“I’m gonna cut your heart out with a spoon!” Ahh, Robin Hood, ahh, Alan Rickman. This is a legend we’ve seen reinterpreted time and time again for the small and big screens. And now, Robin Hood is the inspiration for Sumo Digital’s new game.
Hood: Outlaws & Legends interviewDeveloper: Sumo NewcastlePublisher: Focus HomeRelease date: 10th May on PC, PS5, Xbox Series S/X, PS4, Xbox One.
Hood: Outlaws & Legends is bang on trend as far as games like Hunt: Showdown are concerned. It’s a PvPvE game which, in this case, means two teams of legendary outlaws try to break into a castle guarded by computer-controlled guards – and a monstrous-sounding Sheriff of Nottingham – and liberate the big chest of gold there. And all while competing with each other.
It’s like Hitman meets For Honour. Or, to use the team’s own inspirational touchstone, ‘What would it look like if Game of Thrones did Payday in a Robin Hood universe?’ Hence the grittiness, hence the violence, hence the dour look. But it sounds exciting to hear game director Andrew Willans talk about it – he who designed Grow Home and Eve Valkyrie, and helped make Watch_Dogs, The Crew, The Division and Driver: San Francisco. So do as I did, and sit back and listen.
To begin, let’s rewind back a bit and talk about where the idea comes from. Were you watching Kevin Costner and Alan Rickman? Who wakes up and goes, ‘Got it: Robin Hood.’?
Andrew Willans: Bizarrely this started as a concept in Sumo Sheffield that had been hanging around for ages, and they basically wanted to do a dark version of Robin Hood. And maybe that’s because they’re nearer Sherwood Forest than we are. So they’d put this concept deck together with these really cool images of Robin Hood, looking almost like a Ringwraith from Lord of the Rings, and the idea was more of a co-op [game], it was a little bit more PvE in terms of its structure. But the idea is you put your Merry Men together and do missions against the State.