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. Baxstabber
    May 5, 2014
    8
    One man effort turned success. Game runs smooth as butter and has really fun mechanics and game-play. The game itself is a city builder that focuses completely on resource management to help keep your handful of civilians you start with alive through the winters to become a metropolis of your choosing. The game is a joy from start to finish.
    There is only one area this game lacks in and    One man effort turned success. Game runs smooth as butter and has really fun mechanics and game-play. The game itself is a city builder that focuses completely on resource management to help keep your handful of civilians you start with alive through the winters to become a metropolis of your choosing. The game is a joy from start to finish.
    There is only one area this game lacks in and that is replay value, with a one man development, I highly doubt any DLC or many updates to the game to come thick and fast, and although I loved what he has released, the game once you have finished it has very little to do, maintaining your city once it reaches it's borders is basically just watching your population get the resources they need to keep on going. Once you get a grip on the game, there's little more you can get out of it as the challenge is figuring out what you need to do to keep them alive, once you've figured it out it is game over.

    The game for all the time before that however is tremendous, and deserves a high score and high praise.    … Expand
  2. BatFat09
    Feb 21, 2014
    8
    This is a pretty good game, albeit impossible to win! I like it, I really do, I went in with low hopes and was extremely surprised, I must say this is way more than I thought it would be!
  3. comradenash
    Feb 19, 2014
    8
    Beautifully put together, particularly for a one man team. Intelligently designed for an immersive and authentic feeling survival/strategy game. If I could offer one basic criticism it would be that the UI is not very intuitive, and I do sort of wish there was some kind of end game. It would be rewarding to be able to link your cities up, make moral decisions about the commoners poachingBeautifully put together, particularly for a one man team. Intelligently designed for an immersive and authentic feeling survival/strategy game. If I could offer one basic criticism it would be that the UI is not very intuitive, and I do sort of wish there was some kind of end game. It would be rewarding to be able to link your cities up, make moral decisions about the commoners poaching on your land, etc.

