Adventures of Robin Hood

Adventures of Robin Hood, released in 1991 by the British studio Millennium Interactive, was one of the first games to seriously attempt what we now call a living world. Sherwood is not a painted backdrop: roughly forty characters go about their own business — peasants work, merchants and monks wander the land, soldiers patrol — and they keep at it whether or not you are there to watch.

The game opens with the Sheriff of Nottingham seizing your castle, and the goal is to win it back and become lord of the land again. The road there leads through reputation. Viewed from an isometric perspective, the game plays as a blend of adventure and RPG: you ambush wealthy travellers, hand the money to the poor, and watch your popularity with the common folk, because without their love there is no good ending. Seven magical items are scattered around the world for you to track down, and along the way you meet every character the outlaw legend demands.

The greatest strength is freedom. The designers deliberately built the game to be winnable in many different ways — and losable in even more. The same problem can be solved with force, cunning or coin, and the world reacts to what you do: shoot soldiers on sight and no amount of charity will patch up your name.

The weakness is pacing. Sherwood is large and Robin travels on foot, so a good share of your time goes into walking; reviewers complained about it back in 1991 and it stings even more today. The game also explains almost nothing by itself, so bring patience and a willingness to experiment.

Even so, this is a remarkable piece of history: a simulated-world experiment years before that became a buzzword, wrapped in a likeable outlaw fairy tale. You can wander into Sherwood on oldgame.cz straight from your browser, nothing to install.