Robin Hood - Sherwood Builder, an action-adventure RPG with base-building elements where you use the titular hero is out! Read our review to see what it did well, what it didn't do well, and if it's worth buying.

Robin Hood - Sherwood Builders Review Overview

Robin Hood - Sherwood Builders Pros & Cons

Pros	Cons
Gigantic Open World Great Resource Management Numerous Quests and Random Puzzles Ambitious Gameplay Loop	Clunky Movement and Combat Spotty Voice Acting Slight Performance Issues Lackluster Base Building

Robin Hood - Sherwood Builders Overall - 68/100

Robin Hood - Sherwood Builders is a decent action-RPG mixed with base building and survival crafting elements created by an indie studio. Nottingham is a gigantic place to explore with loads of interesting puzzles and quests to take. However, it’s not without its problems, especially towards its clunky and repetitive combat and subpar voice acting. It does some things right and some things wrong, which is a recipe for a perfectly average game.

Robin Hood - Sherwood Builders Story - 6/10

The game takes the classic folk tale of Robin Hood where he becomes a vigilante against the tyranny committed in Nottingham. There’s nothing too crazy about the game’s story as it took the original tale of the legendary outlaw and turned it into an open world game.

Robin Hood - Sherwood Builders Gameplay - 7/10

As an action-RPG, the game suffers from clunky movement and repetitive combat which definitely is a big sin when it comes to that particular genre. However, it does an ok job at tying it together with its gameplay loop where the simplistic base-building and the survival crafting get involved. It’s an ambitious attempt at creating a way bigger scope of gameplay than a AAA studio, and one that it does a decent job of doing.

Robin Hood - Sherwood Builders Visuals - 7/10

The visuals are also a mixed bag of both good and bad things. The character models and textures in the game look dated, but the greenery and the forests look very good. Weirdly enough even the animations are a mixed bag as well, as the lack of facial animations and different conversation animations make it feel really bad. However, Robin Hood’s animations himself are pretty good especially with his kill animations and arrow replays.

Robin Hood - Sherwood Builders Audio - 6/10

The sound design of the game is actually one of the good things of the game, paired with some decent music in the background. The biggest thing anchoring it is the awful voice acting as the delivery is flat for the most part.

Robin Hood - Sherwood Builders Value for Money - 8/10

For $29.99, you’re going to be getting a perfectly average game. If you’re looking for a decent action RPG to sink a lot of hours into without breaking the bank, this game is an ok choice. It has its fair share of good and bad things and it has room to grow in a lot of its aspects. Definitely not the best game in its price range, but definitely not the worst either.

Robin Hood - Sherwood Builders Review: A "Mid"-ieval Folk Tale

This game is definitely one of the games of all time. I mean that in a literal sense as it’s definitely what you’d call an average game. On the surface, it’s an indie action RPG with base building and survival crafting elements, and it doesn’t really steer away from that identity. It has an equal amount of good and bad things that I haven’t really experienced in the games that I’ve played.

First, let’s talk about the story. Clearly, the game is based on the original folk tale of Robin Hood and his merry band of thieves, but it doesn’t stray away from the tale and keeps it grounded in its medieval roots. They didn’t go too crazy on the storytelling, it’s really just you as Robin Hood racking up notoriety around Nottingham to get the people on your side against the kingdom.

Next up, the visuals are a mixed bag. I’ll have to defer to it being a decent looking game as it exhibits Oblivion-esque models, textures, and animations, but has some of the better looking foliage, greenery, and forests I’ve seen in indie games. The lighting is also great at highlighting the forests, which gives me reason to believe that they wanted to focus on the setting more than the characters themselves.

Now, personally I think that if a game is categorizing itself as an action RPG, it should have pretty satisfying combat and movement as that’s what the genre is mostly about. However, it seems that both of these have taken a backseat as the combat and movement is very clunky to say the least. It’s definitely not the highlight of the game and isn’t its best foot forward when showcasing itself.

The combat has two different modes being Dynamic and Precise, where the former feels like an older Bethesda game with how everything moves, and the latter restricts your movement during combat as directional attacks are also a part of combat. It’s a shame as well that the ranged gameplay isn’t very good, as you’re literally using one of the most well-known archers in literary history.

Although the combat is lackluster, the gameplay loop is stellar as I didn’t really get bored of doing the odd and menial jobs of just expanding the village and doing quests. Forcing you to do the side content is a recipe for disaster for the most part, but it was able to succeed in mixing both the amount of content and a lot of different genres into a decent package.

All in all, Robin Hood - Sherlock Builders is a game with good ideas as its foundation, but fails in executing it to perfection. While the devs have some work to do, this has the makings of a great game if it could fix the technical issues as well as making the gameplay deeper specifically regarding its combat.

