Synopsis:
Two teams of 4 players compete to execute the perfect heist, in medieval environments patrolled by deadly AI guards. With the unique skills and mystical abilities of each character, moving in stealth to steal treasures unseen or dominating through loud and brutal combat.
Publisher: Focus Home Interactive
Reviewed on: PS5
Also available for: PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC
Developer: Sumo Digital
Hood: Outlaws & Legends is a PvPvE, which is to say it’s similar to games like Hunt: Showdown and Predator: Hunting Grounds. It’s a genre that, when done correctly, feels like a breath of fresh air among the plethora of battle royales and mass-multiplayer arenas.
The premise of Hood: Outlaws & Legends is relatively straightforward. Two teams of four thieves are attempting to steal a chest from under the nose of AI enemies.
The gameplay has three phases. In the first, the teams search for ‘The Sheriff,’ a large Knight that holds the key to the chest’s locked location. Players must beware the Sheriff as he can instakill players and must sneak around him at all times. Next, players with the key will search for the gate the key unlocks and find the chest they’ll have to transport to one of two locations on the map. The final phase is the extraction of the chest, where a team must turn a winch to fully extract it, which takes several minutes of continual effort.
If you couldn’t read between the lines of all that, the other team can interrupt any of this at any point, and the AI can also interrupt well thought out heists. One team can find the door to the treasure by accident, and instead of chasing the Sheriff and the key, stake it out, waiting for the other team to bring them the key before springing an all-out assault. Similarly, you can win by wiping out a team and finishing their winch, turning to steal the win. That last part may seem cheap, and it sucked the first time it happened to me, but when you pull that off yourself, you’re cackling like an evil villain to the victory screen.
Hood: Outlaws & Legends can become very frustrating if you’re even a slightly competitive person like I can be. Playing the game with randoms, the basic ping system can only go so far, especially when your teammates would rather kill as many AI as they can than help protect the chest carrier. You can, of course, turn your microphone on, but as with any multiplayer game, your experience communicating with randoms will be very hit and miss.
At its heart, this is a stealth game. You’ll want to stay hidden as much as possible; not only does alerting an AI enemy send more in your direction, it also lets the enemy team know where you are on the map. An alarm is especially troublesome when you’re carrying the chest or the key.
There are four classes in Hood: Outlaws & Legends with varying abilities and skills to help pull off the heist. The Ranger can use their longbow to take out foes from afar; The Hunter can go invisible to steal the key unnoticed and assassinate enemies; The Brawler hammers foes with brute strength and can hold open gates; The Mystic can heal the team and reveal nearby enemies. Each plays differently with varying degrees of skill required.
Close combat in Hood: Outlaws & Legends needs the most work, although it’s noticeably also the way the game wants you to play the least. You can lock on to enemies and parry them, but the animations often leave a lot to be desired, and you’re not sure if you hit someone or not. Thanks to the game’s stamina system, this doesn’t become a spam contest, and instead, you’ll have to attack, run and use abilities wisely. On the opposite end, landing headshots with The Ranger feels fantastic, and thanks to the limited arrows you can carry, you must make every shot count.
As you play, you’ll both level up your overall rank as well as the rank of whichever class you’re using, which unlocks new abilities and weapons. You’ll earn gold at the end of each match for kills, objectives, and a bonus for winning. You can choose to split this between your pocket and ‘the people.’ The latter option is how to upgrade your base’s rank and unlock new items and skills.
Your base is more or less a lobby room with shops for buying character upgrades and cosmetics. Disappointingly, there’s no way to customize it, so whoever’s lobby you load into, they all look the same. I’ve purchased zero cosmetics so far because the gold payout feels minimal and it seems like a waste.
Each character has a unique ability that charges over time or increases with kills. You can tweak these abilities by upgrading and changing three skill-slots at your base. For example, Marianne, The Hunter, can be upgraded so her invisibility ultimate re-triggers for each kill during its duration.
In my review in progress, I mentioned a black screen bug that ruined my first night with the game. I haven’t seen that since, so I’m willing to forgive and forget—shoutouts to the WellPlayed team for putting up with that night’s events. There have been some small bugs since, like characters stuck in animations or AI not noticing me. I’ve also been able to hear voice chat from a lobby I wasn’t in. None of this is game-breaking but hopefully will be ironed out soon.
Sumo Digital has a roadmap of free content, including new characters and maps, which should help longevity. Currently, the five maps can start to feel very similar with dark, drab castle environments. A larger forest map would be welcome.
There’s a level of jankiness to Hood: Outlaws and Legends, but not enough to deter me. I was stuck in the “just one more match” loop for several nights, which says a lot about my enjoyment. Matches can be hit-and-miss depending on teammates, but when everything works, the hard-fought wins from teamwork and communication are exhilarating, tense, and lead to loud celebratory victories.
