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. Visserys
    May 16, 2014
    10
    An absolutely amazing city builder. I would recommend this game to everyone who enjoys city building games. This game beats Sim City in my opinion and it does it with simpler game mechanics and less content.
  2. criticdave
    Jul 11, 2014
    10
    A delightful little city builder game with no combat. The moment you have your city running like a well oil. I mean , managed city is really satisfying!
  3. 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.
  4. alleycat_lady
    Dec 30, 2014
    9
    I love city building games. So when I saw Banished go on sale on Steam, I knew I had to grab it up. So far, it has not ailed to disappoint. The first night I played it, the evening melted away and somehow magically it had gone from 7PM to 2AM. Banished will suck you in.

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

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

    There are some minor flaws with the game. Sometimes building things and gathering materials can seem painfully slow. And other times you can blink too long and your people are starving to death. Then you have to scramble around to keep them fed. There have been some complaints online that some of the jobs/buildings are unbalanced. However (one of my favorite features of any game) Banished can now be modded. So if there is an aspect you don't like, use the modding tool (or find someone who's already done so). There isn't any sort of fighting between clans of peoples either (only the elements) if you're into that sort of thing. I think it would be an interesting addition, but not really necessary. All and all, a great game (my favorite city builder so far)!    … Expand
  5. 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
  6. 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
  7. Mortensus
    Feb 24, 2014
    8
    Very good game, well polished, one of the best "city builder" i ever played, Without too much fancy tricks, but rather very strong ideas well executed. Challenging at every stage! Fear the winter and... the wild boars. Well worth the price.
  8. giskarduk
    Mar 8, 2014
    8
    Banished offers Caesar 3 style gameplay, since Caesar 3 is one of the best city games ever made, Banished is built on solid proven gaming principles. Whilst it is not in the same league as Caesar due to the chosen theme for the game, its randomly generated maps and pioneer settlement feeling give it totally different characteristic which is fun in its own right. During harvests it is aBanished offers Caesar 3 style gameplay, since Caesar 3 is one of the best city games ever made, Banished is built on solid proven gaming principles. Whilst it is not in the same league as Caesar due to the chosen theme for the game, its randomly generated maps and pioneer settlement feeling give it totally different characteristic which is fun in its own right. During harvests it is a race to get the food in the fields gathered before winter sets in and the food spoils. Sometimes an early winter can cause you to lose a lot of your craps so you end up doing what pioneers had to do and get most of the village to help get the crops harvested. The entire game really does give a frontier settlement feeling in how it works. Despite what was said else where, you can control what the NPCs work on first by using the increase priority feature.… Expand
  9. SenshudoTV
    Mar 20, 2014
    9
    Banished should be a must buy for anyone who likes the city simulator/builder genre of games. With a clean, adaptable interface, beautiful graphics, and relatively error-free design, it is highly recommended by this reviewer.
  10. Ilham
    Apr 26, 2014
    9
    Very Simple, Amazing Graphic, and the Game System is also good, I have Played many city builder game before like Simcity 5 , Cities XL, Tropico 4, and many more but this one is special If I compare it with those games .
  11. 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
  12. 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
  13. 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
  14. 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
  15. 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
  16. 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.
  17. 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.
  18. 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
  19. 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
  20. Vihazur
    Mar 3, 2014
    9
    For being done by just one guy, this game is incredible, but there is more to it's success than just that. Compared to other city builders, the difficulty of the game really sets it apart. A lot of the fun comes from the strategy required in just trying to survive. It's a lot of resource management, careful pacing, and layout planning for efficiency - otherwise, you can get a niceFor being done by just one guy, this game is incredible, but there is more to it's success than just that. Compared to other city builders, the difficulty of the game really sets it apart. A lot of the fun comes from the strategy required in just trying to survive. It's a lot of resource management, careful pacing, and layout planning for efficiency - otherwise, you can get a nice bustling population going, only to see the whole thing abruptly collapse.

