Developer: CAGE Studios, Umbra Studios
Publisher: CAGE Studios
Platform: PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S
Tested on: PC
Sherwood Extreme – Review
It has been a while since we last dug up a game from our backlog, but we’ve got a special title for you this time around. CAGE Studios’ arcade title Sherwood Extreme is a game that has been around since 2021(!) in Early Access. In our defense, the game was only officially released last April. So yes, while we’re a bit late to the party with our review, it’s not as late as you might think if you’ve been eyeing up the game for the last three years. During its Early Access period, Sherwood Extreme was able to build a fairly sizable online community too, although there is a bit of a caveat to joining in on the fun now that the game has fully launched. What that caveat is, and whether the game is any good, you ask? Well, read on to find out!
Story
There is no story to be found in Sherwood Extreme, although based on the game’s title and fantasy setting, we can extrapolate some things. We’re probably playing as Robin Hood (or at least one of his Merry Men) but rather than steal from the rich, give to the needy, and kick the sheriff’s butt, we’re dealing with an invasion of orcs, trolls, and the like. The game probably could have lent itself to short text blurbs to give context to the on-screen events, but given its nature as an arcade title with a focus on online co-op and community-generated content, this wasn’t an absolute necessity.
Graphics
The low poly visual style that Sherwood Extreme utilizes works well enough, allowing the game to keep up a relatively steady 60 FPS, even in the heat of the game’s fast-paced action. Despite the simple graphics, there is quite a bit of visual variety here too, from a lush forest to a rocky environment with flowing lava, and even orcish pirate ships. There are cosmetics to unlock too, although their inherent simplicity doesn’t quite motivate one to go out of one’s way to grab them all.
Sound
We’re quite sure that Sherwood Extreme makes use of stock sound effects, especially for the voice work, since the “DOUBLE KILL” and “TRIPLE KILL” exclamations sound suspiciously familiar. They do work well here, even if you wouldn’t expect them in a game with a fantasy setting. We don’t know whether or not the game’s music is original or also originated elsewhere, but it does the job. The soundtrack underlines the action while sounding appropriately fantasy-ish.
Gameplay
The best description of Sherwood Extreme’s gameplay might be that it’s an on-rails-shooter without rails. That may sound odd at first, but allow us to elaborate to make things clearer. In the guise of our hero-thief, your aim is to make it to the end of a stage as quickly as possible, while also scoring as many points as you can. To do so, you must kill enemies, either in melee, by shooting them with your crossbow, or by hitting explosive targets to take out bigger targets in one go. Each stage is an obstacle course that sees you hanging from ropes, avoiding swirling blades, and hopping across cliffs. If you hit the aim button while your feet are in the air, the game shifts to slow motion, allowing you to aim more precisely. Stages are designed to be as straightforward as it gets, which is where the feeling of Sherwood Extreme playing like an on-rails-shooter comes from. Sure, you’re free to roam around certain parts of each stage, but the linear nature and fast-paced gameplay means that playing a level will pretty much follow the same pattern every time.
You’ll need to replay stages over and over again, earning experience and cash in the process. With your earnings, you can purchase better weapons and new skills, making future runs easier, and in turn, increasing your score. Eventually, you’ll gain access to fun stuff like a jetpack that is literally made of chickens that allows you to tackle the levels in different ways, although the core formula doesn’t really change: you move fast and kill things. There are online leaderboards to motivate you to keep playing, and there is an online co-op mode that lets you team up with another player. In co-op, you have access to more elaborate feats of derring-do, like standing on the shoulders of your partner in crime so you can aim and shoot while he runs. Now, Sherwood Extreme is light on content. There aren’t a whole lot of stages, with the game banking on players revisiting levels with slight gameplay variations, such as tackling a stage with new equipment. For added challenge, certain parameters can also be changed from the game’s hub area. Rounding things out is a survival mode where you have to defend a fortress against waves of enemies, although we didn’t feel like this added a whole lot to our Sherwood Extreme experience.
This inevitably brings us to Sherwood Extreme’s biggest issue: an overall lack of content. Now, back when the game was in Early Access, CAGE Studios’ aim was to make it a free-to-play title with a monthly battle pass, not unlike Fortnite. For some reason, the 1.0 release abandoned this concept, instead going for a fixed price. Based on how much content is present after three years of continuous development, it’s likely that the dev simply couldn’t keep up a steady stream of new stuff to justify their original earnings model. The upside to this is that anyone who got on board during the Early Access phase was able to get the game for free, but if you missed out on that, you’ll have to shell out €19.50 for the base game. That’s a steep price for the amount of content that you’re getting here. Granted, the 1.0 release added a level editor, so depending on how active the Sherwood Extreme community is, you might still end up getting quite a bit of bang for your buck, but it doesn’t seem right to count user-generated content as part of the price of entry. There is an official additional level pack, but this is paid DLC. If you look at the howlongtobeat page for the game, you’ll see that the game is a mere 43 minutes long. We’d say that’s an underestimate because of Sherwood Extreme‘s inherent replay value, but even then, it shouldn’t take most players more than two to three hours to see everything.
Conclusion
At Sherwood Extreme’s core is a straightforward but fun arcade title. The gameplay flows nicely, and an effort was clearly made to make the various stages worth replaying. Sherwood Extreme isn’t going to impress anyone with flashy visuals but it looks good enough for what it wants to be. The game’s biggest issue is how little content there is for the price point. If you can pick this one up at a hefty discount of 50% or more, Sherwood Extreme may be worth it for a couple of hours, but at full RRP we can’t recommend this one.
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