Pros of Robin Hood - Sherwood Builders

Things Robin Hood - Sherwood Builders Got Right
Gigantic Open World Great Resource Management Numerous Quests and Random Puzzles Ambitious Gameplay Loop

Gigantic Open World

The world is massive and there’s a lot of things to do and places to visit in Nottingham. Random events, side quests, and puzzles litter the world which means that just running around has you doing something of interest. The game is also open with its progression, as you can undertake quests in no particular order and the game doesn’t lock you into doing a specific questline.

Great Resource Management

The resource management in the game definitely helps in carrying the base building and survival crafting aspects of the game. This would probably be the first point you’re going to encounter as the tutorial would teach you on the crafting and base building in the game. It’s not overly complicated and is almost always involved in all of the decisions you’re going to make when playing the game.

Numerous Quests and Random Puzzles

With a giant open world comes a simple question, does it have enough content to warrant the size of the world? The game answers this with a pretty sizable amount of quests and even random puzzles out in the open to satisfy your urge to do something after a bit of walking around. It’s also good that the quests aren’t just simple fetch quests, and have a bit of variety so that the experience isn’t stale.

Ambitious Gameplay Loop

I’ve talked about the different things you can do in the big open world, but what is it that makes the game interesting? It would be the main objective of liberating the different regions of Nottingham. The game has a "reputation system" that gates you from doing the story missions which forces you to expand your village as well as explore the region. Not once was I bored from doing something in the game, simply because there was something to do. It’s a testament to its core gameplay that while you’re gated in progressing the story, they’re confident enough to say that the side content is something that you should experience as well.

Cons of Robin Hood - Sherwood Builders

Things That Robin Hood - Sherwood Builders Can Improve
Clunky Movement and Combat Spotty Voice Acting Slight Performance Issues Lackluster Base Building

Clunky Movement and Combat

The movement and combat is very reminiscent of older games in the past, specifically games like Oblivion and Skyrim from Bethesda. It’s clear that the game isn’t a AAA game when you see and play it, but personally it’s a red flag to have less of a focus on movement and combat in the action RPG space. Moving looks and feels clunky, while combat is all those plus its repetitive. To add to this, it’s a crime that the "bow-play" isn’t that good when you’re using one of the iconic archers of all time.

Spotty Voice Acting

Aside from Robin Hood, the voice acting in the game is pretty dry and falls flat most of the time. The tone of some characters are monotonous enough to have me skip most of the dialogue in my playthrough. The delivery is both bad and even mispronounced sometimes and sadly you’re going to be talking to a lot of NPCs.

Slight Performance Issues

I’m not exactly sure as to why my game drops frames sometimes as I’ve seen reports online that it ran smoothly for them. While my PC is only average when it comes to specifications, it did happen enough times for me to get bothered to put this as a con.

Lackluster Base Building

While this game is advertised to be a base building game as well, it is considered somewhat of an afterthought. It’s not your typical base building game where you have full control over the building, but it’s more like Fallout 4’s settlement customization. Honestly, I think this would’ve been a huge aspect to focus on and highlight as it would give you even more reason to expand your tree village into a tree kingdom.

Is Robin Hood - Sherwood Builders Worth It?

Not My First Recommendation, But Definitely Not Off The List

For the price of $29.99, the game is loaded with a lot of things to do in the massive world of Nottingham. If you were to ask me for a list of recommendations of action RPGs in that price range, I probably wouldn’t name this game first. However, if you were to ask me if it’s a worthy purchase of that price tag, then I would say yes because it’s clear that it’s not a simple cash grab and a lot of work went into the game and it shows.

Digital Storefronts
Steam
$29.99

Robin Hood - Sherwood Builders Overview & Premise

Take the mantle of Robin Hood and fight tyranny alongside well-known characters in the folk tales such as Lady Marian, Little John, Friar Tuck, and many more. Fight, craft, steal, and help the locals of Sherwood to stand up to the injustices of the Sheriff of Nottingham.

Robin Hood - Sherwood Builders FAQ

What are the System Requirements to play Robin Hood - Sherwood Builders?

The System Requirements are as follows:

Robin Hood - Sherwood Builders Product Information

Title	ROBIN HOOD - SHERWOOD BUILDERS
Release Date	February 29, 2024
Developer	MeanAstronauts
Publisher	PlayWay S.A.
Supported Platforms	PC (Steam)
Genre	Action RPG, Medieval, Open World, Base Building, Survival Crafting
Number of Players	1
ESRB Rating	N/A
Official Website	Robin Hood - Sherwood Builders Website

Michael Gerra-Clarin

Resident fighting game nerd, avid FFXIV fan, and enjoyer of mostly anything gaming. Currently, he is enjoying Dawntrail as a Viper, while dying to Messmer's flames in Shadow of the Erdtree.