    This has become yet another genre that hasn't been getting much competition, though. Compare it to what, Sim City? Well, all other considerations aside, it still blows that game out of the water, but that's not saying much.

    It does lack scope, though. It would be nice if it had another dimension or two, such as technological advancement, or competing neighbors. Or even customizable aesthetics. The game does get tiresome, once I got the hang of it, even on the hardest settings.

    Still, I enjoyed the hell out of enough hours to more than justify the $20 cost. So, I do highly recommend it to fans of this sort of game. For what it does, it does it exceptionally well.    … Expand
  21. urchincorps
    Feb 26, 2014
    8
    Tons of time can be dumped into this game. I personally don't think I'll 100% it in terms of achievements but it is one of the best indie games I've ever played. Fun city builder. The people complaining about the AI clearly aren't aware of the "Increase Priority" tool. I didn't even need play the tutorial and I know this so they have no excuse. It's not the grandest scope in terms of aTons of time can be dumped into this game. I personally don't think I'll 100% it in terms of achievements but it is one of the best indie games I've ever played. Fun city builder. The people complaining about the AI clearly aren't aware of the "Increase Priority" tool. I didn't even need play the tutorial and I know this so they have no excuse. It's not the grandest scope in terms of a city builder/strategy game, but I bet it has more depth than that recent Stronghold release (which I skipped after watching some YouTube videos and reading the reviews here). Very happy with the $20 I spent.… Expand
  22. 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
  23. 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.
  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. 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
  26. JohnWitten
    Mar 9, 2014
    8
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. [Condensed]

    There are no wars or deadly encounters with other civilizations here. There is only the ongoing battle against nature and her cruel, cold embrace. Surviving famines, winters, and plague outbreaks are the steps you will have to take in waging your personal war of survival. The most crushing and interesting aspect of the war is that you could be winning it all the way until the moment you're suddenly left crippled and defenseless, as your last settler succumbs to old age, disease, or some other unparalleled consequence in the world. The graphics aren't too poorly rendered, the story is relatively slim in content, and the sound effects are mundane at best, but the experience is certainly worthwhile and intuitive for those who enjoy the sort of planning required in staking your claim and defending it in a simulated landscape.

    Concept: Build your settlement from the ground up, survive the harsh winters and outbreaks of disease that will inevitably attack it, and attempt to make your way in a simple, deadly world.

    Graphics: Simple and basic overall, but not terrible in their concept and design. Could use improvements of course, but run smoothly enough with their lower levels of required power.

    Sound: All the basic sound effects you would hear in an olden town can be found here, with nothing really out of the ordinary to distinguish them from other games' sounds, aside from knowing what actions are being performed.

    Playability: Quite an accessible title as command giving goes, and the controls are pretty easy to grasp once you get the hand of them. The game is addicting and the goal is simple, making for a worthwhile experience as well.

    Entertainment: An entertaining simulation and planning/building game that is definitely worth checking out if you enjoy interesting computer games and factoring in your overall survivability in a dangerous, unforgiving world.

    Replay Value: Moderately High.

    Overall Score: 8.5    … Expand
  27. kirkwall
    Jul 13, 2014
    10
    A great game that is tragically fatally flawed.

