User Score
8.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 833 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Negative: 61 out of 833

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  1. Jan 17, 2014
    6
    After I played this game through, I have mixed feelings.
    - The story is good, your choices do have some impact (not heavy tho) , but most of it is told through walls of text, with some animation here and there.
    - Tactical combat is great at the beginning, every unit has one special move which impact the battle, but as he game goes on there are clear choices which characters to take and
    After I played this game through, I have mixed feelings.
    - The story is good, your choices do have some impact (not heavy tho) , but most of it is told through walls of text, with some animation here and there.
    - Tactical combat is great at the beginning, every unit has one special move which impact the battle, but as he game goes on there are clear choices which characters to take and which not, so towards the end you will take same ones over and over again. Also it gets repetitive towards the end.
    - There are not many bugs, but the ones I had are annoying. For example, I lost all my men due to hunger at one point but the game still goes on, random events about problems of the people in caravan still emerging (even if there are none left). I also think that you can play whole game on easy, and then switch to hard on last battle, and you'll get achievement for finishing it on hard (steam).
    - I played this game on normal. For me, the game quickly turned to hunger game (you're marching without stop 'cause you don't have enough food, and every renown you get, you use on buying more food). Battles tend to be easy with little practice, but if you played whole game on normal last battle is almost impossible. Hence, I got achievement for finishing it on easy, even if I played only last battle that way
    - The game map is useless, except if you're into reading more walls of text to figure out the whole "setting" of this game (I think that is "RPG" element)
    - It is clear that this is meant to be just first part of series, 'cause game ends pretty much in the middle of things. Its like you sit and watch just first part of the lord of the rings.

    All in all, since this is advertised as indie game and it's from kickstarter, it is very good. Bearing that in mind, price of 23 euros is just too high, that's why my score is that low. Add +2 to score if you don't care about money and waiting for (possible) next chapter in this saga. 10-15 euro price tag would be more appropriate for this game.
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  2. Jan 16, 2014
    9
    I originally wrote a 6-star review. The game was slow to start with. But digging into the text-adventure and choice-making part, I really got enthralled. Similar to stories as Game of Thrones, the game doesn't compel with action nor fireworks. It's in the on-going story, the characters, the hardships they face, and in choices to play around with, shaping your path. Once I finish the game,I originally wrote a 6-star review. The game was slow to start with. But digging into the text-adventure and choice-making part, I really got enthralled. Similar to stories as Game of Thrones, the game doesn't compel with action nor fireworks. It's in the on-going story, the characters, the hardships they face, and in choices to play around with, shaping your path. Once I finish the game, I might give it 10 stars. The game's like a better viking version of FTL.

    Here's my original review, if only to show how one can expect a change of mind about the game:

    "Well, though I was one to back the game through kickstarter, enjoyed the multiplayer component back when it was released and was overall enthusiastic about the game, now there's just a feeling of somewhat disappointment.

    The dialogue drags on and isn't written as cleverly or masterfully as one would expect, and it's the only thing you'll see for a few hours even. Aside the tutorial battles which are meaningless. Voice-acting is void and cringe-worthy, the expressions don't have variety and are sometimes pretty much derpy-looking, even though the art *is* pretty good.

    The art and the turn-based deep gameplay are probably the highlights, followed by the story. Yet facades of choice options and tediously on-dragging meddling in names and indifference-inducing history don't really meet expectations. If you're ok with Mass Effect or Dragon Age 2 style dialogue, yet even more simplistic in that mostly the NPC answers the same way, only without animations nor anything going on otherwise, then you could be fine with it.

    There's this caravan-thing in the game, which seemed intriguing at first, yet my first dragging-on experiments of only resting and starving out my camp proved otherwise. With my whole crew dead and us stayed on a spot for over a year in time, the next cut-scene I got was that of an old man being astounded of how many men I had with me. Talk about immersion-breaking. Aside this, the morale was highest still, even though everyone's supposed to be dead. To be short about it - the mechanic seems contrived and doesn't have the possibility of defeat. Even if it'd be possible to play countless of hours in the game without getting food, the game doesn't do anything of significance once you're all dead. It just keeps playing.

    For me personally, and as far as I've played, I'm bored. Maybe on the 7th hour the game will catch up. Yet I don't want to waste even more time on made-up yet messy and boring history with out-of-place hints to myths in pages of text to pan through, doing similar tutorials over and over for more than an hour. Loading screen after loading screen, the game's just waiting to unload void text on me.