    Overall Banished is worth every cent of $20 though!    … Expand
  4. 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
  5. Zenzukai
    Mar 2, 2014
    8
    Very fun set up game, its much more like a simulator than any other civilization sim game I've played. Great mechanics,but not enough game play goals though. There are achievements for doing this or that, but in the end it is very one dimensional, grow your population, expand, expand and expand. Until you can't, then game is over.
  6. TheSwagMaster
    Apr 9, 2014
    8
    This game is really beautiful to look at, the game play is simple yet fun, and the controls are easy. It's a very unforgiving game, and it took me a couple of tried to get a town that didn't fail after 30 minutes of me playing. It's still a very fun game, and gives me something to do when I'm bored.
  7. 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
  8. 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
  9. 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.
  10. 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 )
  11. 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.
  12. 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
  13. 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.
  14. 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
  15. 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.
  16. 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
  17. 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
  18. 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
  19. 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...
  20. 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
  21. 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
  22. 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
  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. BastardySkull
    Feb 20, 2014
    7
    Very zen game, could have more depth later in game and some wonders/larger construction tasks or build trees. Challenge modes would have been good as well. Good potential for modding.
  25. 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
  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. 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
  28. 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
  29. 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.
  30. 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.
  31. ww99w
    Feb 25, 2014
    7
    Banished is a very interesting city building game. You have to manage an efficient supply chain to survive the unforgiving world. It is very good for the first dozen or so hours, however the game needs to expand to keep interest. The AI is pretty good, however you will sometimes see some less then average behaviors such as some workers doing random chores instead of their work
  32. 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.
  33. 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
  34. 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.
  35. 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.
  36. 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.
  37. 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
  38. 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
  39. 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
  40. 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
  41. 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.
  42. 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
  43. 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
  44. Jancelot
    Feb 19, 2014
    6
    Nice game, its been a long time there has been a game like this. Its a bit to easy though, once you got a basic town set up there's not much that can happen. I had build every kind of building after 2 hours of playing and i wasnt even rushing it (i'm playing on the hardest difficulty in harsh conditions). After a while you just waiting till a trader with a new kind op crop comes by orNice game, its been a long time there has been a game like this. Its a bit to easy though, once you got a basic town set up there's not much that can happen. I had build every kind of building after 2 hours of playing and i wasnt even rushing it (i'm playing on the hardest difficulty in harsh conditions). After a while you just waiting till a trader with a new kind op crop comes by or till some immigrants want to join your settlement. Still a game worth buying though, I just really hope they will add some more content and some more difficulty to the game. It feels a bit like a beta, it has al the basics but no in depth gameplay.… Expand
  45. 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
  46. 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.
  47. 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
  48. 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
  49. 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
  50. 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.
  51. 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
  52. 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
  53. 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
  54. 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.
  55. 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
  56. 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
  57. 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
  58. 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
  59. 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.
  60. 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.
  61. 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
  62. 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
  63. 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
  64. 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
  65. 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.
  66. masc
    Mar 17, 2014
    4
    The ideas behind Banished are nice and the game even plays nice until your city exceeds a certain size. At this point you have build everything there is to build at least once and the only motivation left to expand any further is to reach new personal high score for the number of citizens that live in your town. So my biggest complaint with this game is long term motivation. The secondThe ideas behind Banished are nice and the game even plays nice until your city exceeds a certain size. At this point you have build everything there is to build at least once and the only motivation left to expand any further is to reach new personal high score for the number of citizens that live in your town. So my biggest complaint with this game is long term motivation. The second issue I do have is that it is just far to easy even on the highest difficulty setting after you figured how it works. One last thing so, the after sales support and the communication of the developer is to say it nice "very slow".… Expand
  67. saz
    Mar 17, 2014
    4
    Pretty fun but done after 6 hours. There are no enemy's only disasters which aren't fun. The maps aren't that great. Rate of consumption seems to awkwardly eat in big chunks probably because I spent the whole game at 10x speed. Land should have some production rates for crops/hunting. It sucks waiting for trade boats. Trade could be improved by factions that are on the map and you have toPretty fun but done after 6 hours. There are no enemy's only disasters which aren't fun. The maps aren't that great. Rate of consumption seems to awkwardly eat in big chunks probably because I spent the whole game at 10x speed. Land should have some production rates for crops/hunting. It sucks waiting for trade boats. Trade could be improved by factions that are on the map and you have to explore to find. Would like to have knowledge based upgrades. I don't see any depth to the game.… Expand
  68. Bitwiener
    Feb 27, 2014
    4
    The game is not rewarding at all. You can spend plenty of hours building your village just to have it destroyed by starvation or disasters. I would not recommend this game.
  69. MyStupidName22
    Dec 31, 2014
    4
    This game is pretty average. There are much better colony games out there like RimWorld.

    The game gets boring pretty quickly. I'd definitely give RimWorld a try over this if you're thinking about this game.
  70. ericchrishoover
    Apr 12, 2015
    4
    I really loved the game for the first day or two. I was constantly playing it. But somewhere along the line, you'll come across game-breaking glitches that completely destroy whatever you've spent 10-15 hours building up. Disasters, harsh weather, uneven building space is all fine. But people that idle when you tell them to build, builders that gather materials when they should beI really loved the game for the first day or two. I was constantly playing it. But somewhere along the line, you'll come across game-breaking glitches that completely destroy whatever you've spent 10-15 hours building up. Disasters, harsh weather, uneven building space is all fine. But people that idle when you tell them to build, builders that gather materials when they should be building, and people teleporting to the edge of the map and dying on their way back make this game not worth playing.… Expand
  71. Tomaso
    Jun 9, 2019
    4
    Ok, ok - I get it - a game created by 1 person. And it may feel like a very good product/showreel of this person's skills.