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

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

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

    Sadly, Banished offers outstanding potential but clearly is not worth investing ones time into a game that undermines many hours of game play with the unrelenting disappearing of hard earned and well planned resources.    … Expand
  28. 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
  29. 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
  30. 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.
  31. 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
  32. 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.
  33. armoredchimp
    Feb 28, 2014
    9
    Shame that one critic give the game a 20 and lowers the overall score by a lot. Thix is an excellent little game, and I could not disagree more with that one critic's review. They say the lack of specific objectives kills the game but for me it is the complete opposite. This is an amazing sandbox game that has two parts. First you have to get a stable town going and just survive withoutShame that one critic give the game a 20 and lowers the overall score by a lot. Thix is an excellent little game, and I could not disagree more with that one critic's review. They say the lack of specific objectives kills the game but for me it is the complete opposite. This is an amazing sandbox game that has two parts. First you have to get a stable town going and just survive without starving or freezing to death, which is not easy at first, I had to make many new towns because everyone kept dying. Once you are more stabilized you can focus on actually turning your little village into an actual town with markets, churches, etc. I do however wish there were more advanced buildings you could eventually make, which is why I can't give this game a perfect score. If they release more content this will be possibly the best city builder ever made.… Expand
  34. 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
  35. 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
  36. 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.
  37. messeael
    Feb 26, 2014
    10
    Great game. The most addictive game i have ever played. Forget the official critics...just play it and decide yourself...geniales Spiel...das Spiel mit dem hoechsten Suchtfaktor in meiner bisherigen Spielerlaufbahn..vergesst die offiziellen Kritiken...selber spielen und selbst entscheiden...
  38. MagicalMelvin
    Feb 27, 2014
    9
    I’ve been waiting for a great city-building game since Caesar III, of course there are the Anno games (though they specialise on trade management and conquest rather than city-building), SimCity (the older games being amongst the greatest city-simulators of all time, just don’t make the mistake of buying the most recent one) and the Civ games (conquest-based), and Settlers (which no-oneI’ve been waiting for a great city-building game since Caesar III, of course there are the Anno games (though they specialise on trade management and conquest rather than city-building), SimCity (the older games being amongst the greatest city-simulators of all time, just don’t make the mistake of buying the most recent one) and the Civ games (conquest-based), and Settlers (which no-one played due to DRM and a high level of difficulty), and Banished is everything I’ve wanted in a city-builder. There’s no guff, and more than enough complexity to keep me coming back for more. Where modern builders are moving away from intricacies into generalities; where modern gaming is being altered by ‘casualisation’ (i.e. ‘Farmville’), promoting style over content and graphics over gameplay, Banished goes the other way: Promoting careful, methodical approaches with thought-inducing game play. A fantastic game, developed by one person (yes, just one person). Go and buy it. I know we’re only in February, but GoTY, I’m telling you.

    Full review at n3rdabl3.co.uk/2014/02/banished-review/    … Expand
  39. RJE
    Feb 27, 2014
    10
    This game is exactly what I was hoping it would be. It's relaxing to play, but at the same time, the struggle to succeed is a real challenge. Granted, you may experience most of what this game has to offer in a fairly short period of time, but the real beauty is slowing the game down to 1x speed and just watching. Then, when you have expanded your village to populate the entirety of theThis game is exactly what I was hoping it would be. It's relaxing to play, but at the same time, the struggle to succeed is a real challenge. Granted, you may experience most of what this game has to offer in a fairly short period of time, but the real beauty is slowing the game down to 1x speed and just watching. Then, when you have expanded your village to populate the entirety of the truly massive maps, you can always start again with a brand new map to explore. I am so amazed that it is the product of one man's efforts. It may not be perfect, but it is a real treasure in my game library. I'm giving it a perfect score, not because it's a perfect game, but because it's perfect for me.… Expand
  40. 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.
  41. juanval
    Feb 28, 2014
    9
    I'm not a fan of RTS and city games, but playing banished is very fun. I like most the visuals, and the way the town is growing. I like too the variety of buildings, the management of resources and the weather. Is easy to learn to play. I haven't experienced bugs or serious issues. Great game and is incredible is done by only one developer.
  42. sdaws22
    Feb 28, 2014
    10
    Really great, easy to use strategy game, quite challenging esp on Hard. Quite addictive because there is no "end point" but I guess that's point the fight for survival never ends. The late game becomes quite difficult trying to balance growth and supplies of resources.
  43. RaiKoi
    Mar 1, 2014
    10
    I'v been playing this game nonstop for two weeks now, which is pretty amazing considering the minimal amount of content. It feels so 'sandboxy' and I love to find out how things work on my own and not by a gazillion pop-ups explaining everything. This game expects you to get your hands dirty and try harder every new try. Because of that addictiveness this solo dev outmatches multi-millionI'v been playing this game nonstop for two weeks now, which is pretty amazing considering the minimal amount of content. It feels so 'sandboxy' and I love to find out how things work on my own and not by a gazillion pop-ups explaining everything. This game expects you to get your hands dirty and try harder every new try. Because of that addictiveness this solo dev outmatches multi-million dollar teams. Chapeau!… Expand
  44. Undogmatic
    Mar 2, 2014
    9
    This is a town-building survival game. You have to make sure your civilians get food, clothes and shelter. At times everything looks stable and easy, wonderful isn't it? Not so fast. Once you start facing problems like running out of food, tools or clothes (mostly after a baby boom), that's when the whole town can start crumbling like a deck of cards, faster than you might expect. PrudenceThis is a town-building survival game. You have to make sure your civilians get food, clothes and shelter. At times everything looks stable and easy, wonderful isn't it? Not so fast. Once you start facing problems like running out of food, tools or clothes (mostly after a baby boom), that's when the whole town can start crumbling like a deck of cards, faster than you might expect. Prudence is your friend here, dear reader, and this game will be pretty mean and unforgiving if you're negligent.