    Will give the game more shots though. I hope it'll catch up and release some content and patches to make the world feel more aliveish. Would love it if they'd hire a writer who has style to his writing.

    Overall, I'd say the game seems as good as was Shadowrun Returns, the original campaign. A 6/10 personally, and given it's an indie, a 7."
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  3. Jan 14, 2014
    10
    The Banner Saga is such an incredible tactic game. It´s by far the best game i have backed on Kickstarter. It a must have if you like tactic combat game. And it´s a real choose - consequence game (not like TWD)
  4. Jan 16, 2014
    2
    Well, now we finally have the Banner Saga RPG, and I have to ask: What were they doing in the year between this release and the free combat multiplayer? Because it doesn't look like they were doing much at all, honestly, the game looks like it was abandoned at about the 70% completed mark, so sparse is the gameplay, dialogue, plotting and yes, even the vaunted artwork.

    I've heard how
    Well, now we finally have the Banner Saga RPG, and I have to ask: What were they doing in the year between this release and the free combat multiplayer? Because it doesn't look like they were doing much at all, honestly, the game looks like it was abandoned at about the 70% completed mark, so sparse is the gameplay, dialogue, plotting and yes, even the vaunted artwork.

    I've heard how there are "10 hours" of play time in this $20 title, as if that's even defensible in an RPG, but I have to say that that isn't the case, the playtime is extended artificially by a series of unskippable cutscenes, travel scenes and battle scenes that add nothing to the game except to drastically slow the pacing in order to pad out what little was delivered at release.

    Serious issues:

    -Poor story, minimal player choice, remarkable little "dialogue" given that text is the cheapest content a game designer can offer, and this designer offers little except for text. I figure there's under 10 pages of normally-spaced text in this game, and I doubt you'll see more than 6-7 pages of it in a given playthrough.

    -Beautiful artwork that quickly becomes copypasta after the first couple chapters. The game is "oregon trail" style, just a long slog down a dangerous road, and once you pass the 3rd or fourth copypasta'd landmark (godstones) or village you realize that the art talent was as poorly directed as the rest of the game.

    -There's an entire interactive map screen that promises a sandbox-style play at some point (or at least a few hubs to choose from), but DOES ABSOLUTELY NOTHING throughout the entire game, you are on rails down a text-driven road with the same 3-4 choices every few days. This is the most glaring example of an unfinished game element that I've ever seen in a full release. It's like having a character tab for "inventory" and then clicking on that tab doing nothing, because the function was never implemented.

    -The tactical level of the game on "Normal" is definitely challenging, however once you learn how to manage the three types of opponents (dredge, human, varl) in the first couple chapters, you will never really think that hard about combat again, because ultimately it is quite shallow, and 80% of your opponents will be Dredge anyway, with the occasional boss fight,

    -The script, such as it is, is dark and despressing, with every choice essentially a bad one. But the whole trudging from one place to the next, "chased" by enemy isnt really that dramatic, like Battlestar Galactica, but much more like Oregon Trail: A slow, tedious slog with your people starving and complaining the whole way, only at least in oregon trail you had some actual resource management role to play, in Banner Saga, you can't hunt for food and most of your opportunities to get more will come from dialogue choices that give no hint of the results, so you have to memorize ideal decision trees and then reload the game to accomplish your tasks. Horrible design.

    2/10, 1 for art and 1 for initial tactical combat difficulty. Many minuses for giving up on what could have been a solid adventure with some gritty decisions but just wound up being a muddled mess.
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  5. Dec 20, 2015
    8
    For much of this game I wanted to give it a 9. I was hooked in a way that it rare for me. I was in awe of what this game forced me to do but towards the end I took a step back and realized many of it's flaws.

    What is this game?: Imagine Oregon Trail and tactical rpg battles with a backdrop of norse inspired mythology that transpires like a text based adventure. You are the leader of a
    For much of this game I wanted to give it a 9. I was hooked in a way that it rare for me. I was in awe of what this game forced me to do but towards the end I took a step back and realized many of it's flaws.

