Not least because there are times when you genuinely feel like seeing what’s behind that barn, when seeing the world from a different angle would make things much easier. The biggest sticking point is that, once you’ve gotten used to Commandos 2’s 3D camera, which allows you to turn the map 360 degrees and see behind buildings, Robin Hood's 2D approach seems like a massive step backwards. By comparison, Robin Hood feels restrictive and dated. The problem is, since Desperados came out, we’ve had the fabulous Commandos 2, which has catapulted this minigenre into a whole new realm of detail, fun and immersion. It’s entertaining in a devilishly frustrating kind of way, as you constantly try to find ways to get past impossible situations. You can distract soldiers by throwing bags of money, disguise a character as a beggar, lure enemies into traps, distract them with whistles and so on. The amount of detail is as exhaustive as ever, and you’re constantly learning new things you can do, ways to manipulate the environment and abilities to exploit. But this is still a highly tactical puzzle game where, as always, a tremendous amount of patience is required to get past even the earliest levels. To make this close-range combat a more integral part of the gameplay, you can perform different types of sword swing by making shapes with your mouse.
The concept works rather well, despite the obvious lack of guns, with the bow and arrow working as some sort of sniper rifle and a greater emphasis on hand to hand combat. Thankfully, this Robin is more Errol Flynn than Kevin Costner, and the game’s colourful design and light-heartedness give it a certain charm. But building a Commandos-type game around cowboys is one thing it’s quite another to do the same with Robin Hood.
Commandos was one of the biggest hits ever in Germany, so it’s not surprising that they've turned the hard-as-nails puzzle-based strategy gameplay into an industry of its own, started by developer Spellbound and its excellent game Desperados.
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