Banished

 PC
User Score
8.1

Generally favorable reviews- based on 728 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 522 out of 728
  2. Mixed: 162 out of 728
  3. Negative: 44 out of 728

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  1. Esperantisto
    May 14, 2021
    6
    This is like Simcity , but at a much lower detail. You have to specifically build houses, roads, and so on.

    I've played this game about 100 hours, so obviously it isn't all bad. However, once you learn a few details about the simulation -- which are not at all obvious and which you probably won't find from playing the game, but only from reading guides -- the game becomes much easier    This is like Simcity , but at a much lower detail. You have to specifically build houses, roads, and so on.

    I've played this game about 100 hours, so obviously it isn't all bad. However, once you learn a few details about the simulation -- which are not at all obvious and which you probably won't find from playing the game, but only from reading guides -- the game becomes much easier and almost repetitive.

    The game has a tutorial, but one you learn those details, it seems that the tutorial was deliberately misleading about those details.    … Expand
  2. lautaropw
    Jul 6, 2020
    6
    It's a pretty good city building and management, though the main drawback I encounter It's that in the endgame It just decides to stop working properly and goes absolutely nuts with your resources. Despite that It's a great game to play when you're not in the mood for some thrills or action.
  3. ultravincent
    Jan 20, 2020
    6
    Not sure how this one got so many raging reviews.
    The dynamics are interesting, but the variety of jobs and materials is very limited. It gets old very quickly, lasted me about 5 hrs.
  4. ireviewbadgames
    Aug 15, 2018
    7
    Banished is a relatively well-made game, polished enough for release, but a bit limited when it comes to content. There are no real goals or milestones in the base game, so some players may get bored easily.. The modding community manages to prop it up a bit, but there's only so much they can do.

    I would say it's price tag is accurate and when on sale, even better.
  5. Fabler
    Feb 22, 2018
    5
    Very meh, this game seems to have a good idea but it seems that it leaves a considerable amount to be desired.
  6. FlaviusAetius
    Nov 22, 2017
    7
    A fun game that, for a few hours, can satiate any fan of the building sim genre but loses its appeal soon thereafter. The act of building up a town to allow them to survive is exciting but once your town becomes self-sufficient there's not much to do but wait every ten minutes for another trader to arrive.
  7. iseeall
    Dec 8, 2015
    7
    It's a city/village building game somewhat close to Sim Sity, Black & White or Settlers. The start is pretty hard - you will have to try a few times until you "get it". Then it gets pretty easy as you expand. However, in the end the game starts throwing random negative events like fires and diseases, destroying the awesomeness you've built.

    The good: - pretty difficult - many    It's a city/village building game somewhat close to Sim Sity, Black & White or Settlers. The start is pretty hard - you will have to try a few times until you "get it". Then it gets pretty easy as you expand. However, in the end the game starts throwing random negative events like fires and diseases, destroying the awesomeness you've built.

    The good:
    - pretty difficult
    - many interesting mechanics which all depend on each other and work pretty well together

    The so-so:
    - graphics are 3D and look ok, but most buildings have very similar roofs which makes it a bit hard to distinguish them from each other
    - the game is all about hardship and endurance, but such things aren't fun in real life, so in the game they bore you after a while. The game would definitely benefit if there was at least some humor, or maybe an advisor/companion. Some human touch. Or maybe a little story, or the main character who led this banished group. As it is, it feels somewhat anonymous and mechanical.