    What is this game?: Imagine Oregon Trail and tactical rpg battles with a backdrop of norse inspired mythology that transpires like a text based adventure. You are the leader of a caravan of men and varl (giants with horns) and you are on the run. You need to manage supplies, leveling up your characters, and like a telltale game you make decisions that can large effects on your caravan and the characters. The decisions are not black and white. Stopping to drink can boost morale but eat up supplies. Helping a stranger can backfire or he/she can become a valuable part of your group.

    Pros:
    -You feel the weight of your decisions. Characters you don't expect to be able to die can die. I found myself wondering about the choices I made and how they led to the death of one of my favorite characters.
    -And the game does a good job at discouraging you from simply reloading after anything negative happens. There are no manual saves only auto-saves and if you want to reload the game forces you to replay the battle before your decision.

    So/sos:
    -The combat system has revolves around strength and armor. Strength is not only attack damage but also health. Armor is what you imagine armor to be and you can either do strength damage or armor damage. The unique tactical aspects come from deciding whether to whittle down armor so the the enemy can go down easier or attack for strength damage so his attacks hurt you less. At least in theory this true. Practically it is almost always preferable to do armor breaking damage and then strength damage.
    -Every character has a special ability however only a handful are actually useful.
    -Renown (your currency) is accrued through battle and good decisions. You can use it to either buy food for the caravan or level up a character. However if that character that you leveled up dies you don't get a reimbursement of renown. This could be viewed negatively or simply as keeping up with games feel of attrition.

    Cons:
    -No negative effects to letting your caravan starve.
    -Bland writing that feels anachronistic even though it's not an historical time.
    -Ending falls emotionally flat. Catharsis please!

    Overall:
    -I am psyched for the next installment in the trilogy. I have faith that this may be the mass effect 1 to the next games mass effect 2. Elements are here for a great success and I am excited to see if they improve.
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  6. Mar 9, 2014
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I wanted to like this game. I should have liked this game. But it wasn't much fun.

    I like indies. I like vikings. I like turn-based tactical games. I like deep worlds. I like the art style. All the pieces were right, but they didn't come together into an enjoyable game experience.

    The story violated most of the basic rules of narrative structure. It jumped back and forth between two groups of characters without any sense of how they were connected. I didn't know which characters I was supposed to identify with or care about. Nobody had a character arc. Nobody was on a hero's journey. One character unavoidably lost an arm, while another died at the end. I didn't care. There's a villain to fight at the end, but we never saw much of him or learned much about him. The plot is full of loose threads and unexplained ****

    The devs spent a lot of time on the world map, which was full of elaborate history and descriptions. But the map was slow to load, and it had no impact whatsoever on the gameplay. The game runs on rails. The few times you get an illusion of choice on where to go, the map isn't available to help you decide.

    The Oregon-Trail aspect of the game is a trap for the unwary. You must choose between spending limited points on better stats for your fighters and food for your mass of followers. Metacritic reviewers report that feeding your followers has no impact on the game's outcome. You can apparently let your followers starve and finish the game just fine.

    This game's main strength is the turn-based tactics system, which is distinctive but not very deep. The combat is not tied to any underlying reality. It's not simulating anything. For example, you can attack someone's health, which reduces their ability to do damage and brings them closer to death. Or you can attack their armor, which means that subsequent attacks can do more damage to their health. I couldn't imagine how a warrior could swing a sword one way to break armor, then a different way to damage health. I got no immersion from the combat system. It was just a logic puzzle to be solved. And the final battle is stupidly difficult on normal. I didn't bother finishing it.

    The art is truly beautiful. Kudos to the artist. I didn't mind the many walking scenes that were designed to emphasize the smallness of the characters against the vastness of the wilderness. When the world began to literally fall apart, I felt the loss of beauty. If you don't slow down to enjoy the art, you're missing the best part of the game.
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  7. Sep 3, 2014
    8
    Nice kind of a successor to old text adventure games. Really a great indie game, with awesome art and nice storytelling. You need a few hours to get used to the concept, that every decision u make will impact your main story and u cant go back. Combat is a bit lame but doable with its quirks and glitches. If u want to play a nice story driven adventure/rpg indie game, this one is for you.
  8. Jan 16, 2014
    7
    This review is in what state the current game is right now. The Banner Saga is beautiful tactical rpg with great elements from Oregon Trail and a refreshing mature story that knows mature isn't in the amount of sex or gore, but the content of the story. The characters are most of the time very engrossing and wonderfully flawed. And most importantly this game offers a wide arrange of veryThis review is in what state the current game is right now. The Banner Saga is beautiful tactical rpg with great elements from Oregon Trail and a refreshing mature story that knows mature isn't in the amount of sex or gore, but the content of the story. The characters are most of the time very engrossing and wonderfully flawed. And most importantly this game offers a wide arrange of very hard choices with very dire consequences.

