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

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. twisterforever
    Sep 1, 2023
    10
    One of the most wonderful city builder out there :-D
    I love it from the beginning!!
  2. Empidonax
    Apr 2, 2022
    8
    Very well-done medieval village building simulator, good soundtrack. The game on its own is very good, but there are mods to make it more complex which add more replayability.
  3. gentlebenno
    Jan 27, 2022
    8
    A game of it's time, it's still a lot of fun. Some good replay value. But I'm always hoping for a bit more. I still keep coming back every now and again though. Worth the price you pay nowadays for sure. Lots of medieval colony sims out there and none have yet done as well as this one though.
  4. adamgbg
    Dec 13, 2020
    10
    One of the best city building games I have ever played. Hard to learn at first but when you do times fly.
  5. maciek82
    Dec 12, 2020
    8
    The game is fairly small, made by single developer, doesn't feel like that at the beginning, but you will find out once you put few hours into it. There's not much content and not much late game challenge, however the main gameplay mechanics is great, UI is good, the game is very polished and overall it's one of the best city builders ever made, even now few years after release. I suggestThe game is fairly small, made by single developer, doesn't feel like that at the beginning, but you will find out once you put few hours into it. There's not much content and not much late game challenge, however the main gameplay mechanics is great, UI is good, the game is very polished and overall it's one of the best city builders ever made, even now few years after release. I suggest to download some good mods to enhance late game play.… Expand
  6. gracjanski
    Nov 3, 2020
    10
    This is surely a great game nowadays and a masterpiece, because it is done only by one programmer. In contrary to many other city sims you need to be active all the time and manage buildings, collect resources and send your adult persons to certain jobs. This is something new and I do have fun with it. The beginning is more like a survival game and takes only few time. After that you canThis is surely a great game nowadays and a masterpiece, because it is done only by one programmer. In contrary to many other city sims you need to be active all the time and manage buildings, collect resources and send your adult persons to certain jobs. This is something new and I do have fun with it. The beginning is more like a survival game and takes only few time. After that you can focus on building a big town and spend many hours to do so. So yes, this game is not so short, as mentioned here by some users, maybe it was the case years ago, but not nowadays. And if you want to have more buildings and more end game, you can try some of the mods.
    The tutorial is great and you have 3 difficult levels, so it is not so hard to get into the game, but later on it will be more and more complex.
    Graphics looks very good, especially for such an indie game.
    Sound and music are very repetitive and a big weakness of the game. So play your own background music for example.    … Expand
  7. FuzzyPackRat
    Aug 17, 2020
    8
    Story: 6/10
    Gameplay: 10/10
    Music: 10/10 Animation/Graphics: 9/10 You create the story in Banished based on how you provide for your town when you've been cast out to survive on your own. It's a city builder game that doesn't try to be anything more and as a result- kicks butt at city building. This game is great for those who love strategy and multiple difficultly levels keep the    Story: 6/10
    Gameplay: 10/10
    Music: 10/10
    Animation/Graphics: 9/10

    You create the story in Banished based on how you provide for your town when you've been cast out to survive on your own. It's a city builder game that doesn't try to be anything more and as a result- kicks butt at city building. This game is great for those who love strategy and multiple difficultly levels keep the re-play value up.

    Takeaways
    Pros: build a medieval town, you decide the future of the story.
    Cons: would be great to rotate/place building diagonally, some bugs with villagers getting stuck.    … Expand
  8. paulcho
    Jun 25, 2020
    8
    A good tiny game.
    However, the gameplay becomes too simple if you establish your town with all facilities, and... maybe it is just my problem, the game becomes very slow after population over 700 to 800.
    Anyway, I like this game. I will install the mod after upgrading my pc.
  9. rayer72
    Jun 21, 2020
    8
    A hidden gem. Came across this by accident, not expensive, good graphics and can run on older systems. Do not have to worry about warfare etc, only have to worrying about keeping them alive. ( its not an easy as you think )
  10. Muyrka
    Apr 7, 2020
    8
    One of the greatest City/Village Building Sims out there, but looks like it is not finished. No campaign or story mode. Becomes pretty aimless after certain development curve.
  11. nonameforme
    Sep 21, 2017
    9
    The base game is actually around 7.5-8.
    However, it got very active mod community and a supporting developer.