    The bad:
    - if you make a mistake or some random crap happens, or you didn't know some rule - you are screwed. It will take 10 or more in-game years until you recover. In my case the only "educated teacher" died from old age, there was no laborer available to take his place, and all students stopped their training. And after that the game would randomly re-sort villagers, covertly appointing a non-educated one on important roles like blacksmith or teacher although I made sure an educated one was on that role! The non-educated blacksmith couldn't renew the tools for everyone fast enough, and uneducated farmers without tools couldn't produce wheat etc etc. By the time I finally sorted that out I didn't care anymore for the villagers dying and just kept speeding up the game as the whole system slowly corrected itself across years.
    - as the village grows, the slow movement speed of the villagers becomes the main factor which hinders further development. A villager can spend 3 in-game months or even more on just running from one side of the map to the other, and by that time his task may become obsolete. An action like chopping a tree takes a second, but the villager will spend a minute running to that tree, and then another minute running back.
    - pathfinding seems to ignore roads. The villagers run in diagonal paths, ignoring roads - so why even build roads?
    - the music gets very repetitive, need more tracks
    - there is no goal (maybe just achievements), so after playing for a while you will just turn the game off because you will get fed up. You will fill the whole map with buildings and there will be nothing left to do, and there won't be any sense of accomplishment because the game is still running, and still tortures you with random destruction.
    - there is no way you can send a specific villager to a specific task. There is a clumsy "increase priority" dragbox which works in an arcane manner and never tells you which villagers will now go do this, if at all. Prioritizing commands doesn't work well which leaves you feeling powerless in front of a gigantic simulation which mostly runs by itself.    … Expand
  8. diehard-gamer
    Aug 22, 2015
    6
    Should be a good little game.

    Reasonably priced (if you get it on sale for £5 or so). Graphics are functional, bordering on attractive. Weather effects and terrain features like trees can make it difficult to see whats happening, but weather graphics can be turned off. Interface is pretty standard for these types of games. BUT it some really bizarre things happen ingame for no    Should be a good little game.

    Reasonably priced (if you get it on sale for £5 or so). Graphics are functional, bordering on attractive. Weather effects and terrain features like trees can make it difficult to see whats happening, but weather graphics can be turned off. Interface is pretty standard for these types of games.

    BUT it some really bizarre things happen ingame for no obvious reason. Last game I played I had fields full of crops, paddocks full of animals, more hunters, fishermen and gatherers than you could shake a stick at - and all my population starved to death ............?    … Expand
  9. suneater
    Feb 16, 2015
    7
    Banished is a fantastically atmospheric, albeit barebones, city builder set in pseudo-colonial times. You start off with a handful of ragged outcasts thrust into the wilderness with a mission of building your own civilization from the landscape. Because of its small scope, Banished is also much more personable than more robust city builders; instead of managing multiple cities or even aBanished is a fantastically atmospheric, albeit barebones, city builder set in pseudo-colonial times. You start off with a handful of ragged outcasts thrust into the wilderness with a mission of building your own civilization from the landscape. Because of its small scope, Banished is also much more personable than more robust city builders; instead of managing multiple cities or even a nation, you start with four to six families and grow to a few hundred people (or more, depending on how long you wish to play a map). This isolation combined with little charming touches, like knowing each citizen's personal info, excellent ambient sound design, and a slower paced game speed, makes Banished the most atmospheric fictional city builder I have played.

    Although there is a rough "progression" to what you can build via resource requirements, any building can be built at any time depending on what your city needs. Real strategy comes in properly timing and planning your construction; While Banished is a pretty laid-back game, a sudden influx of nomads can bring diseases or cause starvation if your city isn't prepared and construction takes significant manpower and cross-profession coordination. This flexibility can be overwhelming for a new player trying to survive their first winter but thankfully Banished's tutorials are well constructed and actually worth playing through even for veterans. Your city's growth (and essentially the game's difficulty) is tied to how much or how little you want to build, leading to a more relaxed game than most city builders.

    Even though I loved most of this game, I spent a lot of time fighting with the villager's AI. While Banished strictly doesn't have win/lose conditions, it is heart-breaking to watch your citizens die from starvation while they are harvesting crops or gathering fish. Other AI issues emerge much earlier in the game, like farmers acting like laborers and not tending their fields during the summer. Laborers also seem to act erratically; when you assign multiple removal tasks, they seem to work in arbitary priority. Constructing multiple buildings is a huge pain with trying to coordinate the laborers with the builders; I eventually resorted to laying down a "building plan" and mass-pausing construction, unpausing one building at a time to be built. Maybe I don't understand all the intracies of the AI but 50 hours in and I'm still frustrated and often resorting to using the "Increase Priority" tool.