    However this game is held back by the story being a very clear part 1 of a trilogy, but Stoic Studios has repeatedly said that part 2 is not even sure to be made, as it is heavily dependent on the upcoming sales. Secondly this game has great replayability potential, but as of yet you are only allowed to have one playthrough saved at the time. So if you wish to keep your first playthrough for the possible sequel, then you won't be able to replay the game. This design choice is absolutely insane.

    However when all has been said; The Banner Saga is easily worth the 20€ or your regional equivalent and offers an engrossing and rare experience. When and if the sequel is announced and the save file issue has been solved, this game may be on the top 10 of games I have played, and I dearly hope Stoic gets the success they deserve.
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  9. Jan 24, 2014
    7
    It's like a modern day Oregon Trail with a fantasy-themed backdrop and a Tactics-based battle system, though it lacked the depth of either. The art and scenes are nice, though the animation and voice work was minimal. The strongest point of the game is the decisions you are presented with, throughout the game, that can affect the story and characters you have, which was really well-done -It's like a modern day Oregon Trail with a fantasy-themed backdrop and a Tactics-based battle system, though it lacked the depth of either. The art and scenes are nice, though the animation and voice work was minimal. The strongest point of the game is the decisions you are presented with, throughout the game, that can affect the story and characters you have, which was really well-done - there are some great moral dilemmas and little story arcs to be had, though I unfortunately found the main story line somewhat underwhelming, if not flat at times, considering this felt like it should've been a strong point of the game.

    If I were rating relatively, this indie game is a point or two higher; but I feel the game very nearly misses on all marks riddled with some minor flaws here and there such as the inability to manually save, paired with the fact that the game doesn't tell you when it saves. I felt like it could've been great, but it settled for good. What really saves it is how different it is from your standard "RPG" titles you see now days. The deviation from the normal formula is a definitive breath of fresh air.
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  10. Jan 22, 2014
    10
    After getting completely ripped off recently by Creative Assembly's Total War Rome 2, I was in a pretty terrible mood about PC gaming in general. Then I found this GEM. Amazing story line, great characters, lots of replayability and so immersive! For $25.00 it is a steal, I'm on my second play through and having just as much fun if not more. So refreshing to see a game company thatAfter getting completely ripped off recently by Creative Assembly's Total War Rome 2, I was in a pretty terrible mood about PC gaming in general. Then I found this GEM. Amazing story line, great characters, lots of replayability and so immersive! For $25.00 it is a steal, I'm on my second play through and having just as much fun if not more. So refreshing to see a game company that actually took the time to really make a quality product. I have encountered 1 or 2 bugs but with the frequent auto saves I've only lost a total of maybe 5-10 minutes of playtime. After the epic disaster that Rome 2 was I consider that more than tolerable. BUY THIS GAME. Expand
  11. Jan 21, 2014
    7
    Overall Banner Saga is a good solid game that brings a fresh type of gameplay to an otherwise stale market. Like most players I am a bit more gentle in my expectations for a kickstarter/indie game and I carry that bias here. If this were a big studio game I'd likely give it a 5 or 6 rating.

    The Good: The way the game uses side scrolling and communicate travel is fun and feels new.
    Overall Banner Saga is a good solid game that brings a fresh type of gameplay to an otherwise stale market. Like most players I am a bit more gentle in my expectations for a kickstarter/indie game and I carry that bias here. If this were a big studio game I'd likely give it a 5 or 6 rating.

    The Good: The way the game uses side scrolling and communicate travel is fun and feels new. The map is a great way to communicate the game lore and it has that old school rpg feeling. The combat is fun and fairly simple and easy to understand. I like many of the characters and the world and story are grittier than the Disney-esque graphics would imply.

    The Bad: The story is a bit hard to follow and some of the dialog is confusing. The combat can quickly become repetitive. The stakes of some dialog choices aren't very apparent and more of the outcomes seem canned or forgone than the disclaimer about meaningful choices at the beginning would imply.