    I really can't agree with people saying it can compete with strategies created by bigger developers. IT CAN'T. Games are not about quality/people involved ratio, games are about overall final product. Banished has decent game mechanics and the game is simple    Ok, ok - I get it - a game created by 1 person. And it may feel like a very good product/showreel of this person's skills.

    I really can't agree with people saying it can compete with strategies created by bigger developers.
    IT CAN'T.
    Games are not about quality/people involved ratio, games are about overall final product.

    Banished has decent game mechanics and the game is simple enough that these few rules give a clarity that can really engage the player. It's a breath of classic-style strategies - no rocket science complexity, just some basic rules to follow and master.

    The thing is - there is not much to master, and the game lacks any objective and does not give sense of fulfillment. First few hours may really feel good as you have to learn how the settlement works, but then - it's gone. You only have to expand, rearrange buildings a bit, get new territories so you won't run out of resources to create tools (needed for people to work) and so on and on... Not really much of a challenge left.

    I enjoyed it for ~12 hours, first 2 settlements were a trial and error playground, and with the third one I got everything right... And in any solid strategy game this is the moment when your base prospers well and you expect some kind of milestone or next Tier buildings/mechanics/challenges to come up, but... nothing's gonna happen here.

    Apart from these gameplay aspects, the game looks... not really appealling, sounds and music are only correct.    … Expand
  72. theNILE
    Jun 2, 2016
    3
    Sadly lacking. To give you an example, you get two types of houses, one which uses up your precious stone, and the other which uses the easy to replenish 'logs'. There are no tents, no mansions, but good news, there is a homeless shelter! And yes, they called the wood resource logs, and there are no planks! This game sorely needs the ability to upgrade structures and add more diverseSadly lacking. To give you an example, you get two types of houses, one which uses up your precious stone, and the other which uses the easy to replenish 'logs'. There are no tents, no mansions, but good news, there is a homeless shelter! And yes, they called the wood resource logs, and there are no planks! This game sorely needs the ability to upgrade structures and add more diverse buildings.

    There are no enemies, not even wild ones. Even though I had natural disasters on, nothing happened after hours and hours of play. Nobody even got sick! My herbs sat in storage until a trader came along who valued them at 4. Yes, things have value in this game, but mostly either traders don't want a lot of things, or the price is simply static. Trading in this game is pretty lame, since I just made hundreds of wool coats and stored thousands of venison - which stayed fresh forever - trading was just a matter of letting people do their jobs and then waiting for it to transfer to the trading post and trading it off.

    Everyone except young children are workers in this game, and 12 yo's seem to just help out with whatever they feel like doing (unless they are a student), even if it's working in the quarry... Now the thing here is every worker is a part-time labourer... I had my tailor walk all the way through my town to cut some wood when they weren't busy, because I wanted to remove the resources in the area... Now, the trees behind the building the tailor works at really wasn't good enough, yet for some reason, they wondered off to do something when I may be relying on them to produce as many of a resource as fast as possible if it's an emergency.

    When someone isn't healthy... What do they do? They keep on working and getting less healthy... But it seems they don't actually need anything. If I needed to assign them to simply labourer, then it wasn't obvious and it's a pain in the ass in the first place. So... What do they need? You're never told.

    Labourers will pick up resources to place them in depots. If somebody is chopping down trees so someone can build there, they have to move the resource.... So they walk to the nearest depot, even if it's miles away... Why not just move the resources to the side of the building site? This just forces you to drop a depot down and then remove it.

    Why don't hunters and foresters live in their buildings out in the wild? And why don't they need fuel for fires? It makes no sense    … Expand
  73. DoctorFoxhound
    Mar 1, 2014
    3
    I am shocked by all the 10 score reviews. I love city builders and this one looks good and feels good but there are way too many issues.