    Banished is also missing many things that add challenge and depth to other city builders. This is essentially the "kiddie pool" of city builders with no crime, polution, budget balancing/taxation, or non-essential buildings. With 31 construction options, everything you build is for managing food, housing or supplying citizens, or transportation needs. There are some minor trading elements but its mostly there to keep your city growing once you run out of certain resources. Once you have a stable city running all there is to do is make it bigger while avoiding starvation or disasters. The same could be said of many games but I always look forward to building a sports stadium in SimCity... here it feels like it's just food, food, and more food.

    If you haven't played a city builder before, Banished is a great place to start. Veterans looking for a more laid-back experience will get a few dozen hours out of this while alt+tabbed with something else. Nothing here is groundbreaking but what there is is a great change of pace from playing certain other sims at Cheetah speed.    … Expand
  10. Errtai
    Dec 9, 2014
    5
    I was pretty into this game at first, it's actually quite difficult on the normal setting and has enjoyable graphics and easy to use controls once you get used to them. After a 20 year period of stagnation I finally figured out how to grow my population and was well on my way to success. Until I realized I didn't know what success in this game meant. So I looked it up and it turns outI was pretty into this game at first, it's actually quite difficult on the normal setting and has enjoyable graphics and easy to use controls once you get used to them. After a 20 year period of stagnation I finally figured out how to grow my population and was well on my way to success. Until I realized I didn't know what success in this game meant. So I looked it up and it turns out this game has no goal or end, you just grow as long as you can until you implode I guess.

    I know this won't bother some people, but I need a carrot to chase to give a game purpose - maybe with the exception of SimCity - but this game wasn't as complex or fun as SimCIty and the idea of tediously growing forever made me pretty well get bored immediately.    … Expand
  11. arruu
    Nov 3, 2014
    6
    It is very addictive.. just as any other city builder, imo. Though it lacks depth, and soon you'll realize you've built every single construction the game offers, and there is nothing left but expanding in the same fashion... The graphics are nice, the technical requirements are very very forgiving, and I hope a sequel comes out soon... But this original game ends up being repetitive very fast.
  12. carolean7
    Sep 29, 2014
    7
    An inventive and fun game. For its price has lots of replay value. It does suffer from being tedious towards the end-game, but the challenge of getting there is where most of the fun is.
  13. leaveit
    Sep 22, 2014
    6
    While this is an impressive achievement for one person to have accomplished all by themselves, the game is severely lacking in content. The simulation seems fairly reasonable except for a few dumb pathing problems and oversimplifications with regards to time. The music is appropriate and even sometimes catchy. The game ran without a hitch (i.e. no errors) for many hours on my PC. However,While this is an impressive achievement for one person to have accomplished all by themselves, the game is severely lacking in content. The simulation seems fairly reasonable except for a few dumb pathing problems and oversimplifications with regards to time. The music is appropriate and even sometimes catchy. The game ran without a hitch (i.e. no errors) for many hours on my PC. However, pretty much everything there is to see can be seen after about 4 or 5 hours. At this point I found myself asking why I was continuing on. There is a marked lack of progression, normally seen in city building games like the Sim City series. You will find that every building type has been built in multiples, every tool and clothing upgrade has been explored, and most crops have been planted within 10 hours of the game, after which the entire thing just becomes mild micromanagement and spreadsheets. It's an interesting concept as far as city simulators go, but it needs to be fleshed out more.… Expand
  14. fleischer
    Aug 12, 2014
    7
    A very solid game from a one-man developer. Graphics are impressive for an indie game, and the simulation even more so. This game has a kind of direct and detailed simulation you won't find (executed successfully) in the bigger titles (the latest Simcity comes to mind).

    On the downside it kind of has only one recipe for success (a particular way and order in which the buildings should    A very solid game from a one-man developer. Graphics are impressive for an indie game, and the simulation even more so. This game has a kind of direct and detailed simulation you won't find (executed successfully) in the bigger titles (the latest Simcity comes to mind).

