Robin Hood - The Legend of Sherwood

Robin Hood - The Legend of Sherwood is a real-time strategy game developed by Spellbound Entertainment and first published for Windows on November 15, 2002 by Wanadoo Edition .

Gameplay

The gameplay is similar to the Commandos series and Desperados: Wanted Dead or Alive , the quasi-predecessor of the game, but takes place in the Middle Ages . In addition to the main character Robin Hood , the player also controls Lady Marian, Little John, Brother Tuck, Will Scarlet, Stuteley and three simple comrades who appear many times and keep growing. He usually has two ways of playing the game to choose from, either skillfully combining the skills of all six characters or going straight to a fight. A special feature is that, in contrast to games of the same genre, the course of the game is not linear. During the single player campaign, the player sometimes has the opportunity to choose the next mission to run, although the course of action is stringent and the non-linear components are mainly to be found in four mini-missions that hardly change in the course of the game.

The action takes place in five different cities of the time ( Nottingham , York , Derby , Lincoln , Leicester ) and in four locations in Sherwood Forest (village, road, river, Robin's camp in Sherwood Forest).

More game information

Goal of the game

Robin Hood - The Legend of Sherwood is about the war for rule over England in the Middle Ages . The rightful King Richard was abducted, and the cities of England are now controlled by the Sheriff of Nottingham and Prince John , Richard's brother, and their inhabitants are oppressed and financially exploited. Robin and his companions are bitterly sought after, and he is even declared outlawed. The aim of the player is now to slip into the role of Robins and to gather comrades around him, to collect Richard's ransom by completing various tricky missions, to meet the sheriff and his henchmen, e.g. B. Sir Longchamp, to kill the loyal followers of Richard, z. B. Sir Godwin, to rescue him from his power and bring Prince John back to serve his rightful king. Robin must ally himself with the armies of Sir Godwin and Ranulph, conquer the affected English cities and defend them from new attacks, thereby weakening the prince's armed forces and returning the citizens of England the money he stole from them.

The main characters

Robin Hood: Robin is the main character of the game. He has mediocre sword fighting skills and is almost invincible in archery . During the missions in the Sherwood Forest he is stronger in hand-to-hand combat, as he does not have a sword there, but a staff with which he fights better. As a result, he can rarely kill opponents in close combat, but usually knocks them out; Robin can also distract opponents by throwing a purse between them and fighting over it. He can knock out an opponent or even tax collectors and rich citizens and rob unconscious or dead soldiers.

Will Scarlet: Robin's nephew is armed with his morning star , extremely brutal, a good close fighter, has the ability to give unconscious opponents the coup de grace and to strangle opponents from behind. He can stun opponents with his slingshot . In addition, Will can defend himself and his comrades from bow and crossbowmen with a shield. Will is particularly suitable for fighting knights or armored riders .

Lady Marian: Robin's mistress is your average archer and swordsman. She can heal wounded comrades with herbs and eavesdrop on her opponents. In addition, like Robin, she has the ability to steal from unconscious or dead soldiers.

Brother tuck: The monk is a good friend of Robin and Marian. Fighting is not his forte, but he can throw wasp nests to distract opponents, and he can get soldiers to get drunk on beer , which reduces their field of vision and also causes those units to fight over money thrown by Robin who otherwise do not respond (e.g. officers). Brother Tuck can eat a leg of lamb for his own healing. He can also handcuff unconscious soldiers and open some locked doors. His weapon is a small ax.

Little John: Little John is well suited to knock out stronger soldiers (just no riders). He can help his friends to higher levels with a robber ladder or whistle to lure soldiers into an ambush, for example. He can also carry around unconscious or dead opponents, for example to hide them in houses. He is the strongest and greatest of Robin Hood's friends and fights with a stick. With this he is able to put even larger groups of opponents out of action with the help of a round blow.

Stuteley: Stuteley is a loyal friend of Robin's. He is also not particularly suitable for fighting, as he only has one ax. however, he can open some locked doors or trap his opponents with safety nets. He can throw apples at enemies to lure them in, for example from a group of soldiers, or tie up unconscious soldiers.

Other Robins comrades

In addition to the main characters, there are also three types of simple soldiers in Robin's troop:

Comrade with a pitchfork and orange-green clothes

Like Lady Marian he can heal his friends and like Will Scarlet he can give the coup de grace to his enemies. He can also throw apples and, like Little John, is suitable for killing entire groups of soldiers or riders. In addition, like Brother Tuck or Stuteley, he can unlock locked doors.

