"Steal the vault key. Find the vault. Extract the safe." It is with these three phrases that you will always be greeted when a game of Hood: Outlaws & Legends is launched. It is indeed around these three stages that the main game mode is articulated... and almost unique, but we will come back to this point later. Concretely, two teams of four players compete to accomplish these objectives (there is only one key, only one vault and only one chest), the presence of many AI-controlled guards adding a little spice to the recipe. The characters that can be controlled are quite logically four in number, and are relatively differentiated and complementary. Deadly from a distance but vulnerable in close combat, Robin the Prowler shoots a bow (quick or charged shot) while his ultimate ability allows him to unleash an explosive arrow. An expert in stealth, Marianne the Huntress uses a crossbow and can neutralize guards from any angle. Her unique Veil ability also allows her to move unseen until she attacks. More versatile, Tooke the Mystic wields a flail for melee combat while staying out of range of certain enemies. Thanks to his Instinct, he is also able to reveal the position of opponents while healing nearby allies. Finally, John the puncher plays the role of the thick brute. He deals blows from ultra-powerful hammers, can lift portcullises, and his "Wrath" allows him to temporarily benefit from increased health and stamina. So much for the casting, which turns out to be quite pleasant.
These four archetypes are indeed very manageable, and they evolve in settings that are rather pleasing to the eye. Moreover, games using the Robin Hood universe being rather rare, this particular context is necessarily welcome. Multi game obliges the universe is a little under-exploited, but we still find some traces of it in the rules of the game. So the first step is to steal a key held by a terrifying Sheriff. Far less friendly than the bear in the Disney version, this armored giant will kill you in one shot if he catches you. Approaching him from behind to steal the precious sesame is therefore essential. As for the famous maxim "steal from the rich to give to the poor", it translates into the game by the possibility at the end of the game of distributing the money collected as you wish, on a Scale of Justice whose two boards correspond respectively to your personal purse and your lair.
STEAL FROM THE RICH TO GIVE TO YOURSELF
Your generosity therefore has its limits since, in both cases, these separate grants allow you to directly or indirectly improve your heroes. It is indeed possible to unlock additional passive skills depending on your level, but also to buy more powerful weapons and more becoming outfits. The rest of the Robin Hood lore is accessible through some hidden text in sub-menus. There was room for improvement on this point, and we can't help but feel some frustration with the total absence of a single-player campaign. Moreover, we can also regret the lack of multiplayer modes. There is certainly the possibility of choosing between Burglary or Training, but the second mode is only a 100% AI variation of the first which involves two human teams. The parties therefore tend to all look alike. "Steal the vault key. Find the vault. Extract the safe." : we were warned! Fortunately, the concept holds up because playing as a team is really important.
It is possible to mark enemies and points of interest for our teammates, a wheel allows them to quickly give them a few simple orders ("defend me", "go here", "attack", "come to me"), and it is essential to capture the respawn points, in order to be able to return as quickly as possible to the places of confrontation. Naturally, a good synergy between the different players is also important to overcome the weaknesses of each archetype. Melee heroes can parry some attacks but are vulnerable from a distance, while stealth characters die in a close hit but can attack from afar. Other more subtle differences exist, such as John being able to carry the chest faster than other heroes. But once the gold coins are brought from the vault to the extraction point, the game is far from over. It is then necessary to operate a crank, with one or two players, for very long seconds and best defend the area against attacks from the opposing team, and the possible arrival of the Sheriff and a few guards.
TOO DISCREET INFILTRATION...
And the infiltration in all this then? We've already seen that you have to steal the key from the Sheriff at the start of the game, but what about the range of movements dedicated to stealth? Well, it is possible to crouch in the bushes to hide, to approach the soldiers from behind to assassinate them with one blow, to escape the vigilance of the guards by not staying too long in their line of sight, unlock alternate paths, and even distract patrols by whistling or throwing rocks. This panoply proves to be up to a real stealth game, but in practice it is unfortunately under-exploited. The very structure of the game means that these discreet actions are used mainly at the start of the game, when each team is only opposed to artificial opponents. But once human players get together in one place, the action usually becomes much more basic. This is partly due to John's overpowering, which many players favor because he hits hard and lasts a long time. So there is clearly a balancing issue, even if it happens from time to time that matchmaking gives us competent teams, which use infiltration abilities throughout the game.
There is also something to complain about this automatic partner search function. While it has the good taste to be cross-platform, it still tends to create uneven teams where level 48 veterans rub shoulders with level 3 noobs. This problem could certainly fade over time if players turn out to be sufficiently numerous, but this is not the only thing to be corrected. We have indeed encountered a very annoying bug on several occasions, which forced us to immediately leave the game in progress since the screen became almost entirely black, only the interface elements deigning to be displayed. With only one game mode and only five maps, the lack of content is also unfortunate. But then again, the future may well work things out since the developers have already promised several free improvements in the coming months, including new maps, new game modes, cosmetics and "gameplay additions". ". Case to follow!
