Gangs of Sherwood is about Robin Hood, but probably not the Robin Hood that you know. In fact, it’s really not about a Robin Hood that anyone knows yet since it’s looking to offer a wholly different take on the mythos, one with sci-fi elements fused with reimagined versions of the characters known from poems, Disney movies, and other fragments of lore.
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Dealing with a property like that’s already ingrained in people’s minds on some form or another can be tricky, however, so we at ComicBook spoke to Gangs of Sherwood game director Andrea Di Stefano about how developer Appeal Studios took on Robin Hood and turned it into their own interpretation of the character and those that surround him. Gameplay clips like the one below that confirmed the game would be out on October 19th show that this isn’t the usual Robin Hood story where people use traditional bows, arrows, and swords. This version of the Robin Hood story has whip-swords, exploding arrows, and metal arms.
“I think at first, we went more sci-fi, and then we went back a bit more on medieval,” Stefano said. “We didn’t want to go into a steampunk kind of thing. I’m pretty happy with what we have. We found our own take on it.”
Up to four players are supported in Gangs of Sherwood, and those players control some very familiar characters: Robin Hood, Marian, Friar Tuck, and Little John. Robin Hood ditches most of his green ensemble here and trades in his medieval bow for one that shoots things like Star Arrows and more that lead to explosive results. Friar Tuck is one of the characters showcased in the new gameplay video alongside Robin Hood, a hulking character who wields a massive hammer to match.
Little John, who you may recall is not very little at all, has the mechanical arm which Stefano suggests will call for a bit more precision to be utilized correctly.
“He’s like very muscular. He has a giant metal arm,” he said. “Little John is really timing based. Every time you do a punch, you have a small gauge that appears, and you have to time the next punch right to accumulate heat, and you can release the heat in an explosion.”
Maid Marian – known simply as “Marian” in Gangs of Sherwood – is a character who’s the daughter of the sheriff here in this interpretation of Robin Hood’s story. Appeal Studios wanted her to be a “badass duelist” in Gangs of Sherwood, Stefano said, so the studio gave her the whip-like sword which, like some of the other characters’ weapons, often leads to explosions.
Just as the playable characters are pulled from folklore, so are the villains. Stefano said “all the bad guys are taken from the original folklore” while providing some examples of Robin Hood stories people may not be as familiar with. He referenced one mission from the hands-on session that featured one of those named characters as well as another players will meet in-game.
“So, you have at the end of the cannon mission, if you manage to get to the end of that and you don’t die at the main boss, you actually get to face Guy of Gisbourne,” he said. Who’s one of the nemeses of Robin Hood in the 14th century folklore stories. Then, you actually get to fight the Prioress of Kirklees, who, in the folklore, actually kills Robin Hood by doing bloodletting on him.”
Gangs of Sherwood is set to release on October 19th for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC platforms, so we’ll see then what other sorts of liberties and homages Appeal Studios has planned for the story of Robin Hood.
