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. Lambo442
    Feb 24, 2014
    10
    I'm only half way through the first tutorial and I felt compelled to stop and give this game a 10 just based on what I've seen. It's gorgeous to look at, the controls are in depth and intuitive (zoom, tilt) and the fact you can manipulate time is a godsend. I can't wait to explore the survival aspect. Sounds like a really unique idea. Can't believe the file was only 100mb too. Doesn't seemI'm only half way through the first tutorial and I felt compelled to stop and give this game a 10 just based on what I've seen. It's gorgeous to look at, the controls are in depth and intuitive (zoom, tilt) and the fact you can manipulate time is a godsend. I can't wait to explore the survival aspect. Sounds like a really unique idea. Can't believe the file was only 100mb too. Doesn't seem possible. Especially as it looks so sweet and you get weather effects and stuff. Anyway I'm gonna get on with playing it.… Expand
  2. RedGolpe
    Feb 20, 2014
    10
    This is one of the best city builder I've played in a long time, and though it may not be polished as an AAA game, I found it very fun. It somehow lacks in basic information, but once you understand the basic mechanics it's quite straightforward. The price is reasonable for what the game offers, and if you think it's been developed by a single person, it's almost a miracle of a game.
  3. VNVNation
    Mar 3, 2014
    10
    Truly excellent entry in the city-builder genre with an interesting take using the premise of survival to create a unique game. Perhaps some additional environments would make for a more varied game world but overall an amazing achievement for a one man dev, certainly put's many big name companies to shame.
  4. keefbaker
    Feb 27, 2014
    10
    Stunningly good. Even more amazing when you realize it's made by one person. A person who seems to have realized exactly what fans of city builders want and given it to them with no extra bloat, unnecessary frills and pointless modes. Gold.
  5. Gunteraz
    Feb 18, 2014
    10
    This game is amazing. I haven't left my computer since i got this game 8 hours ago. It sucks you in like the tornadoes in this game do with your villagers. For a 1-man development "team" this game is an achievement worthy of a monument.
  6. TheDizzation
    Feb 18, 2014
    10
    Amazing game for me. This type of game is really rare, and hard to make it good. It has some deficiency, but the game is combined perfectly. The fact is that this game is made by one guy is making it more amazing! I mean SimCity is made by a big company, compared to this they made nothing. I mean it. Anyways this game is a must buy if you like RTS and city building games!
  7. Golakka
    Apr 30, 2014
    10
    Banished is an excellent "settlers like" game, better than the settlers franchise itself, all designed around needs. Imagine a rural settlement isolated from the rest of the world. Few people, a lot of childs, and the winter is coming. Imagine the struggle against the winter, the fear for starving, the need for a better and warmer home or clothes, the need for create and manage orchards,Banished is an excellent "settlers like" game, better than the settlers franchise itself, all designed around needs. Imagine a rural settlement isolated from the rest of the world. Few people, a lot of childs, and the winter is coming. Imagine the struggle against the winter, the fear for starving, the need for a better and warmer home or clothes, the need for create and manage orchards, the need for other seeds. You wil learn to fear the winter and to joy for the summer harvest, as our ancestors. Banished is a little masterpiece, if you liked "the settlers" franchise this is the peak of that kind of game.… Expand
  8. twisterforever
    Sep 1, 2023
    10
    One of the most wonderful city builder out there :-D
    I love it from the beginning!!
  9. heychrisfox
    Mar 2, 2014
    10
    Absolutely the best city-builder that has been released in decades. With minimalist mechanics, a beautiful aesthetic, some of the most challenging gameplay in the genre, and the horrific ethical implications that you're forced to encounter emergently as NPCs slowly starve or freeze due to your poor mismanagement is something so unique that it needs to be played to be understood.
  10. Muts
    Feb 22, 2014
    10
    Great game. Got my population to 300+ people and then disaster comes over and over to challenge you to keep the town growing while tons dead by a tornado, fire, disease is hard.
    For anyone having trouble, like user Jordach545, where people are not doing what they were supposed to do, use Priority Tool at F2 Menu. I see people complain about this **** every day on forums and they still    Great game. Got my population to 300+ people and then disaster comes over and over to challenge you to keep the town growing while tons dead by a tornado, fire, disease is hard.
    For anyone having trouble, like user Jordach545, where people are not doing what they were supposed to do, use Priority Tool at F2 Menu. I see people complain about this **** every day on forums and they still dont get that this game works like a queue system. You create a To Do list every time you assign something, and they will not finish taking resources to a house to be built if they must finish collecting resources first. The Priority Tool just get things done and I think 90% of players dont use that and have trouble with Banished.    … Expand
  11. SpyderScythe
    Feb 19, 2014
    10
    I absolutely love this game. It is a beautiful city building sim that will suck you in. The amount of things to do in this game is quite amazing, especially since it was made by one man. I cannot stop playing this game since I bought it, and the longer I play, the better it gets. I highly recommend this game if you are a fan of city building games. You will not be disappointed.
  12. kirkwall
    Jul 13, 2014
    10
    A great game that is tragically fatally flawed.