    When combined with mod such as black liquid (which expand the game to be 3 times bigger than base game with new buidling, mechanic and such), I will give this game a 9.
  12. doctor_awesome
    Jan 1, 2017
    10
    Banished is an city builder and god game where you control a group of banished people who must build their own town in the wilderness. The game achieves an incredible mood, taking you to this agrarian society where people struggle to make use of the scarce resources of the land in order to survive. Unlike most city builders, there is an emphasis on resource management - you must produceBanished is an city builder and god game where you control a group of banished people who must build their own town in the wilderness. The game achieves an incredible mood, taking you to this agrarian society where people struggle to make use of the scarce resources of the land in order to survive. Unlike most city builders, there is an emphasis on resource management - you must produce food, fuel and minerals in order to keep your citizens alive and to keep your city growing.

    The game seems quite simple at first, there are maybe 20 total things you can build (houses, roads, fishing docks storage barns, etc.) And yet there's tremendous depth. There are over a dozen types of crops or trees you can grow, and you can also raise livestock, but you only start with a small fraction of the available options and must trade for the rest. In fact, trading is essential to this game. Perhaps the most viable strategy in the game is to specialize in the production of one or two things so you can trade for things that are harder for you to produce, it's interestingly similar to an actual economy.

    The game really is quite incredible at letting you get immersed in this world and then giving you the challenging and addictive task of building a tiny hamlet into a sprawling town. It is a fairly unforgiving game, especially with disasters turned on and at the normal or hard difficulty levels. It's quite easy to have your city plunge into an irreversible decline for any number of reasons - your blacksmiths are uneducated and can't produce enough tools to supply the workforce, and in turn your foresters, miners and log-cutting laborers can't work to provide your blacksmiths with tools, and short of a lucky boat arriving with hundreds of tools for trade, there's no way you can dig yourself out of that hole. It sounds frustrating but it's also a great challenge, and this example shows how interdependent so much of the game is - you have to arrange for everything from school access to planned forests for a sustainable supply of wood or your town just won't make it.

    On the frustrating end, quarries and mines will eventually run out of supply, and you can't reclaim the space they use. The intended solution seems to be for you to transition to trading for minerals, but in practice they just don't come in frequently enough, and you end up reloading the game 30 times to get the "right" trader to come in. That's basically cheating and it totally breaks the immersion, but it's the only way to get enough stone, coal and iron once your town is quite large (900+ citizens). I get that finite minerals is a very realistic thing to include, but it makes it very hard to have a sustainable city that you can just blissfully play for days. Instead, it feels more like you're building a teetering house of cards that you have to keep from collapsing until you hit whatever achievement you're going for.

