Banner Saga

The game starts out with nice 2d graphics and introduces you to an interesting world. But the problem starts shortly after. For example, you're introduced to a handful of characters at the beginning which are all forgettable starting with their names. Then the travel scenes start and although the landscapes are beautifully crafted, just looking at them waiting for a random encounter to happen or until you get to the next settlement grows old very fast. The parallel story arcs feel rushed and poorly thought through, so when it's time for both stories to merge, the event doesn't feel relevant or big at all. It's more like "Oh right... there is the other half of the characters who just magically appeared out of nothing." The turn based combat feels repetitive and I tried to avoid it as much as I could after the first 3 hours of gameplay. The map is just a huge, boring to look at easter egg. I was pretty disappointed in the game as you can see and I won't be buying any of the sequels.

Story: 5/5 Worldbuilding: 5/5 Art Design: 4/5 Graphics: 4/5 Sound: 4/5 Gameplay: 4/5

An original game that combines Oregon Trail with Turned Based Combat.

I liked the storyline in north-european style. No heroes in shining armor and that never go down. Extraordinary people and their decisions, that bring consequences you may not expect and even can bring one against the others. Your decisions may mean life or death for people out there, and you can care or not but.. that's how it works even in real life. And finally, not all things may be what they seem: wonderful, really. Characters are very well suited in this world. You can understand their personalities but not always completely, and that leaves space to surprises. I liked classes and their abilities. I'm not so good at combat, but if you are not able to survive a main figth you can always change game difficulty. Some of the characters may take some time to be understood, but there's a quite good variety in there! Caravan management? It surprised me in a positive way. Morale issues have been the main cause of problems also in figths: good choice. Your trip through the scattered world won't be easy for you and the people you lead. This game makes you think. In my opinion, it's awesome.

The Banner Saga got beautyful hand drawn style, great characters, impactful choices, solid tactical combat and intense atmosphere. It is not perfect: resource management is weak, numbers of people in caravan do not mean anything, some consequences of the choices are impossible to predict, images in dialogues and cutscenes are mostly static. But all those flaws are unimportant compared to how engaging The Banner Saga is.