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.