    It's still a fantastic game that I come back to quite a bit. Perhaps it even makes my list of the best 10 games I've ever played. It really is like nothing else.    … Expand
  13. Allthat
    Jul 2, 2016
    9
    This is the best city-builder that I have ever played. Period. It's very simple and easily accessible but boy is it addicting. I have wasted many hours playing this game, hours I should have spent revising for finals, that's how good this game is. I want more games like this, simple yet deep enough to engage the player for long periods of time. And a bonus is that this game runs fairlyThis is the best city-builder that I have ever played. Period. It's very simple and easily accessible but boy is it addicting. I have wasted many hours playing this game, hours I should have spent revising for finals, that's how good this game is. I want more games like this, simple yet deep enough to engage the player for long periods of time. And a bonus is that this game runs fairly well on low-spec PC's, so nobody has an excuse not to play this game.… Expand
  14. bigsilverhotdog
    May 1, 2016
    8
    Now that Banished has mod support and its first major free expansion mod made by the community (Colonial Charter) it is finally worth recommending to fans of builder strategy games like Anno or Simcity, and EASILY worth recommending at that. It went from "meh" to "wow" purely through the modding community. Before CC and the minimods that improve CC (Sawmill, 1 day is 1 day, CC FountainNow that Banished has mod support and its first major free expansion mod made by the community (Colonial Charter) it is finally worth recommending to fans of builder strategy games like Anno or Simcity, and EASILY worth recommending at that. It went from "meh" to "wow" purely through the modding community. Before CC and the minimods that improve CC (Sawmill, 1 day is 1 day, CC Fountain mod, etc) Banished was a great idea and a great platform but without much game in it. Plus it had tons of bugs and AI problems.

    Now it's finally much more refined and the mod community has expanded and fixed the game up and made it worth playing, very similar to what they did with FTL. The future for Banished is now very bright, and I fully expect more and better mods in the coming year(s). It's easily worth a purchase now, especially when on sale, and I can only see it improving in the future. Buy it on GOG, not Steam, and support the DRM-free revolution.

    I did both, but only because I bought it on Steam before it was available on GOG.    … Expand
  15. XDavidX
    Nov 23, 2015
    10
    The game is just amazing. I love play this game. For me this game is amazing ! Nothing more to comment because this game is amazing ! I rate this 10/10
  16. Greenman131
    Oct 25, 2015
    10
    This game is a serious balancing act that is perfectly executed and well thought out. An easy to understand and thorough UI that is beautiful to the touch. People may give this game bad reviews because it's hard, that's the point. The game was DESIGNED to be challenging, that's like giving a horror movie a 2/10 because it was too scary. This game has thought of everything from TownThis game is a serious balancing act that is perfectly executed and well thought out. An easy to understand and thorough UI that is beautiful to the touch. People may give this game bad reviews because it's hard, that's the point. The game was DESIGNED to be challenging, that's like giving a horror movie a 2/10 because it was too scary. This game has thought of everything from Town Management to Resource Caps. If you love to sit down for a good hour or 2 and play a beautiful game, then buy this, give Shining Rock Software however much this game is, you owe it to yourself to play this and learn precise resource management as well as city planning. Seriously, but this game!… Expand
  17. ThePCGamer101
    Jun 24, 2015
    8
    Banished, developed by just one man under his one-man indie game company Shining Rock Software, the game has pulled me into hours of playtime and I have already played 5 hours of this game (28/12/2014) within two days from when I bought it (26/12/2014)!

    However don't be fooled by this game's city building genre like other games such as the SimCity franchise and the Anno series, this    Banished, developed by just one man under his one-man indie game company Shining Rock Software, the game has pulled me into hours of playtime and I have already played 5 hours of this game (28/12/2014) within two days from when I bought it (26/12/2014)!

    However don't be fooled by this game's city building genre like other games such as the SimCity franchise and the Anno series, this game is more of a survival, village/town building strategy game where you're main focus is trying to maintain a small village of people while trying to survive starvation, diseases, natural disasters and fires, and don't think this game is a walk in the park unlike other games mentioned, this game is challenging even on Easy difficulty! This game is not for people who like city building games where you manage a whole city and not every single individual like in Banished.

    The graphics are simple but this is of course a strategy game and graphics are not really the main focus in this type of genre, I would however congratulate on the water and rain/snow effects, they are really well done and it becomes even more immerse. The soundtrack, although very repetitive, you will be more immersed by the sound effects of you're town/village coming to life more than just the music.

    The AI, the villagers AI is a bit stupid at some points, for example, an outbreak of some disease broke out and the people that were infected were right next to a hospital but instead they walked over a bridge I built and then went back to the hospital to get cured, and thanks to that, a few more villagers got sick as well! The AI is not the best AI I've seen in a strategy game.

