Even though he's one of the most colorful figures of Western European legend, Robin Hood hasn't had much luck making his way to the PC. Fortunately, German developer Spellbound Studios has just released Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood, a clever new take on the old English tale that blends elements of the Kevin Costner and Errol Flynn movies with real-time gameplay in the style of Pyro Studios' tactical strategy game Commandos. An entertaining and well-written storyline, an impressive mission design that includes diverse objectives, and a lively combat system that involves more than simple mouse-clicking have been brought together in such a way that the complete game works on nearly every level. In fact, the only significant arguments you could raise against the game would be that it has no multiplayer play and that its production values are a bit out of date.

Scenic Sherwood Forest, Robin Hood's base of operations.

Robin Hood is a third-person, isometric-perspective game, and, like Commandos, the game is all about guiding a team of units through missions by avoiding the watchful eyes of sentries. The leader of these groups is Robin of Locksley, who joins up with a group of rebels after returning from the Crusades to find his properties seized by the Sheriff of Nottingham. After two opening missions on your own that get you acquainted with the game engine and introduce the first of many allies who become the famed Merry Men, the scene shifts to Sherwood Forest. In the woods, you have a Swiss Family Robinson-style home in the trees that serves as your headquarters for the remainder of the lengthy campaign. It functions in a similar way to bases in traditional real-time strategy games, with structures operating as small factories.

But resource production in Robin Hood isn't simply a matter of erecting a building and watching numbers increase. Everything must be manually created by assigning Merry Men to workshops set aside for the production of specific items. If you want to make arrows, or leather for coin purses, you send somebody to the designated hut to begin work. Every action available in Sherwood Forest is accessed this way. You can train in combat and archery by visiting an area with a drill instructor and tree-mounted targets, gather apples (helpful when you need to distract guards) by walking under a nearby tree, hunt for food by visiting the spit, or dig into the feasting table to recover health.

Missions are accessed through a map, which you can consult in Sherwood Forest. The map itself details the forest and the five surrounding districts of Lincoln, Nottingham, Derby, York, and Leicester. Then you decide on a mission, gather the Merry Men you want to take along--you get to select renowned figures like Will Scarlet, Little John, and Friar Tuck, along with fictional nobodies who fill out the ranks--and get started. Multiple mission choices are typically available, so you can pick and choose based on whatever strikes your fancy. There are many types of missions as well, although they fall into two general categories--cash-generating ambushes of convoys on the forest roads and major town expeditions that advance the plot. The former involves set-piece engagements with preset traps you trigger by shooting arrows at targets in the trees, pits that you can lure enemies into, and Merry Men hidden under leaves. The latter missions are more traditional. In them, you're given explicit goals such as finding out where Maid Marian is or contacting Prince John and then navigating through a horde of the sheriff's men to get there. And as you might expect from a game about medieval England, you'll get additional information from beggars who will exchange valuable hints for alms.

Hit targets above forest paths to trigger ambush traps.

Later on in Robin Hood, you'll have to lay siege to enemy castles. Castle sieges are more involved than standard missions in that you have to earn 12 shields before bringing the fortress down. Shields are acquired prior to battle by giving money to allies, sending groups of Merry Men out on spying patrols, or looting a convoy. This lends greater importance to the major objectives in the game and also gives you a reason to continue with the less-important robberies of merchant and tax collector convoys. During the actual engagement you can earn additional shields toward completing your goal by accomplishing important tasks like lowering the drawbridge.

No matter what sort of mission you're engaged in, all of Robin Hood's maps are puzzles that require you to avoid groups of enemy soldiers. These enemies come in various types, ranging from low-level lancers to powerful knights on horseback and officers skilled at organizing troops. Each has a field of vision that can be displayed onscreen as a glowing cone on the ground by pressing the Alt key. However, this option is limited to one soldier at a time, so you'll be able to see only one enemy's field of vision at a time. Like the enemy soldiers in Commandos, your enemies in Robin Hood will turn to your units if they catch sight of them, then approach and finally attack if they clearly spot your troops. Your enemies' level of awareness is clearly color-coded--green for no sighting, yellow for a sighting, and red when they attack.