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. TenchuuKhan
    Mar 2, 2014
    7
    Here's what the game is all about:
    Get your peasants to survive the first winter by providing the most basic resources they need such as: food, shelter, fire wood
    Move on to acquiring iron and letter so you can produce tools and clothes for your peasants. Get more food, build more houses. Build mines, a quarry, a forestry guy so you have a steady income of the most basic resources    Here's what the game is all about:
    Get your peasants to survive the first winter by providing the most basic resources they need such as: food, shelter, fire wood
    Move on to acquiring iron and letter so you can produce tools and clothes for your peasants.
    Get more food, build more houses.
    Build mines, a quarry, a forestry guy so you have a steady income of the most basic resources
    Build more food, build more houses.
    Get medicine, build a hospital, a church, etc. so your peasants are happy. Try to get all available resource types for the hell of it.

    And that's about it.

    Where's the fun in that?
    It's very challenging at the beginning and that's what makes this game so much fun. But once you got your head around it it gets really, really boring.
    For a building game it only gave me around 15 hours of entertainment - which just isn't good enough. And there's no actual goal once you got everything working besides having more citizens which again, has no payoff whatsoever.

    All in all, it's fun, but the price tag just isn't fair. It defends itself as being a "one guy dev" game but it charges you like there was a whole indy team behind it.
    Currently it goes for 19 bucks on Steam - a proper pricing would be 5.    … Expand
  2. 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
  3. Ninjapixel
    Mar 12, 2014
    7
    Banished is the type of game that makes you lose sense of time.

    Strategic sandbox titles often fail when it comes to balancing the in-game stats. However, Banished doesn't fail. As a matter of fact it seems to work pretty well. Sure there could be a few more features and sure it is not the best looking game out there. But the music, the feeling and the fun this game brings makes it    Banished is the type of game that makes you lose sense of time.

    Strategic sandbox titles often fail when it comes to balancing the in-game stats. However, Banished doesn't fail. As a matter of fact it seems to work pretty well.

    Sure there could be a few more features and sure it is not the best looking game out there. But the music, the feeling and the fun this game brings makes it worthwhile. I like it!    … Expand
  4. 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.
  5. versionbest
    Mar 2, 2014
    6
    I thoroughly enjoyed this game, however my only gripe with it is the randomness mechanics (or so it may seem, perhaps it assigns by the last placed house?) of assigning villagers to replace a recently dead one. If you have a small town and everything is in close proximity to each others then assigning villagers at random (or from the last placed house?) is not a problem. However, if youI thoroughly enjoyed this game, however my only gripe with it is the randomness mechanics (or so it may seem, perhaps it assigns by the last placed house?) of assigning villagers to replace a recently dead one. If you have a small town and everything is in close proximity to each others then assigning villagers at random (or from the last placed house?) is not a problem. However, if you have a large population of over 300 villagers and you're playing on a large map just think of the distance the villagers have to walk to get back to their house for food. Some will go to the nearest Market or Storage Barn to eat but not all. I've noticed that for the most part they will most likely return to the house they were born in to eat. They can't eat from a house that is already occupied that is not theirs because that would make things so much easier. This here is where lies a major flaw in the design of this game. The way this game was design you can only play on a small map. If you play on a large map and planned on inhabiting every nooks and crannies of the map then it will most likely end up in failure.

    The design flaw is the assigning of villagers at a random location from a random house (or the house that was last built?) to replace a recently dead villager. Let's put things into perspective. For example, if I have a farmer from one location on the map and if he happens to die he will be replaced by the next available laborer (wherever this laborer may live). However, if this laborer lives on the other far end of the map, he must trek a super long distance to the farm land to replace the dead farmer. Then when he gets hungry he must trek back to his house in the far distance but often times he will never make it even if he is walking on Stone Road. You see how this can be a problem?

