Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood Preview

Among upcoming tactical real-time strategy games, Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood could be one of the most interesting and unique. Putting you in the shoes of the famed outlaw and his Merry Men, it offers a setting that has rarely been touched by computer games and packages it in a style of gameplay that is exciting and suspenseful.

You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who does not know the legend of Robin Hood, the charming bandit who steals from the rich to give to the poor. Fighting against the tyranny of Prince John on behalf of the common people and representing King Richard in the monarch's absence, Robin of Locksley is forced to live in hiding when the evil Sheriff of Nottingham seizes his home and holdings. While living under the night sky, he finds similar souls disenfranchised by the despot, Prince John, and creates a band of Merry Men to disrupt and foil the foul prince's plans of usurping the throne while robbing the masses of all they own.

In Legend of Sherwood, you start off playing as Robin Hood. There is a prologue of sorts to the game that you get to play through--two missions that set up the framework for your beginning exploits as Robin Hood.

Steal from the rich and give to the poor as Robin Hood.

You've just returned from helping King Richard fight in the Crusades, but when you step back onto English soil, you find that you have no home to return to. You've been declared dead so that Sheriff Nottingham could claim your land. Meanwhile, outspoken critics of the sheriff's boldness, including your family, are imprisoned or killed. In the very first mission of the game, you actually have to break into the castle of a family friend just to get an idea of what has happened to your family and property in your absence. The reason you can't just waltz in through the front door is that this castle is yet another of the sheriff's confiscated conquests, unlawfully seized from its rightful owners.

In one of your first missions you have to save the outlaw Stutely.

You soon find that there are others who are equally outraged at the sheriff's machinations, and in the second mission you go to free one of them, an outlaw named Stutely. You have to infiltrate the town of Leicester and free Stutely and his men from the stocks in the middle of the city. A grateful Stutely then invites you to his hideout in Sherwood Forest. It is then that the legend of Robin Hood commences. You meet the Merry Men, become the de facto leader of the band, and then embark on may raids and ambushes to fleece the sheriff's men and reclaim the people's gold.

Robin Hood: Legend of Sherwood actually employs a clever nonlinear mission structure. While the game forces you through the first two "prologue" missions, once you arrive in Sherwood, the game takes on a seemingly free-form approach. Sherwood is your base of operations, and from here you launch into the game's various missions. Conveniently located at the heart of the empire, Sherwood intersects the main roads between the various cities and castles. While there is definitely a storyline to follow, the game does a good job of making it seem like you are in control of what you do. You choose what mission to undertake by going to a map of Sherwood and the surrounding area and then clicking on a location, whether it is a trade route or castle. At various times, different missions will appear at these locations, such as a key meeting you must infiltrate in a nearby keep. While the game sometimes offers only one current mission, the illusion is that you get to have your pick of missions while you train in Sherwood.