    Although the game is fun and challenging, I still feel that the game is still a bit empty, there is not a lot of stuff to do, no more natural disasters such as earthquakes etc... just tornadoes! And even though there is immigration from the Nomads, there is no invasions from other neighboring towns/villages, no wars unlike games such as the Civilization series! Plus sadly there is no Multiplayer/Co-Op in the game, so if you wanted to play this with you're friends such as the new SimCity game, this is not the game for you!

    The game is a mixed bag for some, although I love this game and has really pulled me in into playing more and more, it may not be enough for some people, especially with some of the "missing features" the game does not include or the level of challenge/difficulty which may put some people off. It is still a great game to play, especially if you like Strategy and the city building genre like me and you would like to play something different!

    The game does support Steam Workshop and some Workshop items do make the game a bit better. I am a bit upset however that the developer hasn't done as many updates as I intended, I can understand that he is just one man who developed this fantastic game, but a bit more updates would make it a bit better!    … Expand
  18. Triasadi
    May 19, 2015
    8
    Banished is a great city builder. The game is fun and challenging because it's balanced. The tutorial is great and pretty easy to understand. The graphics looks realistic. Banished is simple but a fun and challenging game. Everything is quite balanced. And events that happen in the game is very realistic like accidents, and disasters.
  19. petden
    May 18, 2015
    10
    I really like the game. Got it yesterday, played for like 12 hours. Time flies, I just realized how late it is when I looked at the time stamp of the saved game.

    I haven't looked up any guides or build orders, it was fun to guess and learn what buildings to build and how to balance what your people do. The difficulty of the game is well balanced, some people say it's hard. I haven't    I really like the game. Got it yesterday, played for like 12 hours. Time flies, I just realized how late it is when I looked at the time stamp of the saved game.

    I haven't looked up any guides or build orders, it was fun to guess and learn what buildings to build and how to balance what your people do. The difficulty of the game is well balanced, some people say it's hard. I haven't lost a city yet, but I came really close at the beginning, but I solved it (it was a slow and fun recovery). Right now I'm much further into the game, like two-thirds of the map is full, and I'm not really in danger, probably because I play the game really safe. Sometimes when the population grows really fast my food drops to like two-fifths of itself, but I can always recover (because I hoard so much food). I had 2 disasters so far, but they haven't done anything (mostly because I was prepared).

    There aren't many reasons to replay the game after the first play through, you'd do it if you lost your city or maybe to try out mods or maybe a more difficult start or to try to get a better working city with "perfect" layout. But it doesn't matter, you can spend so much time with one city. And I really like shorter games, not every game has to be infinitely replayable (I play Banished between those games (MMOs and PvP games), it's a nice break from them).

    Haven't played many other city-building games, just a few SimCity games. Also some RTSes. Banished isn't that complex, it's easy to learn. But it's probably harder than others. There aren't as much buildings, but you don't build that much and it's still hard later in the game. The interface easy to use, although sometimes I miss some non-essential, small features, but it doesn't matter.

    The setting reminds me of the Age of Empires games I played when I was young, it's really nice. The game has good performance, runs well on my older laptop, although it's more demanding when the city gets larger, but it doesn't really get below 25-30 FPS even then. It's a short fun game.    … Expand
  20. SigilFey
    Mar 15, 2015
    9
    Banished is simply one of the best city-builders I have ever played.

    Very nice balance of design freedom and challenge. The game masters a less-is-more system, from its mechanics to its graphical presentation. Much like the old Settlers series, you want to take it slow and watch closely while you are learning how to play. Much of the game is in discovering the nuances of the resource    Banished is simply one of the best city-builders I have ever played.

    Very nice balance of design freedom and challenge. The game masters a less-is-more system, from its mechanics to its graphical presentation. Much like the old Settlers series, you want to take it slow and watch closely while you are learning how to play. Much of the game is in discovering the nuances of the resource system and then min-maxing your way to a booming economy.