    And this was exactly what happened to me. I had a population over 300 villagers and everything was going fine until a chain reaction of hunger occurred. Since every laborers can be from any house any where on the map, when they get hungry they must trek back to the place where they were born to feed. If you're playing on a large map, the randomness of villagers being assigned as replacements to the dead ones will throw the whole game out of whack. My population hit a critical mass at 300+ villagers then everyone started dropping like flies down to around 125+ villagers because of death by starvation. This all happened literally within 5 minutes. You should have seen the looks on my face as I glared at the monitor thinking to myself WTF just happened? It's not the scarcity of food because I was banking on 50K+ (I built a lot of farms and focus heavily on food production) and I made sure I had a few houses at every work sites. I had everything built perfectly and there was no shortage of supplies of any kind. As a matter of fact I had a surplus of supplies.

    The mass starvation deaths was caused by them trekking super long distance that they couldn't make. Here is what I would like to see changed in a patch if there ever will be one. Have the Storage Barn and Market be a central point where any villagers can come to eat regardless of where they live on the map. This way even with the randomness mechanics of villagers replacing dead ones, they will always be guaranteed that they will be well feed if they have to work far from their homes. Thus you can build Storage Barns and Markets anywhere on the map as a place to come to feed, therefore not relying on trekking back to their homes.

    Yes I was pretty pissed that over 41% of my workforce died in a chain reaction within 5 minutes. I wanted to see if it was a bug or what if I had tried something different then that won't happen. I load an earlier saved and did a few things differently but once my population hit that critical mass of 300+ villagers, they started to die in a chain reaction due to starvation.

    I would have given Banished a perfect 10 had it not been for this fatal flaw (literally) that prevent you from expanding to the far corners of the map. This game is almost there but not quite yet. Patching the dependent on homes as a food source will allow for a far more fulfilling experience.    … Expand
  6. 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
  7. 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.
  8. 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
  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. TheVino3
    Feb 28, 2014
    6
    Could be good. Not there yet. A large amount of things are left completely unexplained. Things like the way food is produced and consumed make little to no sense, and require a lot of reading just to understand how not to completely starve a population of 10 people that are sitting in the middle of thousands of units of food.

    It feels like you are constantly babysitting villagers that    Could be good. Not there yet. A large amount of things are left completely unexplained. Things like the way food is produced and consumed make little to no sense, and require a lot of reading just to understand how not to completely starve a population of 10 people that are sitting in the middle of thousands of units of food.

    It feels like you are constantly babysitting villagers that should be able to work out some things for themselves - such as: Food goes in mouth.    … Expand
  11. 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
  12. 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
  13. 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.
  14. 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.
  15. Buhehe
    Feb 25, 2014
    6
    It' a fairly okay game.... I admit I'm not a hardcore city building games fan, but I was attracted by the positive reviews this game had, and the fact that only 1 guy built it on its own, I like supporting indie devs.

    While the game itself is interesting and somewhat different from what I've seen before, the game lacks depth and content. There's no campaign, a very limited set of    It' a fairly okay game.... I admit I'm not a hardcore city building games fan, but I was attracted by the positive reviews this game had, and the fact that only 1 guy built it on its own, I like supporting indie devs.

    While the game itself is interesting and somewhat different from what I've seen before, the game lacks depth and content.

    There's no campaign, a very limited set of buildings... you'll be doing the same stuff over and over, I feel like I have nothing to look forward to... the only hard thing to get is some special items from merchants, like seeds and animals, but that's it.

    Infact, my desire of playing this game decreased rapidly in just a few days, now I barely touch it anymore, and kinda regret spending 19€ for it. If I could have gone back in time, I would have waited for a 5€ sale.    … Expand
  16. Narf
    Feb 24, 2014
    5
    An incredibly well-done game considering it was made by only a single person - but as a game in general, lacking in the long run.

    The base of the game is actually very solid. It looks nice, has the spice of a few random events which might or might not happen and the mechanics are pretty neat in general. However, once the player has gotten a feeling for a good balance for a    An incredibly well-done game considering it was made by only a single person - but as a game in general, lacking in the long run.