    Overall I think this is a solid buy and a fun game, you will enjoy it even more if you can keep in mind the indie nature of it.
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  12. Jan 17, 2014
    6
    An excellent start to the game. Great setting characters and gameplay. Unfortunately about 2/3 of the way through the weaknesses show.

    1) The game needs more varied music and voice acting, during dialogue all is silent and it feels boring 2) Watching the caravan all the time? After 5 hours this feel necessary.. 3) The caravan supply/renown currency system is broken. It needs to be
    An excellent start to the game. Great setting characters and gameplay. Unfortunately about 2/3 of the way through the weaknesses show.

    1) The game needs more varied music and voice acting, during dialogue all is silent and it feels boring
    2) Watching the caravan all the time? After 5 hours this feel necessary..
    3) The caravan supply/renown currency system is broken. It needs to be rethought or patched. As it currently stands by the last 1/3 of the game you lose all immersion because you have 0 opportunity to buy new supplies and all your supplies get taken in random events, so you watch your people drop like flies. This unfortunately makes the nice visuals when crossing the plains just feel like you're watching a slide show before the next battle.

    4) Due to the above the difficulty curve gets vast by the end game - maybe I was playing it wrong but the game should throw much more supplies t you towards the end...
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  13. Jan 16, 2014
    10
    Long story short: Amazing story (it truly is amazing), fantastic script and characters
    Beautiful art design
    Immersive and impressive soundtrack Challenging and exciting tactical turn-based combat Real choices and real consequences (not some Mass Effect-like crap) Yes...you can't roam freely in the icy wastes and "roll" through mountains but this game had only about 720k dollars
    Long story short: Amazing story (it truly is amazing), fantastic script and characters
    Beautiful art design
    Immersive and impressive soundtrack
    Challenging and exciting tactical turn-based combat
    Real choices and real consequences (not some Mass Effect-like crap)

    Yes...you can't roam freely in the icy wastes and "roll" through mountains but this game had only about 720k dollars budget... Of course I hope there will be a lot of plus features (character customization, more freedom, longer story, more spells) in the sequel.
    I give this game a 10 because it hit me right in tha face with it's "overpowered" story characters, and the good combat system.
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  14. Jan 26, 2014
    7
    It's a pretty good game, but pick it up on sale. $25 is a bit much.

    The good: - Tactically it's a challenge to get through battles without taking casualties. - Caravan's need food and food gets scarce real fast - Decisions have a variety of consequences and vary in importance: sometimes you can make the wrong choice and people just shrug it off, or the right choice and get only a
    It's a pretty good game, but pick it up on sale. $25 is a bit much.

    The good:
    - Tactically it's a challenge to get through battles without taking casualties.
    - Caravan's need food and food gets scarce real fast
    - Decisions have a variety of consequences and vary in importance: sometimes you can make the wrong choice and people just shrug it off, or the right choice and get only a small boost to morale. Other times it could be the difference between life and death for a well developed character. I like it because I appreciate a bit of triviality in world building.

    The bad:
    - Supply management is largely meaningless. There's no reason not to let a few folks starve if it means leveling up or getting a new item. Hell, by the end people are marching along the Trail of Tears anyway.
    - Alternating turns in combat. It's not too bad, and it certainly can be viewed as just another strategic element, but the more I think about it the less I like it.
    - Game length is short. Like... really short. I was expecting a lot more for the price and the hype.

    The Ugly:
    - There's very little replay value in this game when it comes to plot, decisions, etc. You've got 2 possible endings and it's pretty obvious how they play out.
    - There's also no post-finale game play. No roaming the world trying to visit other villages, no going back to places you've been, nothing. It's linear as hell.
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  15. Jan 18, 2014
    6
    A good game. Yes the graphics and music are amazing but what makes a game good is game play and replay value. This game has no replay value at all and can be easily completed in a casual day or two. The game mechanics are very over and over again style: You watch tiny characters walk across a backdrop for 30 seconds, then either a "interactive" dialogue box pops up (which doesn't have muchA good game. Yes the graphics and music are amazing but what makes a game good is game play and replay value. This game has no replay value at all and can be easily completed in a casual day or two. The game mechanics are very over and over again style: You watch tiny characters walk across a backdrop for 30 seconds, then either a "interactive" dialogue box pops up (which doesn't have much effect on the game play), or you get into a battle with guys in armor. The story is alright but my big complaint is the repetitious game play and the fact the you only fight two kinds of enemies: giants & vikings, or the weird black armor guys.