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

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

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

    Sadly, Banished offers outstanding potential but clearly is not worth investing ones time into a game that undermines many hours of game play with the unrelenting disappearing of hard earned and well planned resources.    … Expand
  13. gracjanski
    Nov 3, 2020
    10
    This is surely a great game nowadays and a masterpiece, because it is done only by one programmer. In contrary to many other city sims you need to be active all the time and manage buildings, collect resources and send your adult persons to certain jobs. This is something new and I do have fun with it. The beginning is more like a survival game and takes only few time. After that you canThis is surely a great game nowadays and a masterpiece, because it is done only by one programmer. In contrary to many other city sims you need to be active all the time and manage buildings, collect resources and send your adult persons to certain jobs. This is something new and I do have fun with it. The beginning is more like a survival game and takes only few time. After that you can focus on building a big town and spend many hours to do so. So yes, this game is not so short, as mentioned here by some users, maybe it was the case years ago, but not nowadays. And if you want to have more buildings and more end game, you can try some of the mods.
    The tutorial is great and you have 3 difficult levels, so it is not so hard to get into the game, but later on it will be more and more complex.
    Graphics looks very good, especially for such an indie game.
    Sound and music are very repetitive and a big weakness of the game. So play your own background music for example.    … Expand
  14. petden
    May 18, 2015
    10
    I really like the game. Got it yesterday, played for like 12 hours. Time flies, I just realized how late it is when I looked at the time stamp of the saved game.

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

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

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

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

    The setting reminds me of the Age of Empires games I played when I was young, it's really nice. The game has good performance, runs well on my older laptop, although it's more demanding when the city gets larger, but it doesn't really get below 25-30 FPS even then. It's a short fun game.    … Expand
  15. kursku
    Feb 18, 2014
    10
    This is the SimCity and Cities XL for Medieval Lovers! The game has it all, specially because it goes beyond most of our expectation. It's simple, has an amazing interface and something that I've never seen, the shortcut for specific areas. The game it's still evolving, so I'm waiting for new and different things.
  16. ChromeRun
    Dec 28, 2014
    10
    This game is visually a masterpiece and a game like no other. If you enjoy sandbox type building games, mixed with the perfect amount of strategy, this game is for you. The developer works on this title and has delivered on all of his promises -- including mod support. This simply is the perfect game.
  17. MaxPay
    Feb 18, 2014
    10
    This game should serve as an example, almost like a benchmark. It was developed entirely by 1 guy and yet, it's one of the best ''city builders'' to come out in a very long time. There's also a survival aspect and it features disasters. You can play it indefinitely; there's no silly endgame scenarios like: ''Build 3 farms''. Maps are huge and are randomly generated. Gameplay is refreshingThis game should serve as an example, almost like a benchmark. It was developed entirely by 1 guy and yet, it's one of the best ''city builders'' to come out in a very long time. There's also a survival aspect and it features disasters. You can play it indefinitely; there's no silly endgame scenarios like: ''Build 3 farms''. Maps are huge and are randomly generated. Gameplay is refreshing and addicting. 10/10!… Expand
  18. Boras
    Feb 21, 2014
    10
    Amazing game, simple and complex at same time, it is a rare example of good game mechanics, simple but effective graphics and an awesome potential for future expansions