Comrade with dark blue-orange clothes and shield

This soldier can protect himself from long-range attacks with his shield like Will Scarlet, fight with a sword and tie up opponents. He is an amateur archer . A well-known person of this type is Much Miller .

Comrade with green clothes and club

This comrade is a cross between Little John and Brother Tuck. He fights with his wooden club like Little John and can eat a leg of lamb for his own healing like Brother Tuck, as well as carry unconscious opponents around and whistle.

The camp in Sherwood Forest

Robin lives with his comrades in a small camp in a clearing in Sherwood during the war for rule in England. Here the player has the opportunity to buy weapons (e.g. arrows, quarry), goods (e.g. legs of lamb, beer) or other things for the missions (e.g. medicinal herbs, nets, wasp nests, purses) to produce oneself, to heal wounded soldiers, to train for combat (combat trainer, target) and to prepare for the following missions. In order to be able to produce something himself, the player sends any character to one of the respective production locations. You can recognize who works where by a symbol above your head. After completing another mission, new goods are available. The more comrades working on a production, the more supplies you get afterwards.

A river also flows through the camp. If the player wants to start a new mission, he clicks on the map in the top right corner of the screen. On the map that has now appeared, you can choose between several missions. Once this is done, up to five characters of your choice can be sent on the mission. The player simply selects a person and sends them to the other side of the river. He recognizes which characters are selected by the display at the top of the screen. This also shows which people must definitely be there or which actions at least one of them must be able to perform. If the player has chosen his characters, the mission is started with the green button on the right of the screen.

The sheriff's soldiers

The following units are under the military command of the Sheriff, Scathlocks, Gisbornes, Longshamps and Prince Johns (note: the information on strength also depends on the level of the soldier):

Lance bearer: These are the weakest soldiers. The units armed only with a simple spear are eliminated with a single well-placed sword blow.
Halberd bearer: They are also easy to defeat with a few strong blows. However, when attacked, they cause more damage than lancers due to their more powerful weapon; you can hardly avoid their blows. They also don't take in any money thrown by Robin Hood.
Swordsman: They are well protected by their shield and can therefore usually only be shot from a greater distance, from behind or from above. They are better in hand-to-hand combat, but can be eliminated without major problems. Especially in connection with archers, who stand up and shoot protected by the shields behind them, they represent a danger to the health of Robin and his comrades.
Archers: Despite the extremely low number of health points, one should not underestimate them. In combination with soldiers with shields, they are dangerous. If a character is attacked, has to fight in close combat and they shoot from the second row, the player should be careful. When hit, 10 health points are deducted from the character hit.
Crossbowmen: The player should pay more attention to them than to the archers. One hit costs 20 health points.
Officers: They are good hand-to-hand combatants and command all of the unit types mentioned so far. Therefore, they should always be shot first whenever possible. Even so, they are not the strongest enemy soldiers. They don't take on thrown money.
Knight: You usually have a tough duel with him. He parries most strokes and often deducts 30 points with a counterattack. You are immune to arrow attacks. In addition, they do not respond to beer dropped by Brother Tuck or money from purses thrown by Robin.
Armored horsemen: They are the strongest units in the enemy army. If they ride close to one of the player's characters, 20 points will be deducted. Defeating them, too, is arduous and often involves a sword fight duel. They cannot be shot either, nor do they take beer or money. In addition, they are the only unit that cannot be knocked out (except in combat) and cannot be tied up, and when they have been knocked out in combat, they regain consciousness as quickly as possible, because they are then not on the ground like everyone else, but still sitting on their horse. Only when they have died do they fall off the horse.

Basically, all of the above-mentioned units can be divided into five levels of difficulty. You can recognize them by the color of the armor (blue = very light → yellow → orange → red → black = heavy, black soldiers form Prince John's bodyguard). Green units are soldiers from Sir Ranulph and Sir Godwin. In the first mission in which they appear, they are not allowed to be killed, but they fight against Robin, because they do not yet know that he is fighting for King Richard. In all subsequent missions they fight alongside Robin and his companions. Dead and unconscious soldiers can be robbed by Robin and Lady Marian.

Web links

Robin Hood - The Legend of Sherwood at MobyGames (English)