    I would have like to see them travel on the map without rail-roading me one way on the map. I never felt in control of the game that much. The character development (stats, etc.) didn't run very deep either. I felt like leveling them up wasn't exciting or a big deal. It felt to me that I was more worried about running out of supplies than being challenged in combat, etc.

    This game has all the earmarks of becoming a spectacular game but it needs to be less linear and have much more depth both in combat, character leveling, exploration, etc. But for now, it feels like a half-baked indie title that's all eye and ear candy with no actual filling. The price of $25 on steam for this game I think is also a bit high considering how small in scope it is. As it stands this game should be selling for under $10.

    So in short I applaud their efforts but its needs to be filled out more and definitely a better "last battle" that is longer than 2 minutes to play.
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  16. Mar 13, 2014
    5
    The artwork of the game is not only unique but lovely. The problem with the game is the actual game play itself, as far as that is concerned it falls on its face pretty hard. Plane, lackluster and quite honestly just bad is how I would describe the game play of this turn based RPG. There is so little to it and managing your units along with your travels almost seem like an afterthoughtThe artwork of the game is not only unique but lovely. The problem with the game is the actual game play itself, as far as that is concerned it falls on its face pretty hard. Plane, lackluster and quite honestly just bad is how I would describe the game play of this turn based RPG. There is so little to it and managing your units along with your travels almost seem like an afterthought to the artwork, there are also multiple problems with the food and currency system that make it seem not well thought out. The story also ends rather abruptly too. So to recap, the art is good the rest is bad. Expand
  17. Feb 24, 2014
    5
    While the setting and overall idea is ingenious, I felt the story of the game didn't do it justice as it felt shallow and rushed. Perhaps I simply had too great of expectations from the story, as it ended up feeling like a storyline from older Final Fantasy games - big evil comes, engulfs the world, got to find someone who can stop it and there is a lot of sacrifice on the way.

    The
    While the setting and overall idea is ingenious, I felt the story of the game didn't do it justice as it felt shallow and rushed. Perhaps I simply had too great of expectations from the story, as it ended up feeling like a storyline from older Final Fantasy games - big evil comes, engulfs the world, got to find someone who can stop it and there is a lot of sacrifice on the way.

    The gameplay was most problematic at first - at the beginning, I liked both difficulty and variety of character skills..until the variety died out, and each anoher battle felt exactly the same. The experience-per-kill system later on forced me to only use characters that I have leveled up, instead of using interesting combinations.

    But my biggest issue is with the savegame system. A player can only save if he stops for a camp - it was probably done so people wouldn't save during battles and before making decisions, but people have lives and they sometimes can't finish a battle because they need to go somewhere or are simply tired - so a 20 minute fight has to be suddenly started over because I can't save. And those battles are long because the animations take a bit of time.