    absolutely suggested
  19. RazgrizGT
    Feb 24, 2014
    10
    Banished is definitely one of the great games to come out a recent memory. It has a very low learning curve and great game mechanic the keeps the game interesting. Designing and managing the city requires planning, expanding the quickly and you will find yourself in trouble. Graphics and Sounds are simplistic and yet provide a great backdrop for the game. Re-playability is decent as itBanished is definitely one of the great games to come out a recent memory. It has a very low learning curve and great game mechanic the keeps the game interesting. Designing and managing the city requires planning, expanding the quickly and you will find yourself in trouble. Graphics and Sounds are simplistic and yet provide a great backdrop for the game. Re-playability is decent as it is a sandbox structure with randomly generated map. At the moment of this review, it has minimal structures and their functions. The game plays simple but it has a great potential to expand into more depth and scope. For one guy who developed the game, it is definitely a 10 that beats all the other big-name title out of the water. Highly recommend!… Expand
  20. Ziogualty
    Feb 21, 2014
    10
    Gratz to Luke who has created a new genre: the survival builder. In all other builders your aim is to create a wonderful megacity, full of everything imaginable.
    In this one extreme micromanagement and constant planning are aiming only to let your citizen survive.
    Not for everyone, but simply AMAZING.

    We can call this game the "Dayz" of the city builder!
  21. Schmidy
    Mar 7, 2014
    10
    Starvation kicks in, the cold starts to bite. Surely it's time for Spring you think. This game gets you emotionally involved. Starting a small village and creating it into a large town you go through many rough patches hoping you people can make it through the winter. It's a game many people have been waiting for.
  22. adabonde
    Feb 26, 2014
    10
    You can see that the creator really cared about the quality of this game. It has a simple goal, but provides a satisfying level of depth and complexity.
    Acquiring new resources and building a large bustling economy provides a great sense of accomplishment and a real challenge. It's amazing how fast things can spiral out of control when you start to lose pace in keeping up with your    You can see that the creator really cared about the quality of this game. It has a simple goal, but provides a satisfying level of depth and complexity.
    Acquiring new resources and building a large bustling economy provides a great sense of accomplishment and a real challenge. It's amazing how fast things can spiral out of control when you start to lose pace in keeping up with your resource production.
    Brilliant effort on the developers part! I can't wait to see what else he develops in the future!    … Expand
  23. Docsis
    Feb 23, 2014
    10
    This game looks simple, but it is a lot tougher than it looks. Everything seems to affect other things. I lose some people to starvation because I can't keep them fed. So I finally get that issue fixed and build up a surplus of food, then their tools start to wear out. I finally get a blacksmith shop and a blacksmith, but all the while, they cant build as fast or farm or hunt because ofThis game looks simple, but it is a lot tougher than it looks. Everything seems to affect other things. I lose some people to starvation because I can't keep them fed. So I finally get that issue fixed and build up a surplus of food, then their tools start to wear out. I finally get a blacksmith shop and a blacksmith, but all the while, they cant build as fast or farm or hunt because of worn out tools, so my food runs out, I run out of coats to keep them warm because they can't hunt deer for the leather (or venison), so they freeze to death. Now I don't have enough population to spare one to be a blacksmith, because I need them to gather food.... well, you get the point. This is NOT a complaint... this is a challenging game, and well worth the $20. This runs circles around SIM CITY and those types of games. Looks simple, easy controls... but don't let that fool ya!… Expand
  24. Demonidze
    Feb 19, 2014
    10
    Finally a great city builder type of game that doesnt filled with always online DRM and other non sense.

    although its not like Sim City where you build an utopia, a dream city .. here you build a village and not just a village it has to be very balanced village, with everything thought out. there is rogue like element here, where you have to restart over and over until you using trial    Finally a great city builder type of game that doesnt filled with always online DRM and other non sense.

    although its not like Sim City where you build an utopia, a dream city .. here you build a village and not just a village it has to be very balanced village, with everything thought out. there is rogue like element here, where you have to restart over and over until you using trial and error method find your way to build a proper village.

    this is sort of survival city builder game, the only game i've seen that is some what similar to this one is dwarf fortress.