    The base of the game is actually very solid. It looks nice, has the spice of a few random events which might or might not happen and the mechanics are pretty neat in general.

    However, once the player has gotten a feeling for a good balance for a settlement, the game is just way too easy and simple. Whether your settlement has 30 or 500 settlers, keep roughly the same percentage of them occupied with food production, don't forget to build houses every now and then and your village will grow and prosper. There is no enemy to fight and no competitor for space and resources. It does not help that there is no sense of progression at all after a short while. Every single building one can build is available from the start and there are no settler, city or building tiers. You will probably have built everything the game has to it within the first 50 years of your settlement. The natural disasters like diseases or a tornado are so random that you might go dozens of years without anything happening or have your people wiped out within five minutes into the game.

    The economy is not complex at all. There is nearly no production chain. It does not get any more complicated than Iron + Logs + Coal -> Steel Tool. Yes, that is actually the most complicated ware in the game. The only other processing goods you have is Logs -> Firewood, Wool + Leather -> Warm Coat and finally seven different foods (pick one of them) -> alcohol. And that is all. All the other resources are fine for use without any processing. Wheat or corn for example seem to be eaten raw only. There is no mill or bakery for bread.

    The game has a very solid base to build on in the future and since modability is supposedly coming as a feature in a future update, the modding community might very well make this as much as a long-term fun as it is when only having played a upstarting settlement. But in its current form, without regarding the size of the 1-person-development-team and just seeing the game as a game, it is sadly only that: a solid base that needs to be built upon to actually make it worth the 20$ it asks for.    … Expand
  17. Blackdragonbird
    Feb 24, 2014
    6
    Game has great potential, but is still full of flaws and some strange bugs. The AI needs serious work yet and the 90° totally square construction layout is a little annoying. The major flaw for me yet is what I call "Tool Outbreak of Doom", basically, when you have more than 100 citizens and don't maintain the eyes in your iron and/or log stocks and your blacksmith stop making tools, theGame has great potential, but is still full of flaws and some strange bugs. The AI needs serious work yet and the 90° totally square construction layout is a little annoying. The major flaw for me yet is what I call "Tool Outbreak of Doom", basically, when you have more than 100 citizens and don't maintain the eyes in your iron and/or log stocks and your blacksmith stop making tools, the stock vanish and your blacksmith needs to work with a broken tool too, it makes he produces tools at a very low speed and can't keep up to the tool consumption, it causes a chain reaction lowering all your city production, food and fuel get consumed faster than can be produced and your town break. The annoying thing is, the stupid blacksmith keeps making tools but cant grab one for himself, It's serious.

    Otherwise the game is fun and addictive, but is not worth his value in this state yet.    … Expand
  18. Jagermaestro
    Feb 22, 2014
    6
    Lets set a benchmark for scoring here:
    Just because the genre is under developed doesn't warrant an inflated rating.
    Just because one person made the game doesn't warrant an inflated rating. Just because your 15-18 and have a false nostalgia for "difficult" games doesn't warrant an increased rating. This game has poor prioritization which artificially scales its difficulty. Largely,    Lets set a benchmark for scoring here:
    Just because the genre is under developed doesn't warrant an inflated rating.
    Just because one person made the game doesn't warrant an inflated rating.
    Just because your 15-18 and have a false nostalgia for "difficult" games doesn't warrant an increased rating.

    This game has poor prioritization which artificially scales its difficulty. Largely, it is not difficult, its just unforgiving when you develop without balance, which is the same for every game in the genre, you just don't have to find an earlier save game in those to dig out of the hole. Watch your entire population throw their jobs you carefully assigned to the wind to follow a resource collection order. Watch them freeze to death on a resource gathering death march. Watch them walk back and forth to a granary to pick of food, not find any when they get there. They instantly know there is more, but don't instantly know its out. Convenient.

