Robin Hood – Sherwood Builders was torn apart on YouTube after its first trailer. Unjustly, in Mary’s opinion. Because the unusual Robin Hood interpretation is really fun in the demo.
What do you think of when you hear the name Robin Hood? Probably his credo Take from the rich and give to the poor. Or maybe, like me, you’re a child of the nineties and associate the brave hero more with foxes and tights.
Either way: You certainly don’t think of a guy with an undercut and a sword in his hand, standing in front of a drawing board and thinking about where best to build the house for the blacksmith. Especially when the first trailer looks like this:
In the YouTube comments below there are countless accusations that the scenes shown will in no way correspond to reality and that at first glance it resembles one of the countless mobile phone construction games.
And yes, although the cut-together scenes in the trailer don’t seem too meaningful, we find many of them in the playable demo on Steam Our first impression after playing the game is also much more positive and has nothing at all to do with mobile games.
All beginnings are difficult
Robin Hood – Sherwood Builders is a slightly different interpretation of the famous medieval hero. Instead of mainly sneaking through the houses of well-heeled noblemen, we prefer to deal with building a community with which we can eventually start a revolution in Nottingham.
Before we can even think of an uprising, we must first establish a foothold in the form of a well-run settlement. Because without access to weapons, a full stomach and a roof over your head, it’s not so good to fight against the establishment.
This requires all kinds of materials, which don’t just fall from the sky, but have to be painstakingly gathered by Robin. We make ourselves a bow, a pickaxe and a hatchet and set off on the resource war against nature.
Once we have put everything together, we will begin to expand our settlement. We cut down trees, build a blacksmith’s shop and also build an attractive little house for a blacksmith to settle with us. When we’re not busy building or collecting, we kill aggressive bears, explore enemy camps, or gain allies by rescuing them.
What do we like, what remains unclear?
What do we like about Robin Hood – Sherwood Builders so far:
- The variety of collecting, fighting and building is motivating
- The hunting with bow and arrow is really fun
- The graphics, sound effects and dialogue set to music create a great atmosphere
So far, the colourful genre mix plays very diversely, so that boredom does not arise despite the sometimes dull tasks such as chopping wood or knocking stones. Especially hunting game is a real experience thanks to the reduced interface, the great lighting atmosphere, the harmonious sound effects and the dialogue set to music.
What we don’t like yet:
- The animations look sloppy and wooden
- The melee combat is frustrating due to the messy dodging and slamming
- We can only farm resources in certain places
Frustration potential existed especially in close combat. The combat animations seem wooden and the dodging and attacking still feels very viscous, so that no real joy arises. From time to time, we also had problems with the controls, which made it possible to dodge to the left and right, but not to the back.
What is still unclear:
- What does the village management look like?
- What does the story look like?
- Will there be facilitation in resource management later?
We spent most of the demo with the rather tough beginning of collecting resources and surviving, so it is still unclear how exactly the village management will look like in the finished game or how the story will develop. We haven’t seen much of the story yet, but we have already met a famous character.
The demo is relatively long, about three to four hours, so you can get a good first impression. There is no release date for Robin Hood – Sherwood Builders yet.
