Banished

First hours with Banished are very enjoyable, but when the town starts functioning like clockwork, the game loses its appeal, because it's short of features – there’s no campaign here, no scenarios. [04/2014, p.68]

Banished is a rare technical achievement, pure in design and of purpose. Its many deaths almost always feel fair, and the battle up to self-sufficiency is gripping. But the absence of a long game beyond this early toil makes it hard to find reasons to settle down here, except for the views, especially if you’ve established yourself on these frosty plains before.

It is an entertaining title that offers some freshness... but that will soon run out if it is not completed with new content to grant a bit more variety. An interesting option for those who love simulation and management games, with a pretty reasonable price that makes it even a more desirable offer. A must buy just if we can assume it will be updated in the future.

Banished is a good city builder game that needs some refinements, but still has a charming atmosphere and interesting ideas.

A nice change of pace for city-builders, but it loses momentum once the immediate urgency of survival goes away.

Banished is like the quiet kid in school: unassuming, down-to-earth but also filled with hidden depths. If you're looking for a no-nonsense city builder that demands you keep a handle on important things like food, warmth and how much beer your citizens have. Once you've figured out the basic mechanics, Banished's appeal can dip slightly but there remains something weirdly engrossing about watching the seasons pass.

Life on the frontier wasn't pretty and neither is Banished, but it does provide an interesting city-building simulation with an excellently designed user interface.

A solid city builder that will appeal to most fans of the genre even if it's currently lacking in features and scope.

Banished, as it stands now, looks like a game from Steam Early Access rather than a finished product.

An interesting twist on the concept of a tycoon game that falls short of its ambition. [Issue #240]

A picturesque city-building strategy game by a one-man developer team only, which mixes complex city-building features with brutal struggle for survival. Banished will initially flog you, then blow your mind. However, it will bore you eventually.

I liked playing Banished. It was complex, but never fiddly, difficult, but rarely cruel, though it would benefit from a little more transparency. But as soon as I had a handle on it, as soon as I'd started to see through some of the fog of its complexity, I wanted to grasp for something bigger, something greater. Banished is satisfying, but never spectacular. That's not quite enough for me.