Banished

In this game there's no enemy to fight with, no distant lands to conquer, no overly complicated rules. Just slow-paced building of your settlement, done by your simple folks, doing their simple, everyday tasks. And with all this, it is suprisingly fun to watch and play. If you loved games like 'Settlers' or 'Anno' series, or city-builders in genreal, do not hesistate even a second longer - just buy it. This game is simply made for you, and will bring you countless hours of fun, fun and nothing but fun. It have everything: nice graphic, smooth music, intuitive yet logical game mechanics that you can grasp in no time and mountains of satisfaction from leading you villagers into happines and prosperity. :) And even if you are more aggressive type of player I strongly recomend you to try this piece. You might be astonished how 'comfy' it is to build a small, idyllic village lost in the forest and watch it grow and change as the time pass. What is also amazing is the fact that whole game was made from scratch by just ONE guy. And it's small (only 89MB!), astonishingly well polished and optimised (hence smooth even on less powerfull machines) and virtually bug-free! I wish we can get this quality of products from the "mainstream" gaming industry...

It suprises me that this game can be so much better then most city managing sims I have seen in the last years. The interface is intuitive and helpful, the graphics is spectacular, and the atomsphere is splendid. If you have played a city building game in the last years and have been left with that bad feeling that this was nt what you really wanted, try this game. Hopefully you won't be dissapointed. I sure wasn't

I have been following Luke's project for the last couple years; he would always share the latest on development on his blog. He posted videos of the early alpha build, the pathfinding system and the textures he added over time. I was drooling silently all way long. The developer decided against releasing the game as an alpha or beta like so many studios do it nowadays, he chose not to cash in on the hype that was really mounting in the last months. That alone would have made me support his game, just for the principle of releasing the actual software right away. He came across a very real person on his blog, someone who pours his heart in the game and gives his full attention to every detail. I was already sold. Not only for the amazing idea of Banished, but the developer behind it too. That is something you are hard pressed to find nowadays. Banished is a medieval city builder that focuses on the survival and prosperity of a small village. Your citizens tend to their everyday job, then return to their house and spend time with the family. Every family has their own house and storage of essentials such as firewood, clothes and food. Children grow up, start their own family, become an expert in their job. Life goes on as your virtual village slowly grows into something more: you know the folk by their name, you care about their well-being and you make an effort to help them survive the upcoming winter. This is the maximum length GoG allows for this review sadly.

Without the distractions of fighting an enemy or conquering territory, this game boils down to a question of survival. It begs the question: "What can I do to get my village to survive?" That question drives the "just one more turn" response that is the bane of every individual that must function and work the next day.