Threatening The Poor For Their Clothes - a review of Conquest of the Longbow

The tale of Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men has had many game adaptations, but none have quite reached the level of 90s retro adventure we can find in the second and sadly the last game in the Conquest series by Christy Marx. Your objective is to point and click your way to gather enough riches to pay a king’s ransom in order to restore King Richard I to the throne. Hounded by Nottingham’s sheriffs, you must avoid capture while growing your band and coming across riches, and peculiarly dressing up in other people’s clothes on at least a few occasions.

Forest view, mountain in the background, score markers at the top, dialog box at the bottom with the portrait of the talker to the right

Little John was surprised to hear about Robin Hood’s dreams of courtship. The score counter at the top right can be seen going into thousands.

The usual Sierra game score counter displaying current points from a maximum attainable score is now also accompanied by a counter for your band of outlaws and also the gathered ransom money. With the score counter going into thousands, a significant inflation has occurred, since points seem to be awarded in tens or hundreds. Nevertheless, the score system is accompanied with many solutions to puzzling problems, presented an intriguing and innovative approach to the genre, for its time at least.

Forest view, diagonal beams of light, two portraits for talking characters, dialog box below

Robin Hood attempting to woo Maid Marian with his oddly placed flirts (and weirdly enough succeeding).

A few issues with the game come from the way guidance is offered. The player must rely on interpreting the dialog, which lacks voice acting, to figure out what needs to be done. Admittedly, I sometimes lost track of what I was supposed to do and where, and had to resort to online guides to get back on track, even if there aren’t that many routes the player can take. Another issue comes from Robin Hood fawning over Maid Marian. This is an aspect I feel hasn’t aged well, but since Robin Hood has no issue with threatening beggars or monks to get his way, maybe the problem lies more with him and his band of outlaws, and not as a part of the game itself. Still, her hand in marriage is often emphasized as the reward waiting at the end of Robin Hood’s outlaw lifestyle into which he has managed to drag 30-something fellows along with him.

top-down view, two people facing each other, board game in the middle

Playing one of the many minigames, “Nine men’s Morris”, which is the only one that cannot be skipped by adjusting difficulty sliders.

A welcome inclusivity option is the arcade difficulty slider. While many Sierra games are quite easy to play with different accessible controllers due to only being point and click, some titles have had minigames that may be surprisingly difficult to complete. If the arcade slider is turned all the way down, the player may opt out of arcade sequences, while still being able to enjoy the rest of the game.

Overall, I feel this title is more meant for point-and-click aficionados and not newcomers to the genre, since the lack of voice acting makes it difficult to stay focused on the extensive yapping your band of outlaws imposes on your eyes, even if they have pretty personalized text and portraits. While this may be unfair criticism for an old title but having recently had the pleasure of playing multiple partially or fully voiced adventure games, the value of voice acting becomes even more apparent when dealing with a high volume of dialog. Maid Marian’s portrayal makes me yearn for Monkey Island, which has a refreshing representation of powerful and capable female characters.

Basic info:

Publisher: Sierra On-Line
Developer: Sierra On-Line
Platforms: MS-DOS, Amiga, Windows
Release date: 1991
Genres: Point-and-click, Adventure, Fantasy
PEGI: Not rated (12 recommended by author)

Photos: screenshot from Conquest of the Longbow: The Legend of Robin Hood (Sierra On-Line 1991), taken by the author.

Post Views: 699

Nicolas Boucht

A game enjoyer interested in the educational potential of games, enthralled by simulations, adventure, and role-playing games. Aiming to figure out what makes them tick all the right boxes and painting a cohesive picture on the allure of games.

#Adventure #retro #Point-and-click