    The legitimate factors that make things difficult are easily circumvented:
    Early chills kill your crops before you bring them in (be sure to early harvest a few)
    Fauna migrate around the map making hunting hit or miss (sometimes a ridiculous hit)
    Crops and herds need to (sometimes) be rotated.

    The rest is truly just poor pathing/AI...

    The art is OK, winter is pretty.
    Time passes confusingly for a game so set on being immerse.
    There are names for people, but this is no Children of the Nile.
    There is a poor diet mechanic that is supposed to be innovative but is pretty throw away in its implementation.
    There is some lack luster trade.

    The thing it does well is climate. So that's what your getting. A bare bones city simulator with a thermometer.

    10 out of 10 best game of the year.

    The indie love is officially out of control.    … Expand
  19. Elissonx
    Feb 25, 2014
    7
    The best review is from PC Gamer (Feb 21, 2014)
    70/100: "A nice change of pace for city-builders, but it loses momentum once the immediate urgency of survival goes away."

    I agree in everything.
  20. 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
  21. 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
  22. Kingbingo
    Feb 26, 2014
    7
    The game has an inverse difficulty curve in that making it through your first few winters is probably the games greatest challenge. Get beyond the need for simple food and shelter and your settlement can start to grow and you find yourself in a relaxing well-made village builder. Once you start playing it has that, just one more year, quality that keeps you sat at the PC engrossed as theThe game has an inverse difficulty curve in that making it through your first few winters is probably the games greatest challenge. Get beyond the need for simple food and shelter and your settlement can start to grow and you find yourself in a relaxing well-made village builder. Once you start playing it has that, just one more year, quality that keeps you sat at the PC engrossed as the hours fly by.

    However, a week on I find myself with little incentive to replay. As the game currently lacks any higher goals or real sense of progression once you have a viable settlement.

    While I’m hugely impressed this all came from one person I feel the game needs more depth. In its current form it has too little replayablity. As a foundation to add greater depth you could not ask for better than this, and I hope in time the dev and modders flesh out the game. I am glad I purchased, but I will now be taking a long pause until the game gets built upon.    … Expand
  23. 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
  24. gromenawer
    Feb 19, 2014
    6
    Game mechanics are great but the game it self is quite easy to master. After a few hours of learning the rules and provided that you know just a little of mathematics you can find the optimal equilibrium in the game. It has some variance in the type of plants you grow and animals you tender but ultimately you can explore the whole game very quickly in any difficulty. Its feels more like anGame mechanics are great but the game it self is quite easy to master. After a few hours of learning the rules and provided that you know just a little of mathematics you can find the optimal equilibrium in the game. It has some variance in the type of plants you grow and animals you tender but ultimately you can explore the whole game very quickly in any difficulty. Its feels more like an early release for the given price.

    Worth say that this game will be great once the modding community get their hands on it and develop new content and new structures. I'm glad to see that the community is avid of city building games; after the Sim City 5 fiasco was clear that there is desire and market for them.

    There are some minor bad choices on how the UI works but you can pretend they are not there. Technically the game has a great performance.    … Expand
  25. Beanbag
    Feb 20, 2014
    7
    Banished is a solidly designed indie game, one that will offer hours of fun for those that enjoy city builders. Like most games, it offers nothing truly groundbreaking, but is still a very enjoyable member of it's genre. Unlike most games, it was developed by a team of One. This one-man indie title is similar to larger company titles like Stronghold 3, with the exception that Banished is aBanished is a solidly designed indie game, one that will offer hours of fun for those that enjoy city builders. Like most games, it offers nothing truly groundbreaking, but is still a very enjoyable member of it's genre. Unlike most games, it was developed by a team of One. This one-man indie title is similar to larger company titles like Stronghold 3, with the exception that Banished is a far more polished piece of software (and it actually works the majority of the time!). Banished does seem to currently conflict with F-Secure's "Deepguard" product, part of their Antivirus package. It can be switched off to allow Banished to function perfectly, though this will likely be addressed by a patch sometime after the posting of this review.