    On the downside it kind of has only one recipe for success (a particular way and order in which the buildings should be built). And it doesn't take you much time to discover this particular recipe, and once you have, there isn't much more enjoyment to be had with 'Banished', unfortunately. The developer has been ambiguous when answering whether or not he will be adding to the game. I really hope he does, because it could really use some meat around its bones and some more complexity to the simulation, because right now it is very easy to "see through".    … Expand
  15. hermanJnr
    Aug 4, 2014
    6
    While it's extremely impressive that the game was coded by just one man, it's not really a valid excuse for some of the mind-numbing tedium inherent in the gameplay and the sense of pointlessness you get once you build a city that is running reasonably well. There is also an irritating lack of basic information presentation that stops it being a great game.

    Almost everything in the game    While it's extremely impressive that the game was coded by just one man, it's not really a valid excuse for some of the mind-numbing tedium inherent in the gameplay and the sense of pointlessness you get once you build a city that is running reasonably well. There is also an irritating lack of basic information presentation that stops it being a great game.

    Almost everything in the game seems to proceed at a snail's pace, so you'll have the maximum time compression on pretty much constantly, and even then it'll take you hours upon hours to actually get enough resources to build the more advanced buildings.

    Plus no matter how well you plan, you seem to go through phases where your village is either bursting with resources or absolutely running out of everything. In particular, you spend far too much time micromanaging peasants to get resources you're running out of rather than just letting them do it themselves.

    Perhaps the best example of the lack of information is the housing feature. Your people will tell you if they don't have a home, but they WON'T tell you if they don't have room in the house to have kids. When they have kids, they move into a new house - they will not have kids if they don't have a new house to move to.

    So if you stop building houses, your people will eventually stop having sex (?!), make no more babies as a result, grow really old en masse and then die all at once at about eighty years old. GAME OVER.

    I lost my first two villages to this "Black Plague of Age" with absolutely zero in-game explanation for it. Similarly, other tasks like managing Foresters are really counter intuitive.

    Foresters frequently don't actually harvest trees when you tell them to, yet if you get Labourers to manually cut the new trees they do so in about 2 seconds and you get a huge surplus of wood. More pointless micromanagement that's really tedious.

    I didn't hate it, and in fact it can at times be quite enchanting, but basically I found this game was like a prettier version of Dwarf Fortress, just minus everything that makes Dwarf Fortress an incredibly involving, fun and deep simulation. If you want a world builder, I suggest that instead (it's even "free"!)    … Expand
  16. demondred79
    Jul 21, 2014
    6
    After 10 hours you'll be all done with this simulator. All the buildings you can make will be built....all the challenges you can face will be faced. Quickly you'll punch up the speed to x10 and it just becomes a trivial rinse/repeat "groundhog day" adventure.

    I ruined my first town trying to figure out how the game behaves (despite going thru full tutorial), which was to be expected.    After 10 hours you'll be all done with this simulator. All the buildings you can make will be built....all the challenges you can face will be faced. Quickly you'll punch up the speed to x10 and it just becomes a trivial rinse/repeat "groundhog day" adventure.

    I ruined my first town trying to figure out how the game behaves (despite going thru full tutorial), which was to be expected. The second town I built very carefully, and apparently I more or less mastered the game because all it devolved into was a series of moving numbers up and down on tiny GUI buttons. Assign peasants to tasks, unassign them......raise building quotas....lower them. There's no end to this game that I am aware of. No upgrading of buildings. No new "era" to be born into. The game is all about creating an equilibrium and trying to maintain it while people either die of old age or from (more often than not) dying in a quarry or mine.

    That's it. That's the game.....

