The WORST Robin Hood in Gaming (is also the best)

• Features by Adventure Game Hotspot staff
• Published:

As beloved as they are, Sierra On-Line was notorious for punishing players for bad choices, or even for perfectly normal choices with unexpectedly bad outcomes. But one game in 1991 really stands out as an exception ahead of its time: Christy Marx's Conquests of the Longbow: The Legend of Robin Hood. Even if you've never played the game, you surely know the basic premise: as the legendary green-garbed hero, you must steal from the rich, avoid the Sheriff of Nottingham, and save Maid Marian in the process. In this particular case, you're collecting riches to pay a ransom for King Richard, collecting as many fellow outlaws as you can along the way. 

Conquests of the Longbow is a great game in its own right, and arguably (but really, who's arguing?) the best Robin Hood game ever made. What's partiuclarly surprising, however, is how forgiving it is in letting you be an awfully poor protagonist and still getting away with it. OneShortEye is a passionate fan of the game, and has detailed the many, many different ways things can go – for better or worse – over the course of its thirteen days. Unwittingly letting innocent people die? Check. Different puzzle solutions? Yep. Optional romance? Mais oui! Choice of attack plans with variable outcomes? Definitely. Multiple endings, from best to worst? Of course!

OneShortEye's extensive video covers all these and so much more, highlighting Conquests of the Longbow's incredible attention to detail througout. Game footage is even fully voiced by adventure game community members, a kind of homage to Sierra's early friends-and-family policy of keeping voice-overs in-house. Toss in some Easter eggs (the Loch Ness monster, seriously?), "nerdy" hacks, and side quests easily missed, and you'll surely come to share his appreciation for why this game is still considered a timeless classic more than thirty years later. 

But wait, as they say in the infomercials, there's more! As if two hours of detailed analysis weren't enough, OneShortEye followed up with a few more points initially overlooked. (Even THAT isn't everything, but he had to draw the line somewhere.) As an added bonus, he recounts a lengthy text chat with Richard Aronson, the lead programmer of Conquests of the Longbow, with lots of interesting behind-the-scenes insight. 

OneShortEye is part of the Adventure Game Hotspot Network, a collective of talented, dedicated content producers who work entirely independently but have joined forces to promote each other’s efforts. All opinons expressed belong solely to the original creators. 

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