Gangs of Sherwood is a co-op Robin Hood game inspired by Star Wars

There have been countless interpretations of the folklore tale that is Robin Hood throughout history, but Gangs of Sherwood may potentially be the most interesting of the lot. A co-op action game for up to four players, players can play as Robin Hood, Maid Marian, Friar Tuck, or Little John, all with unique abilities to take down the Sheriff of Nottingham throughout a 10-15 hour campaign.

While that’s all well and good, when speaking with Andrea Di Stefano, game director on Gangs of Sherwood, he let slip that Star Wars became quite a big inspiration for the futuristic retelling of the legendary outlaw, although not intentionally. “You have the Sheriff of Nottingham, and he’s a bit mechanised, like Darth Vader, and he’s the father of Marian. And we’re like, hmm, a mechanised guy and the father of one of the heroes… does that remind you of something?

“And actually, it turns out that we have a lot of stuff like that – the last mission of the game is you have to assault the airship of the sheriff without any plan going in on how to exit and we’re like, does that remind you of something?” In the end, while these comparisons were coincidental, Appeal Studios decided to embrace the subconscious Star Wars inspiration, simply because “Star Wars is cool.”

Di Stefano went on to explain that Star Wars has “a lot of very cool mission templates in general and story arcs that are easy to understand. And they’re just very good at storytelling.” While I didn’t ask for clarification on which era of Star Wars he was referring to, and despite only playing a slice of two missions, one short cutscene featuring a huge, intimidating cannon on top of a hill with ships flying around it certainly gave off Empire vibes before Star Wars was mentioned.

The environment is also very steampunk-esque, and while the gameplay doesn’t match, there are certain parts you could compare to Bloodborne at first glance. The gameplay inspiration mostly comes from Japanese action games, most notably Devil May Cry. “The game designer I’m working with,” Di Stefano tells me, “he calls Devil May Cry 5 the New Testament. I think he sleeps with a copy of the game under his pillow.”

The gap in the market Appeal Studios spotted is that none of the games in this genre are multiplayer, any that do have that as a feature are weighted heavier towards RPG elements, so that’s where Gangs of Sherwood steps in. “What we wanted was to hide the stats and make it all about customising moves and equipment, and no matter how long you play, your damage output is about unlocking and mastering the moves.”

Combat is fast and frenetic, bouncing from one enemy to the next, comboing all sorts of melee and ranged attacks depending on your abilities. And those abilities are completely up to you because while there are different archetypes in the game, every character can be customised to play as you like. Stick all the healing abilities on Robin Hood for example and voila, Robin Hood is now the medic. Or you can turn the tank of Friar Tuck into more of a glass cannon.

Every single combat encounter will be graded upon completion, which is very Japanese-action game-inspired, all the way up to the S rank. As you practice and master your character of choice, chaining attacks together will become second nature, going from one combo to the next. I found immense success with Friar Tuck’s heavy attack, as he can bring his hammer down surprisingly quickly, and it would often immobilise enemies in place as the stagger was too much for them to have time to get back up again before the next swing came down.

You can earn gold throughout, which can then be spent on learning new moves, techniques, and combos, and all of this takes place in an old, dilapidated church. This is essentially your headquarters, and also where you can find side missions, giving you reason to head back to locations you’ve already visited and extend your time with the game beyond the main story.

Appeal Studios didn’t want to make Gangs of Sherwood an RPG, so while you can earn and spend gold, and there are quests to complete, you won’t be levelling up and earning skill points to spend. The main driving force behind the game was this desire to make a Japanese action game with combos rather than abilities you can fire off with one press like you might find in Diablo 4 or an MMO. And from what I played, it absolutely works.

For more previews from our time at Big Ben Week in Paris, you can read more about Ad Infinitum, an immensely terrifying horror game, and RoboCop: Rogue City, which is heavily inspired by Deus Ex.