Everything you read about this game is true. All of the reviews, good and bad, are right. Is the game touching and beautiful? Yes. Is it also annoying and repetitive? Also yes. The things that are unquestionably good are straightforward: the music is great, nice and soothing and pleasant. The UI is straightforward and easy to use. And the setting itself, is a real neat one if you like sci-fi. The gameplay is simple; is it 'a struggle to survive'? No, not really. It's less a game about managing resources and more about collecting them. It's more strategic than challenging: once you know where everything is and how to get it, it's pretty easy. The fun (if you enjoy this sort of thing) comes from accumulating items, getting what you need when you need it. The dice-rolling system adds a bit of randomness, but if you're smart, you're not gonna have trouble surviving on the Eye. The most 'difficult' part is the start of the game, but no matter what class you pick you'll be able to do and see it all with relative ease (although hacking is so blatantly useful the best 'starting class' is obvious). The meat of why this game is so divisive: the writing. This game's writing is like a pendulum that swings between terrible and fantastic. The overarching plot is solid, but the entire game and story is made up of separate narratives that intertwine. Some are great, some are atrocious. There is a bartender whose 'friendship' feels incredibly forced. There is a father and daughter whose are a bit cliche but are still touching. There is a mechanic I hated who made me want to stop playing. There is a mercenary captain who made me KEEP playing. The vending machine, and the gardener woman, are actually interesting. Is this game 'the next Disco Elysium'? God no. Is it a pile of total trash? Absolutely not. When I beat it, I felt okay, but a little indifferent overall...but I kept coming back to it. Kept thinking about it. For all its flaws, it stuck with me, the good and the bad.
I bought this game during GOG's Insomniac sale, for only about five bucks. I figured it was going to be something like Sim City, but in a more medieval style world. It is not. It's SO much better. Comparing the game to Sim City is really quite wrong, because they tend not to have much depth. You put down buildings, so people can move in, so you can tax them, which gets more money, which lets you put down more buildings. The people's 'needs' never run deeper than them wanting a specific type of building set up. Banished goes much, much deeper than that. If I had to compare it to anything, I would say it's closer to Dwarf Fortress, albeit a much easier and much more accessible version. You have individual citizens (or laborers), and the game keeps track of them. You can watch anyone grow from child to adult, watch them pass away of old age, watch them work their individual jobs. You don't directly control any of them, only assign duties, build homes and workplaces, and try to care for them, but ultimately they're the ones who have to do it, with you acting as overseer for the growing collection of cottages, trying to make it become a village, and then a town, and a city, as big and as long as possible. There is no combat in Banished, and there are no monsters or enemies, aside from natural disasters such as disease, starvation, freezing, fires, tornados, and the like, which helps keep it laid back, but also allows you to focus on growth, and trying new things, new challenges. Can you have a thriving city with only fishermen providing food? Can you survive a winter using only firewood? Can you go without a school for smarter workers, a tavern for happy workers? Carefully managing food, herbs, wood, stone, coal, and iron requires a watchful eye (especially wood), which is the game's challenge. You can build on every inch of land on the map for a huge population, but you'll need room for resources. It's a relaxing but challenging and entertaining game. Buy it.
