Gaming Target - PlayStation 2: Robin Hood: Defender of the Crown

Written by Andrew Fitch on August 12, 2003

First Impressions: The only reason I selected this preview: To talk in ye Fakey Olde English.

Gather Сround ye olde cracklinge fire, younge squires, as I doth regale thee with tales from longe ago! A yarn from ages gone by, when such macheenes as yon magickal УPlaye StationФ didst not exist. Whenst heroic younge men didst deal with greedy and corrupte leaders who shattered yon dreams of a natione.

Ye didst thinke I woudst begin to speaketh of ye legende of Robin Hood, did ye not? Well, ye doth be verily mistaken! I hath come to spin a tale from an even darker age: Yon days before ye NES!

I shalt eschew the Fake Old English for now, so that you might clearly understand the rest of this preview (but frankly, I wouldn't mind doing all my previews/reviews in it!). Now then, as any student of video game history knows, the period between about 1984 and 1987 was indeed the dark ages for gaming on our fair continent of North America, particularly console-wise. It may as well have been 1184! The Atari 2600 and ColecoVision were essentially dead due to a lack of quality control, and the industry had collapsed (as the desert full of E.T. cartridges can attest to!). Console gaming had been dismissed by our despotic lords (a.k.a. Уour parentsФ) as a simple Уfad.Ф

This meant that the best place to find games was now on computers (it was УokayФ to have games on a computer, since they could be used for Уimportant stuffФ like...typing?). I was one of the unlucky ones whose ColecoVision was an expensive doorstop by the mid-'80s. But luckily, I had a friend just down the street who indeed possessed the Holy Gaming Grail of the time, the Commodore 64 computer. However, since his parents were as tyrannical as the Sheriff of Nottingham, we didn't get to play too often. Still, it was enough to satiate my gaming appetite until the NES was in wide release.

One of the more popular Commodore 64 titles was Cinemaware's strategy game Defender of the Crown, a 1986 release ahead of its time -- predating titles like Nobunaga's Ambition and Romance of the Three Kingdoms by a couple of years. Set in the 1100s, it followed the quest of lords like Cedric of Rotherwood, Wolfric the Wild and Geoffrey Longsword (not even gonna touch that name!), as they attempted to unite England. Besides the strategy elements, the game also featured action sequences like midnight raids on rival castles, and jousting for fame and land.

Cinemaware went out of business in the early С90s, but re-formed in 2000 with some of their original employees and a lot of fresh new talent. Now they're determined to become a player in the gaming world once again -- and what better way to announce their presence than by reviving their classic title on the world's most popular console?

However, Cinemaware is discarding our old friends Ceddy, Wolfie and Swordsy (I'm crushed...), and re-launching the title with the real star power of the Dark Ages: Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men. Robin played a minor role in the original Defender of the Crown, but the game focused on the various no-name lords. This is kind of like Metal Gear Solid 2 -- why make someone play through the game as lame-as-can-be Raiden when you've got the ultra-cool Solid Snake around? Like Konami's upcoming Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater, Cinemaware is atoning for its sins of the past, as all the action in Robin Hood: Defender of the Crown revolves around one of history's favorite do-gooder bandits, as it should.

But other than making Robin Hood the title character, the rest of the game remains quite true to the original. Commodore 64 gamers will immediately recognize things like the famous jousting scenes, now remade in 128-bit glory. In fact, much of the game is a direct update from the original, but with more depth and flair. Robin Hood: Defender of the Crown isn't trying to reinvent the wheel, just taking the original and adding more spice.

Like the Commodore 64 version, the story is set in the 12th century, and focuses on the famous Robin Hood legend (in case you hadn't figured that out by now...). With good King Richard the Lionhearted away at the Crusades, the evil and power-hungry Prince John has seized the throne. He's thrown out any politician with an ounce of morality (there couldn't have been many of those to begin with...!), and installed a bunch of his also-evil cronies, making life hell for the medieval peasants (as if simply being a medieval peasant wasn't torture enough!). Luckily, the masses have a hero: Robin of Locksley, the former nobleman turned outlaw УRobin HoodФ under the new regime. With Prince John's corrupt crown not worth the gold it's been plated with, you'll take on the role of Robin Hood as England's true Уdefender of the crown.Ф

Like most strategy games, your quest is to conquer all of the available land. England is divided into 38 fiefdoms, and it's up to Robin to unite them all, and dispose of the despotic prince. However, Robin's first mission is taking on the corrupt Sheriff of Nottingham in his home territory. This is reminiscent of the old NES title Genghis Khan, where Genghis first worked to unite the warring Mongol tribes, then set his sights on world domination. Robin is not nearly the tyrant Genghis was, so his ambitions will stop with England.

The Nottingham quest serves as a Уtraining missionФ to introduce the various gameplay features. Once you've done away with the sheriff, it's on to the rest of England, from Northumberland to Cornwall. While the ultimate goal is to defeat Prince John, your quest is open-ended, and you're not really required to do anything other than that. The game has several different endings, depending on how thorough you are.

Robin Hood is best-known for robbing from the rich and giving to the poor, and this incarnation will be no less of a medieval Marxist. He'll be able to attack traveling caravans in order to make money for his noble cause. Once you've got money, you can then recruit various types of soldiers to your side, from knights to archers.

As in the original, you'll be able to pull off daring midnight raids of rival manors. Robin is not only great archer, but also a talented swordsman, and he'll show off his dueling skills by taking on several knights single-handedly. If your raid is successful, you'll make off with much of the lord's booty, making it an easier conquest when you eventually engage him on the battlefield. You'll also have the option to siege rival castles, where you'll pound them with catapults, using ammunition like boulders and Greek fire to damage the garrisons.

As I mentioned before, the jousting option from the original game is back, and it's spectacular. However, you won't be able to challenge your rivals to a duel every turn like in the original. You'll have to wait for tournaments to be held at set intervals, which means there's more strategy involved in planning and preparing.

Each of Robin's Merry Men/Women will contribute to his noble fight with unique skills. For example, Little John will act as a military adviser; Maid Marian will use her feminine wiles to procure valuable info from rival lords; and Friar Tuck will use his moral and pious nature to convince people to donate funds to your cause.

Speaking of the cast, the character design indeed looks excellent -- Robin Hood's medieval mullet, 5 o'clock shadow and sly demeanor capture his devil-may-care attitude; Maid Marian is the embodiment of a hot medieval wench (though I don't remember the fair lass ever being this...buxom!); Prince John looks truly sinister with his dark hair and haughty regal sneer; and the outdoorsy Little John looks like a true 12th century Grizzly Adams, with his beard and animal hides. The only question mark is Friar Tuck, who looks more like Big Bully Busick from the early-'90s WWF than a man of the cloth...

The game will include many CG cutscenes, as well as over an hour of voice acting, which sounds fantastic -- the game's voice director is Kris Zimmerman, who's done the same work with the Metal Gear Solid franchise, so you know it'll be quality. Everyone has an English accent, which is always good in a tale about England (as everyone except Kevin Costner realizes...). The music also sounds very promising -- the themes I've heard all feature a powerful orchestra, with stronger and more memorable melodies than we've come to expect from the current generation of games.

One of the only glaring weaknesses I can see with the game is that that it's only a single-player affair. A strategy game like this seems tailor-made for multiplayer games, where a group of friends could take on the roles of dueling lords. Alas, a Уloser-is-off-to-the-stocksФ grudge match will have to wait for a sequel.