    Bottom line, this game feels like a beta. Constantly, I assign builders to work on a building but they just scamper off to chop wood. I'm having to try to find work arounds to get workers to do what i want them to do. I look forward to updates    I am shocked by all the 10 score reviews. I love city builders and this one looks good and feels good but there are way too many issues.

    Bottom line, this game feels like a beta. Constantly, I assign builders to work on a building but they just scamper off to chop wood. I'm having to try to find work arounds to get workers to do what i want them to do.

    I look forward to updates because the game has loads of potential but is so frustrating to play at this point.    … Expand
  74. Cyclocosme
    Feb 25, 2014
    3
    Based on the fact it has been done by only one person, this could be a good game, and this indeed have its qualities and its strengths. But i can't base a critic on this basis, as this would mean i'd rate one of the less finalised gestion games i have ever saw... Let's be serious, i explored the possibilities of this game in only a few hours, which let me build all the existing buildings,Based on the fact it has been done by only one person, this could be a good game, and this indeed have its qualities and its strengths. But i can't base a critic on this basis, as this would mean i'd rate one of the less finalised gestion games i have ever saw... Let's be serious, i explored the possibilities of this game in only a few hours, which let me build all the existing buildings, and led me to understand that the mechanism of population reproduction is not even thought : people just make babies by the will of Random Gods, placing them eventually in the same house or not, and this cannot work if you have too many houses that you thought you built in the purpose of, that is, making room for the next generation. Old people stay in the houses and the younger can't reproduce... Or, you make too many houses, and people just forget to leave together to do it... That's so annoying that it's forcing you to build just in time, just the right amount of houses, and then you have literally to pray so that people of the opposite gender inhabits one same house, because if this doesn't happen, there's a chance that you can't even destroy the too many houses you built : your population decrease, then it's impossible to destroy the overnumeral houses AND managing to have sufficient people working in the necessary jobs.

    I tell you : this is not a good unforgiving game. It's a bad unfinished game with some mechanics that weren't even thought or made. There have to be an algorithm for the people making couples and having their own house for growing their children, but there's not, it's purely random, and all the "difficulty" of the game goes from there. All the remaining is far too simple to constitute a decent gestion game. I gave up on my first day, after having easily understood all the mechanics, because they're basics, and they seem to work in the first few hours, but in the end, they don't, or they do by pure luck, or by pure exercise of mathematics. It's not gestion, it's probabilities and randomness. Quite sad, because the game, as i said earlier, has its qualities, but it's nor enough for me, by far. Unless there are very important patches to the major problem i tried to explain (i'm not an english speaker), I'll simply never play it again. Admitting i would, what would i do with this game ? When you have built you're huge town, you have nothing else to do. No real threat, no real depth beyond that, no real depth in the gestion itself which is essentially driven by randomness... Enough said. Avoid it for now, and hope that a Banished 2 comes one day to overcome all of this.    … Expand
  75. Kragmire
    Dec 31, 2014
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This game has potential, but the way it currently stands you will find yourself bored with it within 4 to 6 hours of gameplay. Modding it will perhaps double the enjoyment time.
    As others have pointed out, one main problem is that the beginning of the game is relatively challenging, but once you survive the first few cold winters, you will find that you spend the rest of your time micro-managing tiny details that have no direct impact on the outcome of the game. Sure it is fun to see your village grow, but it feels very hollow once you realize there is no reason to grow it. There are no other cultures or factions. In fact there is no contact with the outside world at all with the exception of a random trader that wanders through your map with random frequency. The game feels lonely and hollow.
    There are still bugs within the simulation. On occasion you will find that you hit a choke point in your development when you HAVE to build a certain building. You may have all the supplies, idle workers, foundation laid… and the builders will refuse to build it. You will watch their activities as they decide to go gather resources from the far side of the map, etc, while your village starts to wither and die because they refuse to build. This can sometimes cause cascading problems where you can actually lose the game… for no reason you can understand.
    There are some bugs with some of the population mechanics. One year you can fill a field with 5 cows and watch as they slowly wither and die off. A few years later you can fill the same field with 5 new cows and they suddenly reproduce up to a healthy herd of 30. Why? Who knows?
    There are only two non-renewable resources in the game – stone and iron. Because of this you will find yourself thinking the game should be called “Stone and Iron Manager” because once you get past the first survival stages almost all your time will be spent managing these two resources. Of course most of your buildings require stone, and most of your tools and production houses require iron, so the second you run out of either, you can find yourself in a negative spiral that may be difficult to recover from. This might be all fine if it weren’t for the fact that iron and stone are almost prohibitively expensive to mine, and to purchase from traders is based on random chance, so you feel the “luck” requirement to the game is overly high.
    The trading mechanic is underwhelming to say the least. Initially traders are exciting because they offer the key to future upgrades – new crops and livestock. However once you unlock these new features, you suddenly realize that the traders become less and less important. Nothing you will do will influence which traders show up at your dock. You might refuse to buy from one trader… and yet he will keep returning. You might buy out one trader’s entire stock, and he will return no sooner or later. As your village advances, you have more and more advanced goods to sell and your demand will shift to selling high value goods for raw materials. The traders never change and you soon find yourself dismissing 90% of them without purchasing anything.
    I would have been done with this game quickly if I had not modded it, which doubled the content and added a lot of additional depth – including some dwelling and building upgrades, decorative city options, and other features. However it did not address the emptiness, or the feeling of “why am I growing all of this stuff when I can’t sell it and it serves no other purpose in the game”? Forget an end game. This game even lacks a middle. Maybe in the future, after it has been heavily modded? Otherwise I would wait for version 2.0.    … Expand
  76. LT_Gruber
    Dec 13, 2022
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Beautiful, relaxing game that failed miserably.

