Banner Saga

The gameplay has its flaws, but the decisions you make might help you OR bite you in the ass later in the game, with no point of return, which is great, although some people might dislike that. But the key feature is the story of the game, while not fully unfolding yet and with an open end, it is full of epic encounters and you get a glimpse of the rich universe of characters, gods and giants with potential for a even more epic storyline next time. I really look forward to the second part, i hope they make it!

While The Banner Saga is an incredibly pretty game with a stirring soundtrack, the gameplay leaves a lot to be desired. In fact, I would've preferred it if they just made the game into a visual novel since at least they would've been able to introduce multiple endings dependent on character interactions. Ultimately, it's just a numbers game and 95% of the game is inconsequential. All that matters is how well you do in the very difficult final battle and that's it. Would I recommend people to buy this game? Only if you're really good at turn-based tactics games or you appreciate a beautifully crafted but almost linear story (just be sure to play it on Easy difficulty if you're not used to strategy games). Would I purchase the sequel? Only if Austin Wintory is doing the soundtrack since I'm not going to lie, his soundtrack is probably one of the only reasons I ended up buying The Banner Saga in the first place.

I'm honestly rather surprised at all the gushing reviews for this. It's not a terrible game but it's not that deep fantasy saga some people paint it to be. It's an mediocre tactical game glued together with an average story which boils down to trite pulp fantasy tropes. Which is fine, if the characters are fun, or interesting, or memorable. But chances are you'll have forgotten all of them by the time the credits stop rolling. And I'm only being slightly hyperbolic here. But what about the core gameplay? What is the combat like? The combat isn't necessarily bad (though it is for me), but it is abstract and counter-intuitive. It's all about herding/hamstringing enemies and abusing turn order to your advantage. I.e.: You'll be finding yourself keeping some poor hostile critters barely alive at 1HP (you sadistic monster) so that they take up space in the enemy turn queue in order for you to swarm their boss before it gets a chance to even act. However, if that sounds intriguing to you, by all means, go for it. And the caravaning? Handled similarly: You may find it a lot easier to simply let them all starve. They honestly serve no gameplay purpose. Your heroes can't starve and the points which pay for your hero upgrades come from the same pool which buy rations for your caravan. And there's your incentive to simply do away with all the virtual plebs weighing you down. Whoa! Is there some cynical meta-commentary hidden away in the Banner Saga? Probably not, the game is not that clever. Not by a long shot. There are other shortcomings, but those are mostly nitpicky in nature (change resolution? Volume? rotate camera?). To end on a positive note, the art direction is nice and it all looks quite appealing (Dare I say crisp?)

Video Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwlnmUWvoIo The Banner Saga is a turn based strategy game where you get to live through a book basically. I feel like describing it any other way would be technically incorrect. You do a lot of reading and make a lot of choices like choose your own adventure games. Is The Banner Saga worth your time? Let’s talk our way through that. The gameplay of the banner saga in terms of the combat is turn based as you can expect. There’s some special armor and hitpoint mechanics that make it very unique. WIth three different well-scaled difficulty settings you can find a challenge no matter your skill level. There’s many different classes you’ll find available to you too that you can use to bring into battle. It’s a lot of fun, if maybe a little repetitive over time since the goal is always the same. Kill approximately six enemies. Over and over and over. It’s fun enough though and short enough that that’s not really a problem unless you plan on replaying it for different story results. The biggest problem with the gameplay is that to level a character you need to kill the enemy with that character. Apparently warriors don’t learn by fighting, they learn by killing. And be careful who you choose to give kills because almost everyone is expendable, but we’ll get to that later To read the full text review (because GoG's space limitations are very low) check it out on steam: http://steamcommunity.com/id/Resoula/recommended/237990/

The BioWare past background of developers is felt in this game. It's a very elaborate story-telling game with atmosphere and so on, but it lacks all the rest. Maybe safe the battles which are quite satisfying. The authors have depicted a vast and spectacular world but they don't let us to play with it. Instead of it, they play with it themselves. It may sound strange but this game reminded me Mass Effect trilogy: you are just an actor that chooses the variants of answers in multitudinous dialogues. Hey, guys, I want FREEDOM in such a beautiful world! Your story may be heart-touching but it's forgettable and it doesn't inspire to play it one more time. I hope though that this game will be sold well and we can hope for the trilogy (as devs promised). Maybe they will give us more freedom and maybe they'll can to grow some meat on game's bones. P.S. And the term "dredge" looks heterogenous in this harsh Northern world, it smells like awful Hollywood movies about aliens. It could be possible to invent something more Norse-like and suitable for the game world.