Banished

Banished is a very well executed mix of city simulator, management and survival game. You start in a world generated from a random seed, with 4 families with some starting resources. It's early spring and your first task is to have them prepare for and survive their first winter. You can define tasks - like resource collection, building or working in an activity like fishing - but can't control any individual directly: they go around trying to balance they tasks they have with fullfilling their needs (such as food and warmth) which they do at home where they keep a stock of food and heating materials. As simple as it sounds, this comes with an incredible amount of complexity, were choices in building positioning and non-renewable resource collection affect several variables. After the initial first winter, the games keeps forcing the player to engage and interact: balancing the production/collaction of all the needed things (food, fuel, source materials, medicine and efficiency boosting tools) given the available manpower and terrain. There is seemingly no stable state, with population growth and disasters often pushing a game out of balance. Replayability is good, with random world generation and different modes for terrain, climate and starting resources. All in all, a great game, about as entertaining as Minecraft and Don't Starve.

I enjoyed playing this game but unfortunately got bored after a couple of hours of play. There is maybe only a dozen or so building to play with and no real direction to the game. After you've toyed with all the different construction options and managed to trade all the different types of cattle/crops, there's little left to achieve. I'm not sure if a fighting/conquest element would suit this game or not but it would certainly give you a reason to continue playing.

Banished is a great game if you have, at least, a little bit of patience. This city-builder game has a difficult early-game that provides a high challenge not seen in most games. YouTube has plenty of tutorials on the early-game. Most people want to expand too rapidly, thus causing starvation. :) All in all, Banished is a great slow-burner game. I have been playing it since 2014 and have put tons of hours in it. If you like city0builders and are looking for a challenge, get Banished. Then go to Black Liquid Software and install the MegaMod. It greatly expands gameplay and gives a new lease on the life of this game. One of my favorites, would buy again!

This game is the ultimate in chill village building, I bought it years ago, and nobody has ever come close. The mods for this game are insane, SO much to do with this game. Please give it a go if you want city simulation, village sim, no fighting anyone the only enemy is the weather, plague, and human error. Even with that it will definitely keep you on your guard.

Banished is a very solid city-builder when compared to existing games in the genre (Caesar series, Tropico and so on). It looks nice and plays well and doesn't seem to have any major bugs - very impressive for a one-man project. After the initial learning curve (the tutorials are quite good) you'll have fun as you build up the beginnings of your city. If you like to relax and watch tiny people run around simulating their lives as you meticulously plan out their future homes and workplaces you'll get mileage from the game. Just don't expect much of a challenge - with the placement of a single fishery and one or two other food sources you'll have thousands of food stockpiled within a couple of years. Survival, a theme of the game, seems a given. Overall a solid game.