    I really appreciate how the game's most valuable resource is actually "people". Keeping your villagers healthy, happy, and productive is far more important than stockpiling goods. As each citizen has his/her own name, occupation, and family, I found myself attached to a few here and there, following them around on their activities...perhaps with a bit of sadness over time, as the toddler I remember playing dangerously close to the river was now a tailor in her 60's, and likely to pass away soon.

    Pacing of the game is deceptively slow to start, as one tiny mistake early-on will likely spell disaster for your entire settlement. Once you learn the basics, it doesn't take long to get a flourishing settlement up and running. But, just like Dwarf Fortress...the more successful you are, the more likely things will go to pot in a heartbeat! It's truly a game about seeing just how far you can push your growth until it all collapses under its own weight.

    Graphics are quite charming, and don't take a powerhouse PC to run well. There is a great deal of macro detail, and big settlements really look awesome. Terrain can be a bit redundant after a few games, however, and it would be nice if you were able to build some unique, set-piece structures to show how far you had really come. There simply is not the bleep-ton of variety as offered by SimCity or Tropico, nor the intricate detail of the Settlers series, but what is here blends together well and creates a beautiful picture.

    I have a feeling Banished has already been granted a permanent spot on my hard drive. (*Ahem.* Excuse me! My "SSD". Must keep up with the times...) It might be nostalgia, but I spent many chilly days this past winter at my desk, mug of coffee in one hand, mouse in the other, guiding a handful of refugees towards a civilization of their own. I intend to return to that place many times again in the future.    … Expand
  21. alleycat_lady
    Dec 30, 2014
    9
    I love city building games. So when I saw Banished go on sale on Steam, I knew I had to grab it up. So far, it has not ailed to disappoint. The first night I played it, the evening melted away and somehow magically it had gone from 7PM to 2AM. Banished will suck you in.

    Banished is a city builder, with buildings modeled in a European Medieval style. Like other city builders I've played,    I love city building games. So when I saw Banished go on sale on Steam, I knew I had to grab it up. So far, it has not ailed to disappoint. The first night I played it, the evening melted away and somehow magically it had gone from 7PM to 2AM. Banished will suck you in.

    Banished is a city builder, with buildings modeled in a European Medieval style. Like other city builders I've played, you have to worry about resources like food and building materials. Unlike other city builders I've played, Banished is much harsher. You have to worry about pestilence, bad crops and disease. Your people can starve or freeze to death, and may slow down production if they are unhealthy or unhappy. Building houses doesn't just mean more people either. You have to wait for your families to grow have kids and grow up. And sometimes rapid expansion is more a hindrance than a boon when there isn't enough food or firewood to go around.

    There are some minor flaws with the game. Sometimes building things and gathering materials can seem painfully slow. And other times you can blink too long and your people are starving to death. Then you have to scramble around to keep them fed. There have been some complaints online that some of the jobs/buildings are unbalanced. However (one of my favorite features of any game) Banished can now be modded. So if there is an aspect you don't like, use the modding tool (or find someone who's already done so). There isn't any sort of fighting between clans of peoples either (only the elements) if you're into that sort of thing. I think it would be an interesting addition, but not really necessary. All and all, a great game (my favorite city builder so far)!    … Expand
  22. ChromeRun
    Dec 28, 2014
    10
    This game is visually a masterpiece and a game like no other. If you enjoy sandbox type building games, mixed with the perfect amount of strategy, this game is for you. The developer works on this title and has delivered on all of his promises -- including mod support. This simply is the perfect game.
  23. Bolrakk
    Sep 22, 2014
    8
    I have put in 40+ hours into this game and that was only in one week. It's addictiveness comes with the idea that all you want to do is keep expanding.

