Hoods: Outlaws and Legends is not even a week old and already there are players who are quickly climbing through the ranks. In its current state, the most players can achieve is to play enough PvPvE to max out the levels of every character and unlock all their different equipment and abilities. Additionally, there are also achievements to attain as well as three challenges that refresh every day.
Having only one competitive game mode, for the time being, it won’t be long until many players completely master Hood. When this happens, there will be many alternatives to this game inspired by Robin Hood and other similar stories that can help scratch that particular itch.
10 Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
Robin from Hood was not the first stealth-operative to don a head-covering cowl. In 2007, Ubisoft introduced us to Assassin’s Creed, a game that would go on to spawn one of the most prolific stealth series in gaming. In 2010, the series took a turn toward online play with Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood.
In this multiplayer mode, players take on the roles of various assassins, receive another player as a target, and use stealth and subterfuge to hunt them down. However, players must remain vigilant as they are also being hunted.
9 Styx
Goblins are commonly regarded as fodder enemies so it’s rare to see one as the main character. In 2014, Cyanide Studio released Styx: Master of Shadows as a fantasy stealth game. The plot follows Styx, a 200-year old goblin living in a medieval city with both arcane and industrial elements. He becomes embroiled in a conflict between several powerful figures and must use his skills to discover his true origins.
Being a goblin, his stature allows him to sneak around and use the shadows to his advantage. He can also use magical abilities to bypass obstacles and take down unaware enemies.
8 Monaco
Hood was not the first game to include co-op stealth mechanics. Originally released in 2013 for PC, Monaco is a colorful top-down stealth game. It follows a gang of criminals who aim to pull off progressively difficult and more lucrative heists. There are eight members in total, and while they all have the same basic skills, each one is an expert in their own field.
It comes with a single-player campaign with its own story and online co-op play. Players each select one criminal and work together against the AI to achieve their goal. It includes both PvE and PvP mode as well as a custom level editor for players to create their own challenges.
7 Thief
Though Robin Hood is a bandit, he is frequently portrayed as morally just. In contrast, the protagonist of the Thief series is not. The most recent installment was released in 2014, but the base mechanics have remained consistent since the first entry in 1998.
The games follow Garrett as he navigates the underworld of a Victorian-style city and breaks into highly guarded mansions and government buildings to steal any wealth he can. Much like Hood, the goal of Thief games is to sneak around undetected, use gear when needed, and obtain as much treasure as can be carried.
6 Payday
Sometimes heists do not go as smoothly or as quietly as the players in Hood attempt to make them. Payday: The Heist is a co-op game that was released in 2011 for PC and PlayStation Portable. The game follows four masked bank robbers attempting to knock off various financial institutions.
Exclusively PvE, Payday pits teams of players against waves of police forces that attempt to stop them from escaping with their loot. There is a slight stealth element, but it mainly applies to the setup phase of the heist before masks go on and guns are drawn.
5 Dead by Daylight
Fear and survival are two concepts that encourage stealth and quick-thinking. In horror films, characters frequently resort to hiding and sneaking in order to escape their pursuers. The game Day by Daylight, released in 2016, incorporates the same idea. Players are put into a PvP scenario where four play survivors and one plays as the killer.
The objective is simple: The survivors need to escape and the killer needs to stop them. Survivors must use stealth to avoid being detected by the killer. While players can work together, they are by no means obligated to do so.
4 Batman: Arkham City
Though Robin Hood is a highly recognized character, he can be easily overshadowed by Batman. Rocksteady Studios set out to combine free-flowing combat with challenging stealth in Batman: Arkham Asylum initially released in 2009. It was soon followed by Arkham City, which gave players much more space to explore and villains to fight. Batman is imprisoned in the city and must foil the plans of every criminal he comes across.
When he’s not brawling, plays must rely on Batman’s stealth and gadgets to avoid getting riddled with bullets — and not just by the Riddler.
3 Sly Cooper
There are plenty of jokes about how raccoons are nature’s bandits and Sony Interactive Entertainment made a game to that effect. The original Sly Cooper came out in 2002, three years after the launch of the PlayStation 2. It centers on Sly Cooper, a raccoon and talented thief who works with his gang to steal riches and dangerous artifacts.
Despite the cartoon-like style of the game, it presents a degree of stealth and platforming gameplay that grows with each entry in the series. Though not as complex as Hood, Sly Cooper is nevertheless challenging.
2 HITMAN
Stealth focuses primarily on three aspects: theft, espionage, and assassination. Aside from the Assassin’s Creed series, IO Interactive’s HITMAN series takes stealth to a serious degree. Though the first game Hitman: Codename 47 was released in 2000, the series has recently returned in a brand new trilogy starting in 2016. The game follows a hitman known only as Agent 47 as he attempts to assassinate various targets across the world.
The game makes use of dynamic and responsive AI for increased difficulty but also offers multiple solutions. Players have the freedom to use all forms of stealth, from finding a good sniping vantage point to adopting an appropriate disguise in order to get close and personal.
1 Sherwood Extreme
A lot of Robin Hood-based media, Hood included, have put a serious spin on the concept. However, the Early Access game Sherwood Extreme by CAGE Studios has gone in the opposite direction. It’s a wacky and fast-paced third-person shooter with both single-player and online play. The game revolves around players sniping goblins and each other as they race through environments to gather achievements.
It’s full of bright colors, stylized characters, and mechanics like bullet-time to add to the experience. It’s currently free to play with more updates expected in the future.
NEXT: Hood: Outlaws And Legends Reveals Win Rates For Each Outlaw