    All in all, I have a rather mixed feelings about the game - its not a game I would recommend to anyone, but at the same time, I'm far from calling it 'bad'.
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  18. Jan 17, 2014
    5
    I backed this game on Kickstarter very early on, basically after having read the words "turn based strategy" and "vikings" and had very high hopes for the project.
    During the first hour of play I was thouroughly impressed with the artwork, the graphical style, the music and the combat system. It runs well, I encountered no major bugs, and the story starts very intense and engrossing.
    I backed this game on Kickstarter very early on, basically after having read the words "turn based strategy" and "vikings" and had very high hopes for the project.
    During the first hour of play I was thouroughly impressed with the artwork, the graphical style, the music and the combat system. It runs well, I encountered no major bugs, and the story starts very intense and engrossing.
    Now, after nearing the end of my first (and, most likely, only) playthrough I can sum up my personal experience with a single sentence: I learned to *thoroughly* hate this game.
    I'm terribly sorry, I desperately wanted to like this, but with every tedious, frustrating and boring hour of gameplay I had to concede, that just about *every* design choice made by Stoic seems to go diametrically against my personal preferences.
    Trying to cast an objective vote, i give it a 5, because there are undoubtedly many things good about the game, but the essence of what it's about - having fun, being motivated and enjoying the time spent playing - simply doesn't happen.
    TBS is the very definition of a railroaded game. More than that, it actually *feels* like more than half of the time I'm actually watching pointless, endlessly repeating nice backgrounds scrolling past, while nothing happens. Events are scarce, and when they happen, they kill my motivation and the RPG aspect. Because, frankly, I'm NOT making decisions. I'm playing a random guessing game, in most cases with absolutely *no* clue on what the consequences of the 4 "choose your answer" alternatives *might* even be. I hate playing a game where I don't even know the rules, and I hate winning every battle and then losing my heroes to random dialogue events.
    The world map is like a bad joke on my expense, as it serves absolutely *no* function in the game but as a "choose your flavour text" library. It feels like there's an entire aspect of the game simply never implemented here...
    Same goes for character development and resource management. Both are oversimplified, shallow and simply feel completely unfinished. Each character has one single item slot, and the items available are nothing special. Abilities are pretty much predetermined, and dividing 10 points you *might* receive during 5 ranks isn't that big a deal.
    There is one single resource for everything (renown) and one single sure way to acquire it (by killing enemies in combat). Sometimes you might draw a lucky card during the random dialogue guessing game and acquire some extra, but that's it. As the resource is used to buy supplies, items *and* for leveling up your heroes, it comes down to either have your caravan starve or run around with level 1 heroes, despite them having earned several promotions on the battlefield. That kills motivation on such an epic scale, and can't even begin to describe it.
    There are no side quest, no method to forage for food, trade, to gain extra renown or anything - remember, you are on one long, single track railway and never look left or right. You will *never* feel in control of *anything* in this game. For me, however, that is what gaming should be about.
    Even the combat system, one of the best parts otherwise, has several unnerving flaws that started bothering me in the long run:
    - You are forced to choose your team *and* the sequence in which they act *before* you know anything about the enemies you will face. Why is there even a deployment phase at the begin of combat if all you do there is arrange the predetermined team on the board? That placement will be void after one round of movement, a wrong party mix or suboptimal sequence will stay, however.
    - the way the two sides take turns is beyond silly. If you face a single, strong opponent, that one will act 6 times for every ONCE your heroes do something, as it's always the *sides* that take turns.
    - one stat for hitpoints AND combat effectiveness basically means, that the battles are decided in the first round. The side that starts taking hits is the side that will lose. Always. Without a way to regain strength, a single hit can de facto disable a hero.
    So, again, sorry Stoic for being so negative, but this game is so totally NOT my piece of cake. Terrific art, great lore, good music and a stable game do NOT equal fun, I'm afraid. Lots of bad design choices for me equal de-motivation, tedium, boredom and frustration. Others might love this game, I can't, I'm afraid.
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  19. Jan 18, 2014
    8
    Well. I'll try to make it short.
    The game has a breathtaking visual art style, bravo for that. The music is decent, BUT totally unmemorable. The game lacks voice acting. Voiceovered characters would be more memorable, I believe. The combat is unusual, but that str/arm thing is pretty interesting, but the final battle can be very frustrating if you do not have characters with proper
    Well. I'll try to make it short.
    The game has a breathtaking visual art style, bravo for that. The music is decent, BUT totally unmemorable. The game lacks voice acting. Voiceovered characters would be more memorable, I believe. The combat is unusual, but that str/arm thing is pretty interesting, but the final battle can be very frustrating if you do not have characters with proper abilities/items, that's a letdown. The other good part is the atmosphere of inevitable war and suffering, it felt really convincing. About the C&C - it's impossible to predict the outcome of your dialogue choice and it can end losing a character or something else this bad, I agree that this was not done in a proper way, it feels too random. Overall, the game is catchy, the ending is a big cliffhanger and Stoic makes it to earn money to make Episode 2 and considers all the feedback about game's minuses.
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  20. Jan 16, 2014
    9
    I enjoyed the game quite a bit. To start off one playthough takes about 10 hours.

    Since the game is fairly different than most games on the whole, I figured it'd be easier to point out the similarities it may have with some established games. The game's a little bit like: Fire Emblem - grid based combat, but individual unit turn-based with a strength as hp mechanic and armor -- you
    I enjoyed the game quite a bit. To start off one playthough takes about 10 hours.