    Mechanics wise its path system is almost flawless and job priorities still needs some work but in time I can see this all being patched up. However what keeps this game from a perfect score is it's endgame potential. Once you have    I have put in 40+ hours into this game and that was only in one week. It's addictiveness comes with the idea that all you want to do is keep expanding.

    Mechanics wise its path system is almost flawless and job priorities still needs some work but in time I can see this all being patched up.

    However what keeps this game from a perfect score is it's endgame potential. Once you have covered the whole map and can't build anymore you are daunted with the fact that you have nothing left to accomplish. All you can do is start again?

    To improve the game I would like to see more game modes and different styled maps to make the game a little bit more re-playable. The potential is there for this to be a top tier sandbox game and I really hope it gets there.    … Expand
  24. GeorgeHillier
    Sep 17, 2014
    10
    I bought this game on release and decided to make an account just to review it in here.

    To start off this isn't a typical city builder like Sims city, this is more of a survival city builder, there are no real goals, only to make your town larger, have a higher population and make everyone happy, but that's the best part, no one is telling you what to do or how to do it! This game is    I bought this game on release and decided to make an account just to review it in here.

    To start off this isn't a typical city builder like Sims city, this is more of a survival city builder, there are no real goals, only to make your town larger, have a higher population and make everyone happy, but that's the best part, no one is telling you what to do or how to do it!

    This game is honestly the best city builder I've ever played and only costs a third of Sims city, which is awful.    … Expand
  25. Ampere
    Aug 5, 2014
    10
    Beautiful game with a lot of new Ideas. It's hard at the beginning but that is it why I love it. The game mechanism in without any bugs. It works! It's often hard to survive but with every further game you will be better. The soundtracks are very nice and it's made with love. I played about 40 hours. Often i gt the feeling that is not possible tomak e a population over 500 but it requiresBeautiful game with a lot of new Ideas. It's hard at the beginning but that is it why I love it. The game mechanism in without any bugs. It works! It's often hard to survive but with every further game you will be better. The soundtracks are very nice and it's made with love. I played about 40 hours. Often i gt the feeling that is not possible tomak e a population over 500 but it requires just a little training.… Expand
  26. FredPL
    Jul 13, 2014
    8
    Bardzo przyjemna i wciągająca gra strategiczna, w której naszym zadaniem jest budowa i zarządzanie najpierw niewielką wsią w garstką mieszkańców, a w późniejszym etapie dużą osadą z kilkuset mieszkańcami. Gra wciąga od samego początku na długie godziny, niestety, po kilkunastu godzinach gry zaczyna się robić monotonna i nudnawa, na szczęście w ramach urozmaicenia może nas spotkać jakaśBardzo przyjemna i wciągająca gra strategiczna, w której naszym zadaniem jest budowa i zarządzanie najpierw niewielką wsią w garstką mieszkańców, a w późniejszym etapie dużą osadą z kilkuset mieszkańcami. Gra wciąga od samego początku na długie godziny, niestety, po kilkunastu godzinach gry zaczyna się robić monotonna i nudnawa, na szczęście w ramach urozmaicenia może nas spotkać jakaś klęska żywiołowa jak choćby pożar lub trąba powietrzna.… Expand
  27. kirkwall
    Jul 13, 2014
    10
    A great game that is tragically fatally flawed.

    Once you move into the middle game (150 - 300 peopled town) you will begin to clearly see that software flaws. Resources in your Trading Centers will magically begin to disappear...specifically food and coal. After reaching the mid-game in three separate games and seeing my hard earned resources vanish into thin air the frustration became    A great game that is tragically fatally flawed.

    Once you move into the middle game (150 - 300 peopled town) you will begin to clearly see that software flaws. Resources in your Trading Centers will magically begin to disappear...specifically food and coal. After reaching the mid-game in three separate games and seeing my hard earned resources vanish into thin air the frustration became too much.

    I love city building games...but not ones that are fatally flawed.

