Here's how Hood: Outlaws & Legends' competitive heists work

A new trailer for medieval multiplayer heist 'em up Hood: Outlaws & Legends has given us a full overview of how the game's competitive breaking and entering will play out.

Revealed last year, Hood pits two bands of not-so-merry men and women against each other in a race to nick treasure from heavily defended fortresses. We got a brief glimpse at the game's blend of PvEvP sneaking, stabbing and looting, but today's trailer helps frame that within the context of a high-stakes fantasy heist—narrated by Hitman's Diana Burnwood, if I'm not mistaken.

Both teams start on the outskirts of one of these expansive fortresses—and if they want, they can duke it out before ever setting foot in the castle. But with a hulking, boss-like sheriff and elite guards protecting the vault, you don't want to bruise yourself too much before making an entrance. Instead, it might be worth waiting for your foes to do the hard work, ambushing them at the vault or nicking their prize as they make a runner.

Balancing NPC targets with the threat of player incursions strongly echoes Hunt: Showdown, whose blend of monster-infested swamps with permadeath gunslingers may secretly make it the best battle royale game around. Hood might opt for a tighter infiltration, but here's hoping for the same nail-biting ambushes that made Showdown so memorable.

Hood: Outlaws & Legends comes to Steam and the Epic Games Store on May 10th.

20 years ago, Nat played Jet Set Radio Future for the first time, and she's not stopped thinking about games since. Joining PC Gamer in 2020, she comes from three years of freelance reporting at Rock Paper Shotgun, Waypoint, VG247 and more. Embedded in the European indie scene and a part-time game developer herself, Nat is always looking for a new curiosity to scream about—whether it's the next best indie darling, or simply someone modding a Scotmid into Black Mesa. She also unofficially appears in Apex Legends under the pseudonym Horizon.