    Overall, Banished earns a very solid 7 in my book. Banished is nothing new or exciting, but is an enjoyable re-imagining of a well-loved genre. It performs well and will offer at least a few days of entertainment, and it's relatively low price-point being comparable with a DVD or Blu-Ray makes it easy to suggest that you give it a try.    … Expand
  26. Loler13gr
    Feb 25, 2014
    7
    Although the game is very good with interesting mechanics , nice visuals and many challenges it gets repetitive soon and the lack of a goal does not give you the motive to continue playing...
  27. ConorHat
    Feb 24, 2014
    6
    Best city building game ever made. One guy programmed and delivered us this gem. It's a masterpiece. The reviewers don't understand how amazing it is that one person could make such a purely awesome game. I'm never going to waste my time reading reviews again, just watch a gameplay video and if this is your sort of game you won't be disappointed.
  28. eino
    Feb 24, 2014
    6
    On first approach, Banished is a really polished game. Its game-play is smooth, graphics are great and there are a lot of nice details.
    However, what it offers in attractiveness, it lacks in depth. What you see in the first hour is mostly everything it has to offer. Buildings and actions are pretty limited, and after a few hours of play, what you are doing is always pretty much more of    On first approach, Banished is a really polished game. Its game-play is smooth, graphics are great and there are a lot of nice details.
    However, what it offers in attractiveness, it lacks in depth. What you see in the first hour is mostly everything it has to offer. Buildings and actions are pretty limited, and after a few hours of play, what you are doing is always pretty much more of the same, on a different scale.
    The game is hard, basically you can lose a lot at any point, which is interesting and keep things spicy. However the mechanics here again means you will just fall back at an earlier point in progression, and run again the same actions once more time.
    With more content the game could be great. What it needs is a lot more buildings, actions, and generally possibilities which are unlocked with your progression.    … Expand
  29. Helaked
    Feb 25, 2014
    6
    Nice game at the beginning.
    Probably you need a few starts to get past the first years.
    But no challenges after a few hours anymore.
    Ofc you can try to get bigger and bigger but thats not that much fun.
  30. foxinsox
    Feb 25, 2014
    5
    I plan to play this game more and I am reluctant to be critical but cannot recommend at this time. My biggest problem is the grid system you build on. I should be able to pasture or farm slightly hilly ground but you cannot. You must build on completely flat ground with no way to have citizens level off ground,this in turn makes placement of structures tedious. Bridges have to cross windyI plan to play this game more and I am reluctant to be critical but cannot recommend at this time. My biggest problem is the grid system you build on. I should be able to pasture or farm slightly hilly ground but you cannot. You must build on completely flat ground with no way to have citizens level off ground,this in turn makes placement of structures tedious. Bridges have to cross windy rivers at 90 degree angles. Same for fishing docks and trade posts. Natural objects that are on the hills can be gathered and citizens move over them but you can't build on them. I want curvy roads but it cannot be done.

    While I like the small UI, after time the white text on gray background, becomes depressing like a data entry program. The normal AI is slow, having the simulation rate at 5x or 10x should be the exception not the norm while waiting for resources to gather and structures to be built. The graphics look nice and are similar to Age of Mythology via 2001.

    You have to manage citizens with a professions interface. It lets you set the number of citizens you have build, farm, herd, blacksmith, fish, etc. It is a little frustrating when it seems more simple to click on a villager and task them to do the immediate work you want done. Maybe some combo of the two could be implemented. I guess I have played too many RTS games and become too accustom to that type of game mechanic.

    I was under the impression that it was completely a sandbox building game. All buildings and structures are possible if you have the resources but you only have a few types of seeds and 1 livestock available on easy. While some may enjoy the reward of building up and trading for more crops,seeds and livestock I was hoping for more casual flexibility.

    I like the humble story of how the game was developed. It is a work of art and like all art it is just perfect for some. I can still appreciate it but in the current state it is just not for me.    … 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

All reviews »
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.
    Read full review
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