it is introduced in. In most missions, stealth is a fun starting point, working your way through a section of enemies. It only takes a small hiccup to be spotted, and has to scramble your way through the rest of the fight in open combat.

This meant that often I was only having to kill half of the enemies outside of the stealth, a much more manageable amount, and I had a chance to play with the stealth a little at the start. It is also possible to, in some situations, hide and enter back into stealth with the enemy AI being unable to find you again.

However, in the mission in which stealth is introduced, it is unfortunately beyond frustrating. If you are spotted even once the mission has failed and has to be restarted. I had to go through the same section nearly 10 times while I mastered the stealth. It made me not want to use it, and luckily, I gave it a second chance as it ended up being one of my favourite parts of the game.

Marian’s mission allows the player to discover the alchemy lab that can be built to make healing potions at the base. This mission came a little late for me as I spent a lot of the opening of the game on very low health, in constant search of any way to increase it. Some could say this was my own fault, but I had to test the fall damage some way, so diving off a cliff right as I loaded in seemed sensible. Safe to say, I was very grateful for the health potions once they became more readily available.

A large part of the gameplay is dedicated to random events that crop up within the open world. This can be in the form of armed convoys or puzzles in the forest. The puzzles in nature are some of the most visually interesting parts of the game, although they offer little stakes due to the lack of a fail state when completing them. If one is too hard, you can simply walk away and try again later with no traps or way to be injured or killed by one of the traps. The convoys in Robin Hood - Sherwood Builders - Bandit's Trail have the opposite issue, however.

These are immensely difficult to complete due to the number of guards that surround the king's convoy. There is also little warning of how dangerous these can be. I encountered one very early in my playthrough and was instantly taught not to approach the convoys without having a close save, as I was set back quite a long way by the sheer number of guards surrounding me. The wagons will also not stop if you simply kill the guards; the driver must also be taken out, which I learned the hard way after killing multiple guards and then watching my prize disappear into the surrounding trees.

The action and adventure side of Robin Hood - Sherwood Builders - Bandit's Trail is clearly very well done. The random events and multiple missions create a really fun action adventure. The way these sections blend with the base building side of the game is also seamless. In a style reminiscent of that in Red Dead Redemption 2, the population of the base is determined by the amount of money and supplies the player can bring into the camp. With more supplies and housing, there are more workers available to help improve and expand upon the camp.

The amount of workers is determined by the housing available for them to stay in, meaning it is a good idea to ensure you have plenty of housing early on so you have enough workers to get other buildings up as quickly as possible. This advice isn’t given by a character in the game directly, although it does follow a certain amount of logical thought that those used to builder-style gameplay should be used to.

One of the main issues with the camp is in the opening of the Robin Hood - Sherwood Builders - Bandit's Trail. When you first arrive at camp, the player is directed straight to Friar Tuck, who gives Robin his first quest. If you go straight onto this quest, then there are no issues. Once you return to camp, you can learn the remainder of the tutorials that the game has to show you. If you are like me, however, this will not be the way this plays out. I had wanted to search around the camp a little before leaving it immediately, as the Friar had suggested.

Unfortunately, this meant I was bombarded with constant tutorial pop-ups as I wandered too close to a stall or camp member, and without me even interacting with them, a new tutorial would pop up. This was very frustrating as it meant that I was hounded with so much information that I felt immediately overwhelmed when all I had wanted to do was familiarise myself with the hub area I was expected to call home. Luckily the tutorials are very easy to access later if you have already triggered them all and need to view them later, but I can’t help but feel it would have been easier to simply add trigger points for them after the initial mission.

As I said before, the combat in Robin Hood - Sherwood Builders - Bandit's Trail is split into stealth and open combat, but there is also the option of ranged and close combat as well. This adds a good amount of variety to encounters as the bow or melee can be used. Of these, I found the bow to be a far more interesting and fun part of the kit. The sword was rather more clunky, and a lack of dodge or parry meant I was taking a lot of damage every time I came in too close to an enemy.

The bow, on the other hand, feels really well-balanced, and after a few upgrades in the skill tree, it is amazingly fun. Very apt for a game about the famed archer Robin Hood it seems. The bow also opens up the option for hunting, although sometimes this could be a little unpolished. I had a moment where I was lining up a deer in my sights and another bumped straight into me.

Graphically, Robin Hood - Sherwood Builders - Bandit's Trail is stunning to look at. The world is vast and full of details. There are a few issues with voice syncing to a character's animation but these are few and far between. The opening cutscene is fantastic in both its art style and narrative value. Mean Astronauts were not exaggerating in the slightest when it came to stating the indisputable care they put into the cinematics in their games.

The sound design varies to some degree, not quite holding up to the fantastic visuals. There is a little fluctuation when it comes to the quality of the voice acting. The actor for Robin Hood clearly has a great deal of talent, although I did find the voice of Friar Tuck to lack some depth. Most of the soundscape is very well done, with the forest feeling very real, there are some issues when entering buildings, and the sound suddenly stops rather than simply fading a little.

Robin Hood - Sherwood Builders - Bandit's Trail is a well-executed RPG with a creative take on a beloved legend. Mean Astronauts are also very engaged with the reception of the game, replying to reviews on Steam and wanting to know how best to improve the game. This Trial is well worth the time to play, and I, for one, am very excited for the full release of the final game.
 

Mariella Deadman (@MariellaDead)
Editor, NoobFeed