    It had addictive qualities but ultimately it's a time waster of a game. Do NOT buy this for full price ($20) wait for it to go for $5 and then it's a fair purchase.    … Expand
  17. meltman6134
    Jul 10, 2014
    6
    Its fun, but needs work. Mainly with the reproduction of people. It doesn't seem to happen during the early stages, but inconsistent fluctuations in citizen reproduction (and yes I've paid attention to population graphs as well as the overview statistics) leads to a loss in laborers. I'll get blotches of laborers even though my kids in school/infants stats are consistently increasingIts fun, but needs work. Mainly with the reproduction of people. It doesn't seem to happen during the early stages, but inconsistent fluctuations in citizen reproduction (and yes I've paid attention to population graphs as well as the overview statistics) leads to a loss in laborers. I'll get blotches of laborers even though my kids in school/infants stats are consistently increasing throughout the game (according the the line graphs at the townhall). It makes it really tough when you get over 500+ population. Other than that, I am impressed its made by one guy... He's done a good job so far, just needs to iron out some things that might make the "late" (even though it never ends) game more fluent.… Expand
  18. cylian3
    Jul 7, 2014
    5
    I lost count on how many times I ended up losing from my villagers not eating food where It was available and Instead dedicated massive amounts of time to running back and forth, hauling 200 food to every single house, go back to working for 5 seconds and then run back to said house in order to have a little snack every other half minute. Adding ontop of this is the working concept whereI lost count on how many times I ended up losing from my villagers not eating food where It was available and Instead dedicated massive amounts of time to running back and forth, hauling 200 food to every single house, go back to working for 5 seconds and then run back to said house in order to have a little snack every other half minute. Adding ontop of this is the working concept where they need to go and stick their foot inside a house to "Warm up" for 3 seconds during winter. It's ugly, unrealistic and a recipe for a growing catastrophy of wasted time whenever you need to build further and further away from the originating barn & dropoff points.

    The marketplace, AKA the building the developer tried to fight this growth is insanely useless as only about 2000 food will be stored into it at any given time when the marketplace has a capacity to reach and cover about what, 70+ houses? They all can snag about 200 food and bring to their house for their storage which means the current, "intended" method for resources to be processed is:

    Aquisition > Storage(Barn) > Storage(Marketplace) > Storage(House).

    It's laughable busywork considering the villagers needs to eat & warm up ridiculously often and I would heavily recommend just giving the bastards some "downtime" where they can sleep, eat, tend to wounds, enjoy life and warm up in their own damn time as most games for me are currently praying sessions, hoping to dear god that I built things in such a way so my villagers won't act like complete retards and do the actual jobs they were assigned to for more than 5% of the time. I would also bring up the aquisition of food but I think that's been ranted on already so end verdict:

    A decent game with a good concept that got released too early.    … Expand
  19. HeirOfIsildur
    May 25, 2014
    6
    Banished, whilst simple at a first glance, is both a relaxing and enjoyable game. The slow paced village life will perhaps lull you into a false sense of security before disaster strikes. It could be considered a difficult game as, though on the surface it is simple, the micromanagement - which is a key part of the game - is sometimes hard to manage. Despite the fact that I enjoy BanishedBanished, whilst simple at a first glance, is both a relaxing and enjoyable game. The slow paced village life will perhaps lull you into a false sense of security before disaster strikes. It could be considered a difficult game as, though on the surface it is simple, the micromanagement - which is a key part of the game - is sometimes hard to manage. Despite the fact that I enjoy Banished very much, I give it only a six out of ten because it can sometimes get boring. Once you have a knack for the game there is little left to do than watch your village just carry on life as usual. I'm not sure how it would be incorporated, but the lack of multiplayer is disappointing as this is, in my opinion, an important feature of games today. Additionally, the absence of an endgame can make playing Banished feel rather pointless and times, though not having a set objective might be considered a good thing for some. For those who like action games, Banished is not for you, however, city-builder fans should enjoy Banished immensely.… Expand
  20. XBenedict
    May 13, 2014
    6
    I like the look of this game and it works reliably and presents a challenge. However, once you have built a successful city of reasonable size you feel like you have solved the game and that there is little point in starting a new map. The lack of specific challenges and development options (a big city contains the same things as a small city - just more of them), makes this game a bitI like the look of this game and it works reliably and presents a challenge. However, once you have built a successful city of reasonable size you feel like you have solved the game and that there is little point in starting a new map. The lack of specific challenges and development options (a big city contains the same things as a small city - just more of them), makes this game a bit pointless fairly quickly and so, in my opinion, expensive given the limited number of hours you will play it.… Expand
  21. Helmenkalastaja
    May 5, 2014
    7
    Another city build game with some new perspectives. I did get bored pretty quickly, as there is lot of just waiting for resources to be gathered still i play this game occasionally. Fun game still and worth to buy. Also i wanted to support one-man project.
  22. Hellygator
    May 5, 2014
    6
    The game starts out interesting but the learning curve is pretty flat. If you are experienced in city building games you figured out what works well pretty quickly. After that there is no endgame, no quests, no motivation to continue playing. I have spend a few hours building a decent city but never bother to create another.
  23. gabriot
    May 2, 2014
    6
    Honestly it doesn't nothing that Dwarf Fortress (a completely free game) doesn't already do, in fact it does about 10% that game does. All it is, is a hyped up rip-off of dwarf fortress with clean graphics and simple game play.

