Banished

"The townspeople work, build, get older, have children, and eventually die." So says the game description and I can indeed confirm, your townspeople most certainly die. A lot. Mostly before getting any real work done, building anything meaningful, having children to bolster the population, or actually getting much older. Causes of death? Principally starving and freezing when the first winter comes. Why? Because no matter what I do, they simply don't gather enough of the needed resources to survive the winter. Bear in mind this is playing what's supposed to be "Easy" mode, so I can try to familiarise myself with the gameplay I had hoped to discover. Even micro-managing everything in the finest detail, still there was never enough resources gathered, to prevent huge portions of my population dying. Starvation and winter striking again. So what did I do? Cleared land to gather plenty of stone and wood, whilst also getting crops, orchards and pastures ready as quickly as the interface will allow. No matter how big or small each plot, or how much they harvest/gather, it's never enough. The population dies rapidly, thinning the population to a point where it's impossible to continue. Despite the simple and easy to use interface, attractive graphics and pleasing sound, plus it being blatantly obvious what townsfolk need to get done to survive, along with plenty of patience trying different methods to do just that, this is arguably the single most depressing game I've ever played. And I normally love games like this. Banished... Yes indeed! Uninstalled from my PC and I doubt It will ever be returning.

Though not as deep as something like cities skylines, it is still good fun and the simplicity makes it easier for new players. The Colonial Charter mod makes the game even better by adding more buildings and jobs so I suggest downloading and setting that up. The game goes really cheap on sales so you can usually pick it up for a really good value.

So I have played this game quite a bit. If I said I didn't like it, I would be lying. But, it feels like the developer pushed out to sale and then walked away from it. I build houses, markets, etc...(things that are necessary) near all builds that make the village prosper. Yet, the villagers do not do what is expected of them a lot of the time. They barely manage a crop field at times, or start harvesting ALL of them, inexplicably, at 20% harvest. Then, you'll have three or four seasons of famine because they will continue to do that. So people die then, magically, they start harvesting like they are supposed to. I put multiple wells near all my housing neighborhoods to maximize the possibility of extinguishing fires. But, they will sit there near the wells cowering in fear while the fire wipes out the heart of the village. I get I could build differently by spacing my buildings out. But, that is not the point. They have more that enough resources near them to put out the flames....yet they don't. That is inexcusable. There are a lot of poor programming irregularities that left me searching for earlier save games because it was ridiculous how lame the game played out because of poor AI. The developer hasn't updated or supported this game, it seems like, since release. I have had this game for years and it feels the same as the day I bought it. This is unfortunate beccause this game could have so much more potential than what they have left the gamers with. Overall, outside of the inconsistencies I can't say the game isn't fun...because it is. However, I did become fed up with how topsy turvy the AI would be, which would usually cause hundreds of my villagers to die. It will probably take you a while to see these things for yourself, but that is for you to make the decision about. Fun? A lot of the time, Abosolutely. Can I recommend this game for purchasing? I won't

This game is fun if you're good at games with no inherent goals or objectives. Otherwise there doesn't seem to be much to the game, and it stopped getting updates awhile ago. Even for basic things like GOG achievements would be nice to have. It just doesn't take long to figure out how to survive and then there isn't much of a "reason" to keep playing past figuring out how to avoid starving.

Imagine Sim City and The Settlers, combined. Two classics merged into one dreamy, well-polished and smart package. It doesn't get much better than this. The entire experience is smooth and well-produced. Lovely graphics, terrific performance and a smart, sophisticated UI make Banished among my new favorites. If SIMs are your thing, get this now.