    Sadly, Banished offers outstanding potential but clearly is not worth investing ones time into a game that undermines many hours of game play with the unrelenting disappearing of hard earned and well planned resources.    … Expand
  28. criticdave
    Jul 11, 2014
    10
    A delightful little city builder game with no combat. The moment you have your city running like a well oil. I mean , managed city is really satisfying!
  29. tarnar
    Jun 30, 2014
    9
    This is a very strong game with only a few flaws.

    The graphics are clean and attractive but not overly taxing. Detail is good from up high and still looks good once you zoom in. The controls are also clean and functional. Right-click dismisses most dialogs / cancels most actions. Placing buildings, drawing roads, ordering the gathering of resource, all simple and straightforward.    This is a very strong game with only a few flaws.

    The graphics are clean and attractive but not overly taxing. Detail is good from up high and still looks good once you zoom in.

    The controls are also clean and functional. Right-click dismisses most dialogs / cancels most actions. Placing buildings, drawing roads, ordering the gathering of resource, all simple and straightforward.

    The interface windows are similarly clean and functional. This leads to the first small complaint about the game: The game starts with none of these windows open, yet three of them seem totally critical to playing the game: the worker assignment window, the game stats window (showing population, season/year, some limited stockpile info) and a log window.

    This is a game that is best enjoyed without a guide. The learning curve is not shallow and I found figuring things out for myself to be satisfying. Not all players will agree with this and may find the game unguided.

    The game starts off particularly hard and then gets easier as you get established. The first few years bring labour shortages, food shortages, supply shortages and it's a careful balancing act. After this is a growth phase that is relatively easy. However the true difficulty comes from the end game and the high population phase.

    Unfortunately, part of what makes the high population phase difficult feels like a game design conflict between micro-management and automation. You do not assign individual citizens to tasks, you distribute your population by task. In general the game gets it right and assigns workers who live close to their task to the given task but not always. Sometimes it is necessary to unassign the population and reassign them, in a particular task order, to make sure the right citizens go to the right tasks.

    On the other hand this issue is exacerbated by poor city design - fail to put enough houses close to important tasks and crops will fail, markets will be empty, etc. In this way it can be easy to blame the game for your own poor city design.

    And once the game starts to go downhill there is often no recovering from it. In this respect the game is disturbingly real. Even simply failing to grow the population is a recipe for failure as workers grow old and die without replacements. How can one recover from that? You can't. Likewise, a broken food distribution system is doomed to famine.

    On that note I disagree with the reviews that say there is no end-game. The end-game is managing a highly populated city, dealing with workforce replacement, dealing with food distribution, with disease outbreaks, with disasters. To reach the relatively easy mid-game phase and decide that you've won is short-sighted. Surviving a disaster with a fully developed city is the end-game and it's much, much harder than simply building a city.    … Expand
  30. Ecresis
    Jun 24, 2014
    9
    As a SimCity fan, I had to try Banished, which looked amazing from the trailers. And I was not disappointed. It is even more addictive than SimCity (4 or 5 whatever), and the graphics are stunning.

    You have to take it slowly, and build a nice little village, with a church in the middle, a market, and all those medieval stuff which make the game so special. And this has been done by a    As a SimCity fan, I had to try Banished, which looked amazing from the trailers. And I was not disappointed. It is even more addictive than SimCity (4 or 5 whatever), and the graphics are stunning.

    You have to take it slowly, and build a nice little village, with a church in the middle, a market, and all those medieval stuff which make the game so special. And this has been done by a single man !

    I'm not giving it a 10 because I feel it could be much more than that. Once you've build every building it starts to get repetitive very quickly

    The trade system is make things a bit more difficult but interesting, you can't just pop-up cows out of nowhere), the seasons force your people to be organized, store food, store firewood. It is so simple yet so particular

    Conclusion : This is where I like to put my money, directly to a man who created a better game than EA this year    … Expand
prev
Page:

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.
    Read full review
  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
See all critic reviews »