    You might be thinking: "All I have to do is avoid the baby booms, easy peasy". So what do you do? You logically stop building more houses because that means less room for families to expand (and have babies), and then it's all good, right? Wrong. If you wait too long you'll have to face the problem of regress, with a population that's too old to make babies. With very few births your population will die off faster than it reproduces and that's obviously a problem. While babies and students mature you gotta have enough workers left to produce food and clothes for everybody. That being said: It's hard to maintain a stable population. It's challenging, and that's great if you love challenges. If you don't -- if you want a walk in the park until a screen pops up saying "VICTORY!" -- this game is not for you. Also: There is no victory (that I know of), there's no apotheotic triumph. Only despair and misery awaits you. The question is: how long will you last? How far can you expand your town before everybody is wiped out by your incompetence or lack of resources (usually both)? The game is still delicious even though the future of your town won't look pretty in the long run.

    Trade:
    There is no money, it's all about trading resources of a kind (raw materials and produced goods) in exchange for resources of another kind... For instance: trading a bunch of firewood for some chickens.

    Producing food:
    You can buy seeds and plant your crops and orchards too, it's actually nice when it comes to agriculture, there's a lot of variety to choose from (once you're powerful enough to afford all the seeds).
    If you don't want to produce food through artificial means (agriculture and pastures) you can always treat your town as a hunter-gatherer society, but that's likely to be troublesome once the population growth hits a variable threshold (it depends on how much food you can collect at any given time). Remember that, historically speaking, human societies have thrived thanks to agriculture and other technological advancements (read "Guns, Germs and Steel" by Jared Diamond for more info, if you enjoy anthropology), so you might wanna invest in agriculture if you wanna survive later on.    … Expand
  45. Ninja-Puffs
    Mar 4, 2014
    10
    One of my most favourite games I ever played. I am very impressed with all of the nice graphics and detail of the game. This game reminds me a lot from Sims city and a bit from minecraft. I truly recommend everyone to play this. It is definitely well worth your money.
  46. thewizardmac
    Mar 5, 2014
    10
    I signed up just to write that this game is amazing! The developer did an excellent job all by himself ! You feel like you really are part of the village. Awesome 10/10
  47. Allthat
    Jul 2, 2016
    9
    This is the best city-builder that I have ever played. Period. It's very simple and easily accessible but boy is it addicting. I have wasted many hours playing this game, hours I should have spent revising for finals, that's how good this game is. I want more games like this, simple yet deep enough to engage the player for long periods of time. And a bonus is that this game runs fairlyThis is the best city-builder that I have ever played. Period. It's very simple and easily accessible but boy is it addicting. I have wasted many hours playing this game, hours I should have spent revising for finals, that's how good this game is. I want more games like this, simple yet deep enough to engage the player for long periods of time. And a bonus is that this game runs fairly well on low-spec PC's, so nobody has an excuse not to play this game.… Expand
  48. BrokenMan
    May 13, 2014
    9
    Шикарный симулятор средневекового выживания. Эта игра никогда не будет скучной. Здесь есть много способов развиваться и кормить население. Распоряжайтесь своими рабочими силами, чтобы рук хватало на всё. Можно вырастить пшеницу самому, или купить её посредством бартера. Развивайте свой город, в котором может поселиться больше трёхсот человек. Занимательные и трудные достижения также тутШикарный симулятор средневекового выживания. Эта игра никогда не будет скучной. Здесь есть много способов развиваться и кормить население. Распоряжайтесь своими рабочими силами, чтобы рук хватало на всё. Можно вырастить пшеницу самому, или купить её посредством бартера. Развивайте свой город, в котором может поселиться больше трёхсот человек. Занимательные и трудные достижения также тут присутствуют. Но обновлений уже давно не было видно...… Expand
  49. zamach
    May 27, 2014
    9