    The game isn't awful, but it's painfully mediocre. There are lots of bad mechanics, such as having houses starve or freeze to death because one other house is    Honestly it doesn't nothing that Dwarf Fortress (a completely free game) doesn't already do, in fact it does about 10% that game does. All it is, is a hyped up rip-off of dwarf fortress with clean graphics and simple game play.

    The game isn't awful, but it's painfully mediocre. There are lots of bad mechanics, such as having houses starve or freeze to death because one other house is randomly hoarding all the food/clothing. And there's no way you can directly fix that situation, basically you are stuck with hoping everything works out fine at the market place.

    On top of that, there just really isn't much to do or see in the game. There aren't a whole lot of structures you can build, and after about 4 hours of playing the game you've honestly seen all there is to see, at that point it's just expanding outward using the same structures you already have, just building more of them.

    Overall, a pretty hyped up game for such a mediocre bland experience. I'd say save your money and just play dwarf fortress or even prison architect - both are vastly superior games.    … Expand
  24. fakundott
    Apr 30, 2014
    7
    As a sandbox game, this game is really fun! City building and managing are made quite realistic. We should hope for new games that take an example of this one... Only lacks a campaign mode.
  25. LD9000
    Apr 20, 2014
    7
    An Ok game, held my interest for a couple days. After you learn how to grow enough food, all you do is expand your settlement. Once in a while, a trader arrives, and once you get your chickens, sheep and cows, there isn't really that much excitement about the trader anymore.

    It does not seem like villagers have any particular skill focus, the same guy can be a woodcutter one day, a    An Ok game, held my interest for a couple days. After you learn how to grow enough food, all you do is expand your settlement. Once in a while, a trader arrives, and once you get your chickens, sheep and cows, there isn't really that much excitement about the trader anymore.

    It does not seem like villagers have any particular skill focus, the same guy can be a woodcutter one day, a farmer another day. This is important because of the route villagers take to their job site from the houses. Unfortunately this also means that if you have a large agricultural population, you have to reshuffle your population every year once the harvest is done. In the course of doing so, it's possible to end up with a population that has to go all the way across the map to their job site. Fixing this gets tedious and kinda boring after a while.

    Overall, an OK city builder, although Tropico 4 is so much better.    … Expand
  26. Tibster
    Apr 18, 2014
    7
    Been following the game since early development and had high hopes. Love "city building" games and hoped this was the one ive been waiting for. didnt take me to long to understand it, and the game therefor fast became easy and unchallenging. Wish the game had some ingame missions or goals, so you have to focus more and be more involved. Cudos to the solo dev, the graphics looks good andBeen following the game since early development and had high hopes. Love "city building" games and hoped this was the one ive been waiting for. didnt take me to long to understand it, and the game therefor fast became easy and unchallenging. Wish the game had some ingame missions or goals, so you have to focus more and be more involved. Cudos to the solo dev, the graphics looks good and the general style is nice. Didnt like the gui to much, but thats personal preferences. In general, im a little disapointet, but happy to support a developer who does things on its own.… Expand
  27. IGNsus
    Mar 25, 2014
    7
    Banished has potential to be a lot better than it currently is.

    This review is not a knock on the game, despite my score. I really think the game is a great achievement, especially if you consider that one man made it. Right now, in its current state, Banished offers a respite from "AAA games cloning syndrome", but not much more than that. Certainly it is charming and entertaining. But    Banished has potential to be a lot better than it currently is.

    This review is not a knock on the game, despite my score. I really think the game is a great achievement, especially if you consider that one man made it. Right now, in its current state, Banished offers a respite from "AAA games cloning syndrome", but not much more than that. Certainly it is charming and entertaining. But the problem is that there's very little to do once your community becomes stable.

