![]() Supplies are your lifeline, have plenty and you can keep morale high and your people fed, but if you run out you’ll lose people every day and morale will plummet. There’s a few things to manage in the caravan, too, although very little is done directly. Sometimes a choice will be given on-route, but it’s not the same. I don’t care that I’m going to Grosheim if I can’t even click the map and decide whether to take the high road or low road. ![]() That said it is rather disappointing that you can’t even choose the path your caravan takes, and that pretty map really is totally useless. In many ways the game is a choose-your-own-adventure story, and that’s not a bad thing if you’re expecting that. Some may cost lives, others may gain bonuses, some do both, and others might set up a chain of events that you have to deal with. There are battles, but the main focus of The Banner Saga is on the events that occur daily, your decisions in response to them, and living with them. It’s not a bad thing but you have to be prepared for it, and I find it rather refreshing. This fact will shock a lot of people when they pick up the game. Stoic have designed a lovely map for their world but you can’t do anything but look at it. You don’t control the caravan, can’t affect its speed and unless a specific rare choice offers it you can’t even decide the route it takes. The non-combat portion of the game, which is the majority of the game, involves watching your caravan and all your followers move along a (lovely) 2D plane, making decisions as they pop up – which is every few seconds. It’s still an RPG based around actions and consequences but the path you take is nearly the same every time. Now, I’m going to make one thing very clear right now so no one gets the wrong impression: The Banner Saga is completely linear. The choices that you make along the way reflect this. This brings a realistic side to the fantasy, making it feel like you’re playing real people dealing with an invasion of their home. ![]() Hakon’s group are happy to take on Dredge forces but are not looking for glory, and Rook’s group are just looking for a safe place to stay or escape to. They do meet each other eventually (and depending on how you play they don’t necessarily get on) and in a refreshing twist, neither side are heroes setting out to save the world. The first is a large group of Varl lead by the gruff Hakon and the arrogant human prince Ludin, and the second is a smaller group of refugee humans lead by a man called Rook and his long-time Varl friend Iver. One of the most interesting parts of the tale is that it is played from two sides of the conflict. The Viking style nods to Skyrim but story-wise the plot is closer to Dragon Age: Origins and that game’s Darkspawn Blight, but done so uniquely you won’t care about any minor similarities to other RPGs.ĭespite having a bow across his back the entire game Rook only fires an arrow twice at maximum. Since the last war many years ago the Dredge had vanished and a time of prosperity came to the world, but now they have returned in great numbers and threaten all. The humans and giant Varl have reached an uneasy peace forged in their wars against the monstrous armoured Dredge. ![]() Have they succeeded in bringing all this together? Read on to find out.Īs the opening to The Banner Saga explains, the gods are dead (already an interesting idea), the sun has stopped in the sky, and three peoples vie for control of the world. Like a playable 2D Disney/Don Bluth animation, The Banner Saga would combine a compelling plot inspired by Scandinavian legends, hard choices and dark consequences at every step, interesting turn-based battles, and a straightforward play-style. One of the early Kickstarter success stories, the ex-Bioware guys at Stoic envisioned a simpler but no less compelling form of RPG. ![]()
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