    Very good city builder / economic simulation. It fills in the gap somewhere between games like Sim City, the Settlers series, Stronghold Series and Tropico. From the first one it takes the aspect of creating a self sustainable city that has all things its inhabitants would ever need, from the second one it takes the idea of having tens of different resources that have to be distributedVery good city builder / economic simulation. It fills in the gap somewhere between games like Sim City, the Settlers series, Stronghold Series and Tropico. From the first one it takes the aspect of creating a self sustainable city that has all things its inhabitants would ever need, from the second one it takes the idea of having tens of different resources that have to be distributed between various buildings to keep "the economical machine" running, from Stronghold we have the general aspect of having to feed Your people, but expanded by clothing and firewood, and last but not least - we build a small town based on a grid of roads, but not restricted to these roads with a trader coming every once in a while pretty much like in Tropico series. All these elements mix up to create a very nice game that is somewhere in between all of the above.

    It feels great to survive the first winter, feels great to sustain a large community, and feels great to turn a tiny village in the middle of nowhere int a big town that attracts multiple traders. Just try it!    … Expand
  50. tilde
    May 30, 2014
    9
    This game is really great. It's so in-depth that you can design a fully customized city and world! I really recommend it, purely out of the great fun it provides.
  51. Huortaralom
    Jun 9, 2014
    9
    Truly It is an amazing game with simple content. I mean simple because its very basic game where you settle life with bunch of people. There are keys to grow where wood to warm, foods to eat in winter ( like ants) and homes for new families to grow population. But after some time you learn the basics and game starting to be boring.It's really a great starting game but waiting for bunch ofTruly It is an amazing game with simple content. I mean simple because its very basic game where you settle life with bunch of people. There are keys to grow where wood to warm, foods to eat in winter ( like ants) and homes for new families to grow population. But after some time you learn the basics and game starting to be boring.It's really a great starting game but waiting for bunch of upgrades. I hope next game will be longer and more complicated.… Expand
  52. Ecresis
    Jun 24, 2014
    9
    As a SimCity fan, I had to try Banished, which looked amazing from the trailers. And I was not disappointed. It is even more addictive than SimCity (4 or 5 whatever), and the graphics are stunning.

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

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

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

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

    Conclusion : This is where I like to put my money, directly to a man who created a better game than EA this year    … Expand
  53. tarnar
    Jun 30, 2014
    9
    This is a very strong game with only a few flaws.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    On that note I disagree with the reviews that say there is no end-game. The end-game is managing a highly populated city, dealing with workforce replacement, dealing with food distribution, with disease outbreaks, with disasters. To reach the relatively easy mid-game phase and decide that you've won is short-sighted. Surviving a disaster with a fully developed city is the end-game and it's much, much harder than simply building a city.    … Expand
  54. 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
  55. 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
  56. 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
  57. Ampere
    Aug 5, 2014
    10
    Beautiful game with a lot of new Ideas. It's hard at the beginning but that is it why I love it. The game mechanism in without any bugs. It works! It's often hard to survive but with every further game you will be better. The soundtracks are very nice and it's made with love. I played about 40 hours. Often i gt the feeling that is not possible tomak e a population over 500 but it requiresBeautiful game with a lot of new Ideas. It's hard at the beginning but that is it why I love it. The game mechanism in without any bugs. It works! It's often hard to survive but with every further game you will be better. The soundtracks are very nice and it's made with love. I played about 40 hours. Often i gt the feeling that is not possible tomak e a population over 500 but it requires just a little training.… Expand
  58. GeorgeHillier
    Sep 17, 2014
    10
    I bought this game on release and decided to make an account just to review it in here.

