May is packed with video game releases, and one of them is Hood: Outlaws and Legends. This game is an interesting blend of familiar elements that really comes into its own: it's a medieval action game with notes of fantasy, plenty of stealth, and multiplayer PvPvE. Ultimately, Hood: Outlaws and Legends intends to offer players an adrenaline-pumping and high-stakes action game about being the ultimate thief. Luckily for anyone interested in developer Sumo Newcastle's concoction, the studio has already announced long-term DLC plans for the game. A whole Year 1 DLC roadmap has been laid out, although some details are murky for now.
It looks like there's four parts to the Year 1 DLC for Hood, all described as seasons. The game will begin Season 0 or Litha almost immediately, followed by seasons 1 through 3, which have been identified as Samhain, Yule, and Ostara. While there's nothing extra to purchase for Season Litha, those who get a kick out of Hood can plan to buy extra battle passes that'll provide extra content throughout Samhain, Yule, and Ostara with an emphasis on cosmetics. Sumo Newcastle and Focus Home Interactive haven't revealed much about these future seasons yet, but it's made plenty of details about Season Litha public, indicating that Hood: Outlaws and Legends will kick off explosively.
The Benefits of Season Litha
If Hood's five maps available at launch aren't enough to sate the thirst of fans, they don't need to worry. Season Litha comes with a map called Mountain, known in-lore as Storgramand. The gameplay loop seems to be about the same as it is throughout the rest of Hood: steal the Sheriff's key, get the treasure, and escort it safely to a winching point to win. What sets Mountain apart is its many chasms and open areas that might make stealth difficult. The tradeoff is that there seem to be plenty of open sight lines for ranged characters like the Ranger to take out enemies and set up their team for safer movement.
Sumo Newcastle intends to engage with its fans in more ways than just the new map. Apparently there'll be extra activities for fans to get into in the early stages of the Year 1 DLC as well. Newcastle mentions a "community event" of some sort that'll be a part of Season Litha, but it hasn't shared much on what that means. It does also mention a new gamemode for combat-minded players, which suggests Hood players will get to play a sort of deathmatch mode. All-out warfare seems like it'll be a nice change of pace from the game's usual rules.
Finally, it sounds like a fifth character class will release sometime in Season Litha. Although there isn't much known about this character, the sneak peak given in the Year 1 DLC reveal trailer certainly makes her look unique. Her name is Eidaa, and it looks like she might be a swordfighter, an archetype Hood surprisingly won't have at launch. Sumo Newcastle promises that Eidaa will be really useful on heists, but for now, Hood fans will have to wait and see if they want to find out what that means.
Looking Beyond Season 0
Litha sounds like it'll be a good start, but naturally, fans are wondering what'll come after it. Sumo Newcastle suggests that seasons 1 through 3 will be pretty similar to Litha. Screenshots suggest that Yule will add a large building somewhere well-lit, Ostara will be somewhere heavily wooded, and Samhain will blend the two with a woodland fortress. New gamemodes and events are confirmed, and it's clear that new characters will join Hood over time as well. There's plenty of room for expansion in the character department. It'd be interesting to see more magic users, unconventional ranged characters like a javelineer, and so on. Growing beyond Hood's fairly meager four starting classes will really deepen strategy.
All in all, the Year 1 DLC for Hood: Outlaws and Legends seems solid. Sumo Newcastle isn't satisfied with expanding the game in any one department alone. Rather, it wants to introduce new content of all kinds, from maps to characters to gamemodes to cosmetics. The game will expand on all fronts in the way that a live service game should. The studio's clear determination to flesh out the game as much as possible should be encouraging to all of Hood's aspiring fans.
Hood: Outlaws and Legends releases May 10 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.