As many of you know if you've read my past reviews, I've always felt that games need to go back to the roots and find what it was that made the classics the great games that they still are today. So I'm sure you can well imagine my anticipation when Cinemaware announced they were making Robin Hood: DoTC. I had it on pre-order that day in fact. After a long wait, which in a sense was worth it, and in a sense not, I found the new DoTC to be an enjoyable experience. The first thing you must understand, is that DoTC, both the new and original, are not games with a campaign that will take you weeks of gaming hours to beat. DoTC is best played in 'sessions' as its predecessor was. Its meant to be a game that you can start a campaign, devote a good 5-6 hours to, and be done. Robin Hood stays true to the past product in this sense, which disappointed many newcomers to the genre, however this is not where I feel the game fell short. Cinemaware promised a more dynamic game during development. Every time you played the old Defender of the Crown, something would always be different from one game to the next. However you don't have this same feeling with RH:DoTC. In fact most of the game is repetitive when you play a second time through, which really kills its replay value. However, it is still a game that you will dig out 6 months after beating it, just to see if you're as good an archer as you were before :) On to the brass tacks: Graphics: Nothing too spectacular, but of course a great improvement upon the original. When it was released the graphics were decent. What it has in graphics, it executes well, and you will find most of the game to indeed be visually pleasurable, depending on your standards. Sound: Perhaps the department where RH:DoTC shines most in. The musical score throughout the game is fantastic and a real treat throughout your experience. Sound effects are good as well. My favorite thing here though, is the voice acting, its all very well done and really makes you feel like you're watching the Errol Flynn version of Robin Hood. I found this area to be perhaps the most enjoyable. Gameplay: Well, the new DoTC manages to keep the same gameplay as its forefather, which is both good and bad. The campaign falls far short of the dynamic, randomness filled (different every time) experience that Cinemaware promised. All the minigames are entertaining, except perhaps the army battle one. Granted, it flat out sucked in the original, but I guess thats why I didn't expect much here. DoTC's fun was in the raid minigames and jousting minigames, and the same holds true for the new version. However... I found all the minigames (except perhaps the archery one) to be way too easy. Raiding could get tough pending the circumstances, but Jousting is a flatout cakewalk compared to the original. I was hoping for a patch that would boost the difficulty of this, but it never happened. With minimal effort, I have never lost a match (and i've done about 50), and every opponent i faced I unhorsed the first time. Its way too easy to do this, and this will cause you to win against your opponent straight out. I was really hoping for a more difficult experience (as the original was hard as hell, and those that could joust well really did have a reputation back in the "old days."), something along the lines that would provide the intensity of something you might have seen in "A Knight's Tale" with Heath Ledger. That came out around the same time, and i think many fans were looking for that. Overall the game is just too easy. The campaign map AI can either be really smart (aka cheap) and stop you in your tracks and seriously force you to rethink some strategy, or dumb as a freaking post as you march through its lands with little trouble. RH:DoTC stays true to its ancestor, but it was "dressed up" too much, pre-release by the developers. Is it worth a look? Sure, I doubt you'll pay more than $10 for it at this point, and its worth that, I will say that much. I think fans of the original will enjoy the tip of the hat nostalgia... but its just going to leave you wanting more, wondering if Cinemaware is going to make a comeback and become the gaming gods they once were. Try it, you will at least get a good 6-7 hours enjoyment out of it, and you may pull it out a few months later, because the minigames are indeed fun. That's my take, take it or leave it.
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