    Simply, Banished needs more progression. The end game right now is unrewarding, and players have little incentive (besides their sense of creativity) to expand across the map.

    Hopefully the modding tool can realize the game's enormous potential.    … Expand
  28. Tridus
    Mar 23, 2014
    7
    This is a good game. The simulation part works well, each person has a home and job, and how you design your city matters. You can make mistakes that lead to losses pretty easily. It's good looking, runs well, and is pretty polished. The only lacking thing right now is the lack of things like scenarios. Once you figure things out and get your settlement going well, you kind of have nothingThis is a good game. The simulation part works well, each person has a home and job, and how you design your city matters. You can make mistakes that lead to losses pretty easily. It's good looking, runs well, and is pretty polished. The only lacking thing right now is the lack of things like scenarios. Once you figure things out and get your settlement going well, you kind of have nothing else to do except make it bigger. Hopefully the developer will be able to expand on his success in the future, because the core game is much better than some other recent city builders.… Expand
  29. Solifugae
    Mar 17, 2014
    7
    I do like the game and recommend buying, but it is wonky.

    I am playing right now, and every house I visit has ample food. Fish, potato, Venison, corn, plum, eggs, chickens...each house has over 200 food resources plus firewood, garments etc. I checked every single house, they all have lots of food. But the villagers are dying of starvation. I have lost 13 villagers from starvation    I do like the game and recommend buying, but it is wonky.

    I am playing right now, and every house I visit has ample food. Fish, potato, Venison, corn, plum, eggs, chickens...each house has over 200 food resources plus firewood, garments etc. I checked every single house, they all have lots of food.

    But the villagers are dying of starvation. I have lost 13 villagers from starvation despite each house being full of food. I think it is because it ties starvation to the level of food in the central store rather than the house level.

    Load of potential and fun despite the logic sink-holes.    … Expand
  30. Firepro316
    Mar 15, 2014
    6
    The first 15 hours or so of Banished are brilliantly addictive. The challenge of building a thriving town that will survive the winter and boom in the Summer is at times stressful but very rewarding when it comes together. Once you have a working town, that's consistently providing supplies (food, coal, wood, iron, stone), you can then start building some of additional buildings thatThe first 15 hours or so of Banished are brilliantly addictive. The challenge of building a thriving town that will survive the winter and boom in the Summer is at times stressful but very rewarding when it comes together. Once you have a working town, that's consistently providing supplies (food, coal, wood, iron, stone), you can then start building some of additional buildings that whilst aren't a necessity but add some value, such as churches and town halls.

    However once all this is done, you begin to realize there's not a lot left to do. There feels little point or purpose is expanding your city further as there's no further reward for doing so. There's no new buildings or benefits. Just more to manage. I had one incredible city working with 300 people with every building and supply done.

    So in summary, I loved my 15-20 hours game play, but I can't see myself playing it again anytime soon. Worth £5-£10    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

34
#34 Most Discussed PC Game of 2014
58
#58 Most Shared PC Game of 2014

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
73

Mixed or average reviews - based on 32 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 32
  2. Mixed: 14 out of 32
  3. Negative: 1 out of 32
  1. SpazioGames
    Jun 8, 2015
    75
    A city builder with small maps and a limited number of buildings that manages to be a great game thanks to the extraordinary balance of all its elements required to make big settlements: basically has everything a game of this kind must have, and also something more.
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  2. Pelit (Finland)
    May 11, 2014
    80
    A classical city-building game where you help a group of settlers to build a new home for themselves. That's Banished in a nutshell. In a surprising twist, the game doesn't feature any combat at all, but I personally didn't even miss it because after all it's a peaceful game where the main focus is planning your town's future and not fighting against evil aliens. Even though Banished was made by just one man, it feels really polished. In particular, the interface is really well done. Of course, no game is perfect and Banished has some issues. The biggest of them all is that there are no objectives or end goals so you can never really win or lose. [March 2014]
  3. Riot Pixels
    May 7, 2014
    60
    Banished, as it stands now, looks like a game from Steam Early Access rather than a finished product.
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