I got this at release, but only got around to it recently. As regards bugs, I didn't encounter anything noteable (the odd animation glitch being the worst that I encountered) and the game has never crashed on me. As regards the game and the story, I had a great time. The central story is great and I loved the back and forth with Johnny throughout the many missions. A lot of the sidequests are the typical "kill a bunch of people" stuff...fun enough, but very basic, but there are however a few that were really well done and stuck with me more than I would have expected. As regards the gameplay, I had a good time with it. I liked the combat (though its nothing mindblowing) and I absolutely loved the city it all takes place in. The city is a real joy to travel around, and I did find myself driving almost everywhere and rarely using the fast travel. As far as my personal recommendation goes, all I can say is that having just finished it for the first time, I am really looking forward to starting a second playthrough.
The game is mechanically, fairly simple, but still relatively interesting. The way you enter into each part of the story is via the dead. A little bit of audio plays out and between it, the details contained in the scene's and wish some further assistance from the paintings of the crew you have in your book, and you try to put names to faces and decipher how the dead person/persons in each scene died. On that level its relatively interesting, putting together details such as accents, names (name's are extremely rare to hear though) or even specific words, and figuring out a name to go with a face feels quite satisfying. In the end though, its still a very simple game. Story wise it's fairly engaging, but it feels a bit short and personally, I was left feeling like it was a bit underdone. All in all, I would say its a decent enough little game, but personally I don't think it's as "special" as some would suggest.
I will keep this short. The game is relatively simple to play and each game plays out much the same. Each campaign is relatively short and is over in a couple of hours and once you get to grips with the gameplay, you will realise its all rather shallow. The interactive "story" such as it is has no actual depth and after you get over the initial impression formed by the look and style of the game, you (if you are like me at least) will swiftly discover that the game is very much a case of "style over substance". Dont get me wrong, there is some fun to be had with it, but its not at all worth the full price and all in all, your time would really be better spent in a game that is genuinely good.
I really enjoyed the narrative aspects of "Night in the Woods", but I would like to point out that it plays out incredibly slowly. There is a lot of filler in just moving from A to B and I could feel every minute of it. Its still a good game, but it may try your patience just a little.
An excellent stealth/tactics game, this has a good story, some great characters and some surprisingly touching character moments. On the pure gameplay side, it is always enjoyable, quite challenging and the characters have skill sets which nicely complement each other and can lead to all sorts of fun. I cant speak for anyone else, but I played through it using stealthy violence, going out of my way to lure NPC's to their deaths. The missions were varied, always well designed and the different challenges leave plenty of room for repeat play throughs if you are the type that likes to do so. It was well worth whatever I payed for it.
I liked the story, I liked the art style and the way simple but effective comic-book style presentation accompanied by audio. I liked the idea that was clearly behind the game. This is largely where it all goes off the tracks. The idea of the game is good, but the execution is just too shallow. The game has no respect at all for the players time with story progress locked off behind the number of days passed. Those days are extremely repetetive, involving you dispatching police to answer calls and occasionally arranging clues to solve crimes. The problem is that this is the single biggest part of the game and it has no depth at all. To top if off, the police calls themselves lack any kind of flavour, all ending the same - suspect hurt/not hurt: Civilians hurt/not hurt: cops hurt/not hurt, and thats it. I took a break from the game and when I came back to it I just wanted to finish it. There must have been around 30 minutes of story left to experience, but I had to grind through close to 100 game days of that damnably shallow managment map to get to the end and I felt like it was all completely pointless and mind numbing. This game would have been better served by drastically reducing the length of the management aspect of the game because the simple truth is it is nothing but bloat dragging out the length of an otherwise short game. I would really have preferred that shorter game.
Starting with the gameplay, I have little to say. It makes a few tweeks to the tile-based combat of the first game, but it otherwise plays much the same. If like me, you quite enjoyed the playstyle then whats not to like; if on the other hand the tactical side of it is not entirely to your liking then I would suggest you might still love it for its story. The story of Banner Saga is really enjoyable but its the combination of that story, along with the atmosphere created by the visuals and the audio that really gets under your skin. They do a wonderful job of making that story a personal one, with each choice carrying weight. I started the game playing as the usual hero, making all the "right" choices and always leaping to the defence of whoever needed defending. It didnt take long before the story forced me to realise that in this world, playing the selfless hero comes with a cost: will you help the people of that village which is under attack though it may mean the loss of more precious supplies and more of your caravan? Sacrifices will have to be made if the people following your banner are to be brought safely to their destination. What can I say, I really enjoyed my first playthrough and look forward to my second.