    I would recommend this game to anyone who likes the city building genre.    … Expand
  25. timsplace0
    Feb 18, 2014
    10
    This is one of the best game I have played in a long time, spent about 12 hours lost in Banished today.

    Only complaint is your wrists and hands may hurt from overplaying, seriously.
  26. janontour
    Feb 19, 2014
    10
    absolutely love this game - if you like city building games but are fed up with way too casual simulations like sim city, where you hardly have to think anymore but just doodle and build a city without a real challenge, banished is just that: it is a puzzle disguised as a city building game. I don't know how many times I had to restart my town because 2 hours ago i made a crucial mistakeabsolutely love this game - if you like city building games but are fed up with way too casual simulations like sim city, where you hardly have to think anymore but just doodle and build a city without a real challenge, banished is just that: it is a puzzle disguised as a city building game. I don't know how many times I had to restart my town because 2 hours ago i made a crucial mistake in the setup of my city. But I loved starting over every time. It's a challenge and can be frustrating, but if you are up to it, it is a fantastic game. Considering it is done by one guy it is an amazing achievement!… Expand
  27. liquixcat
    Feb 19, 2014
    10
    I played this game for 4 hours on my first sitting. This game just sucks you in and keeps you there. It's hard, unforgiving, relentless and cruel but it's enjoyable, rewarding, entertaining and engaging too! After 6 winters I think I finally have the hang of food distribution and keeping people healthy and alive. Sure a person dies here or there, but it's almost always from old age.I played this game for 4 hours on my first sitting. This game just sucks you in and keeps you there. It's hard, unforgiving, relentless and cruel but it's enjoyable, rewarding, entertaining and engaging too! After 6 winters I think I finally have the hang of food distribution and keeping people healthy and alive. Sure a person dies here or there, but it's almost always from old age. Finding a good balance takes time, but it's completely doable. Now I just need some fruit for my Tavern. :D

    When you buy this game don't expect to do well your first time through and USE the tutorial. It's not too long and it's really helpful. Don't get too attached to your first villagers as they will most likely die from starvation or cold.

    Great game; amazing even. I plan to spend another 4 hours on it after work tonight too.    … Expand
  28. Palanor
    Feb 19, 2014
    10
    One of the best city builders that as come out in the last few years. For once you have to think before you do anything . Some may not like the interface . I keep a few windows open and i do fine. First time i played , it was 4 am by the time i looked up ,says a lot about how much this game sucks you in. You end up feeling about your villagers and there plight.
  29. superspeck
    Feb 20, 2014
    10
    I'll be the first to admit that this game is not for everyone. If you like FPS games, you probably won't like this. If you like the idea of what would happen with Age Of Empires (or any medieval city builder) crossed it's DNA with Dwarf Fortress (where Losing Is Fun and Everybody Dies) then you will enjoy this game. Building a successful city is a delicate balance with a lot of invisibleI'll be the first to admit that this game is not for everyone. If you like FPS games, you probably won't like this. If you like the idea of what would happen with Age Of Empires (or any medieval city builder) crossed it's DNA with Dwarf Fortress (where Losing Is Fun and Everybody Dies) then you will enjoy this game. Building a successful city is a delicate balance with a lot of invisible levers that you have to watch and adjust carefully. Or everyone dies. And there's never enough of anything, and too many children. It's great fun as long as you go in expecting to lose and have everyone die. Repeatedly.… Expand
  30. Sairven
    Feb 20, 2014
    10
    One of my biggest complaints about city builders over the last few years is shoehorned combat, and lets be perfectly honest with ourselves: even the "best" city-builder combat is pure garbage compared to the worst real-time strategy game's combat.

    Banished thankfully doesn't waste any of its time on that. Instead, your antagonists are: hunger, weather, disease, and disasters. The    One of my biggest complaints about city builders over the last few years is shoehorned combat, and lets be perfectly honest with ourselves: even the "best" city-builder combat is pure garbage compared to the worst real-time strategy game's combat.

    Banished thankfully doesn't waste any of its time on that. Instead, your antagonists are: hunger, weather, disease, and disasters. The developer's decision to focus on this pays off greatly. It's pretty fun balancing your population in order to progress without ending up with a whole bunch of old people who can't reproduce anymore.    … 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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