    Banished has a really good concept but is poorly executed. In the core, it is just a town building simulator where you start a nice quiet village where everyone lives in harmony, or at least, so I thought. The game goes on forever, until you quit, or everyone starved to death, and in a moment, you will read that the last option is the way to go.

    The graphics in Banished are not that special in terms of realism, but they are made in a way that the game feels very calming and charming. It is hard to explain. This, added with the calm forest music playing in the background and I was all set. Ready for my digital vacation.

    I love the build system, the resource collection, and the overall atmosphere of the game. It is all very good, and I finally thought that I had found my new relaxation game in which I can empty my mind and watch my humble citizens build a nice place for themselves and each other. But then, anarchy, or better said, bad game design, kicked in..

    It all comes down to one simple problem that ruined the whole game. The balancing of the collected resources. Every home in your cute little village needs food, wood and other basic needs to survive and keep them fed and warm. All collected resources are placed on the general stockpile that you build first and citizens go to this stockpile to collect the resources for their homes. The big problem is this:

    Your citizen noticed that it is out of wood. It walks to the stockpile, grabs ten logs and walks back to his nice and comfortable dwelling. But ten logs are not enough, it comes back to the stockpile and takes another ten logs, rapidly decreasing the supply. When the humble villager collected more than forty logs, his freezing neighbour walks to the stockpile, only to find that there is nothing left in store. Shivering with cold and misery, he waits for the woodcutters to bring more logs. It is his lucky day; the woodcutters return with five fresh logs and place them on the stockpile. The neighbour walks towards the stockpile, only to find out that his greedy neighbour, who lives closer to the stockpile snitches the last five logs from the pile. After taking the logs, he spits into the freezing neighbours face and walks back to his home to add his five logs to his collection of forty that he already has. The poor man cries in defeat and dies of frostbite.

    I can make another story, but it is clear. The game has no balancer, no options to say to the greedy son of a b** that he has enough wood and need to leave some resources for the rest of the town. Whole neighbourhoods die of starvation and cold, the big piles of resources in the home of the greedy sh!ts gets larger by the minute and their hunger is never satisfied. And there is nothing you can do about it. The game runs slow as a snail too, so you can see your citizens die in slow-motion because the last apple has just been collected by another villager, who’s house almost explodes from the number of resources stuffed in it. It is just unbelievable that this issue exists in this kind of game.