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

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

    This game is honestly the best city builder I've ever played and only costs a third of Sims city, which is awful.    … Expand
  59. 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
  60. 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.
  61. doctor_awesome
    Jan 1, 2017
    10
    Banished is an city builder and god game where you control a group of banished people who must build their own town in the wilderness. The game achieves an incredible mood, taking you to this agrarian society where people struggle to make use of the scarce resources of the land in order to survive. Unlike most city builders, there is an emphasis on resource management - you must produceBanished is an city builder and god game where you control a group of banished people who must build their own town in the wilderness. The game achieves an incredible mood, taking you to this agrarian society where people struggle to make use of the scarce resources of the land in order to survive. Unlike most city builders, there is an emphasis on resource management - you must produce food, fuel and minerals in order to keep your citizens alive and to keep your city growing.

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

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

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

    It's still a fantastic game that I come back to quite a bit. Perhaps it even makes my list of the best 10 games I've ever played. It really is like nothing else.    … Expand
  62. 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.
  63. 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.
  64. Yazah
    Mar 21, 2014
    9
    This is not your $60 AAA title. However, it is a fantastic $20 (or less) indy game that provides hours of enjoyment. Even though all options are open to you at the beginning, the game is challenging and enjoyable as you build your town, care for your people, and avoid (or not) disaster. The bleak desperation in the game makes it equal parts realistic and enjoyable.

    This is a great city    This is not your $60 AAA title. However, it is a fantastic $20 (or less) indy game that provides hours of enjoyment. Even though all options are open to you at the beginning, the game is challenging and enjoyable as you build your town, care for your people, and avoid (or not) disaster. The bleak desperation in the game makes it equal parts realistic and enjoyable.

    This is a great city builder type of game that is fun, interesting and challenging. It isn't quite as replayable as I'd like (though I have 40+ hours in it), but I'd definitely recommend.    … Expand
  65. twisterforever
    Sep 1, 2023
    10
    One of the most wonderful city builder out there :-D
    I love it from the beginning!!
  66. 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.
  67. 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
  68. Mark16642
    May 28, 2014
    9
    Had this game for a few days now and i have poured hours into it. I must say at first i was a little taken back with the effects that dont seem to be up there with what a modern pc could take, but non the less i am having fun and the gameplay is great. It seems really addictive to watch your town very slowly grow. I aways seem to get to a point where i think "ok stop, lets start again andHad this game for a few days now and i have poured hours into it. I must say at first i was a little taken back with the effects that dont seem to be up there with what a modern pc could take, but non the less i am having fun and the gameplay is great. It seems really addictive to watch your town very slowly grow. I aways seem to get to a point where i think "ok stop, lets start again and THIS time it will be great". I know when i get into a game that makes me feel like that its always a winner for me. It can become a little tedious after a while but if its going your way it can be very addictive.… Expand
  69. 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
  70. 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.
  71. adamgbg
    Dec 13, 2020
    10
    One of the best city building games I have ever played. Hard to learn at first but when you do times fly.
  72. 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 )
  73. 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.
  74. 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
  75. 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.
  76. 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
  77. 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.
  78. 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
  79. 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.
  80. 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
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Awards & Rankings

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

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
73

Mixed or average reviews - based on 32 Critic Reviews

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