    Sadly, this is the boner killer for me, and it ruined my whole experience. And it is such a shame, the game could have been so perfect for me with all the positive aspects that I mentioned at the beginning.

    So in short, if you want to watch a slow, digital version of The Purge: Anarchy and watch your villagers do whatever the hell they want and not giving a damn about each other, than this is the game for you.    … Expand
  77. Tovenaar
    Oct 27, 2014
    2
    This is supposedly an all new game but in fact uses exactly the same (attractive) graphics as the Settlers. It also has the same failings but with a lot more bugs. It needs a lot more coding to make it work.

    First of all there is no object or "goal" to the game - nothing to achieve and no sense of progress or attainment of any targets. The main problem however is the characters. No    This is supposedly an all new game but in fact uses exactly the same (attractive) graphics as the Settlers. It also has the same failings but with a lot more bugs. It needs a lot more coding to make it work.

    First of all there is no object or "goal" to the game - nothing to achieve and no sense of progress or attainment of any targets. The main problem however is the characters. No wonder they are "banished". It's almost impossible to get them to do anything. In the classic Age of Empires II (for example) you click on a villager and then give them a task - build a building, gather resources etc. In this game you cannot do that - you can only select that a building should be built - a house or food resource, then the villagers just stand around doing nothing until they die of starvation or cold (Duh) !! Very exciting !!! What the game needs is an electric cattle prod to push into these lazy buggers to force them to do what you want them to do...but, of course, as there is no aim to the game then (as the villagers must think) what is the point ???    … Expand
  78. Yosa
    Aug 24, 2015
    1
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. So I have played this city builder a few times and just noticed I never got rid of it after the last experience.(it was not a good one)

    I decide to see again why I downloaded it. I loaded up an existing city that seemed well off and saw that a school could help. I build a school then I wait,..... some town members die even though this is a good setup. I figure the education thing is somewhat important so I make it a priority, years later no school.

    I have now the capacity in resources to double my village size, I have every
    thing maned to a degree, 8 spare worker, lots of housing and everthing they need, and yet, death, oh and the school is still not built.

    The game is inconsistent in the extreme and bugged when building, im aware of the time delay over distance mechanic, was coded as a bad script; aaaaannd, delete.

    This is a game that has a pretense of logical settler then just gets rediculous with is game mechanics.
    secend and last time I bother with this game?, Made me play twice, hence the disapoinment.    … Expand
  79. VoxPaladin
    Apr 9, 2014
    0
    Very bland and generic 'city builder'. Some UI elements are confusing, no signs of challenge other than trying to redirect the horrible NPC A.I. which just walk around and starve to death.
  80. Seola
    Apr 7, 2014
    0
    I really want to like this game. However, it's unplayable for me and my husband. My husband can't even access the game without crashing. My gaming computer (4 months old) can access it but constantly has save game crashes that have been known since release with no update in sight. The problem is, I can sometimes save it on my own. The autosave feature can crash the game. If I set theI really want to like this game. However, it's unplayable for me and my husband. My husband can't even access the game without crashing. My gaming computer (4 months old) can access it but constantly has save game crashes that have been known since release with no update in sight. The problem is, I can sometimes save it on my own. The autosave feature can crash the game. If I set the autosave out as far as possible, I have to remember to save often and 7 times out of 10, this causes a crash and reverts to the last save state losing much time and work in the process especially if I haven't saved in a bit. It's clear according to Steam, the numbers are dropping off fast for a game so recently released and there is radio silence from the dev on when these bugs will be fixed. At $20 a pop, it's almost unconscionable to have such glaring errors be in the game on release, but further - this long after it became a known issue.… 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.
    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
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