    Since the game is fairly different than most games on the whole, I figured it'd be easier to point out the similarities it may have with some established games. The game's a little bit like:

    Fire Emblem - grid based combat, but individual unit turn-based with a strength as hp mechanic and armor -- you can try out The Banner Saga: Factions, the corresponding free multiplayer game to try the combat,

    Oregon Trail - you travel along a fairly linear path making decisions as you go with a caravan nonetheless,

    Dragon Age - unlike Fire Emblem series where if you lose a character in combat, you lose him/her in the campaign, in TBS you can only lose characters through decisions you make out of combat -- falling in combat will only injure a unit for the next fight, unless you rest at camp or have enough time pass to heal the injuries,

    King of Dragon Pass - the decision system is similar and you will be given chances to wage war, however you only control the army by choosing one command, such as Charge, Formation, Defend, etc. which then prompts a regular combat scenario,

    ---

    The campaign affects combat in several main ways. Probably most importantly, it affects who you will be able to play as in combat and which encounters will be combat encounters or bypassed through resolution or avoidance. You can add new characters to your party or even accidentally, or purposefully, kill off members of your team.

    Next, your caravan morale affects how much willpower your team has starting the match. Willpower allows characters to use their special abilities, deal extra armor break or damage, and to move further in a single turn. If your caravan morale is low, your team will start fights with less than normal willpower, but if they start with high morale, they will receive bonus morale.

    Lastly, from making some decisions, you can gain renown (the currency used to level up units and to buy equipment and supplies -- supplies are used to feed your whole caravan and maintain morale).

    ---
    On Combat:
    If you are not familiar with The Banner Saga's combat, I could see it being a fairly difficult game, as common strategic thought is to kill off units rather than leave them maimed and on the board. With TBS's turn-based system, one character takes a turn then control passes to the opponent to move one character. The order of character movement is established before combat and can be changed only by a few special characters once in combat. Although it might seem odd at first, this system requires much more strategy than just going from one side of the board to the other wiping out all enemy units. Each time you kill off an enemy unit, you are giving the opponent an advantage, slight or large dependent on the difference between both sides' total units.

    Personally, I now prefer TBS's combat system over other turn-based strategy games.

    ---
    Strengths:
    As you'll see stated in most any other review, TBS is a gorgeous game. The combat is equally good and quite strategic.

    The vast and detailed world map shows the scope of the game's world in the classic Tolkien fashion.

    The characters and decisions are very impactful. You can lose or gain key characters (and their equipment) based on your decisions. Some decisions will have immediate results, while others may show up long after you've made them.

    Weakness:
    The biggest issue I had with the game is that it felt lopsided on the decision system. If you made a series of a few bad decisions, you wound up always struggling to get supplies, and on the flipside, if you make a series of good decisions, you have a fairly easy time. This is because all of the systems seem to compound on eachother. I preferred to be struggling, because it kept the tension of survival prominent.

    I enjoyed the overall structure of the story and the many decisions I had to make along the way, however the dialogue sometimes was poorly phrased, such as by using modern colloquial slurs. Some characters would use lore-based expressions, while others frequently sounded like they were from the current era.

    This was an odd issue. Some character and city names I did not know how to pronounce, and so I didn't commit many characters and places to memory.

    Lastly, you're always moving forward, from point A to point B. Once you leave camp or town you continue back on your journey. Instead of directly choosing your destination, you're sent in the general direction the story tells you to go, able to take detours or backtrack only when an event decision occurs.
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  21. Jan 23, 2014
    3
    I loved the first few hours and I tried to love the rest, and I failed. There game gets high reviews because it had big hype/kickstarter campaign and because few first hour are great. The truth is this game has all the goods at the start. I played it through and, well.

    At first you are dazzled; the game looks and feels fresh, the world map is fantastic, opening intro is great, drawn art
    I loved the first few hours and I tried to love the rest, and I failed. There game gets high reviews because it had big hype/kickstarter campaign and because few first hour are great. The truth is this game has all the goods at the start. I played it through and, well.

    At first you are dazzled; the game looks and feels fresh, the world map is fantastic, opening intro is great, drawn art is stunning. With first 5 mins you are told that you'll see the story from many perspectives, and that sun just stopped in the sky. All this promises a vast fantasy saga, deep world and an immersive story.

    Nothing could be further from the truth. The stunning world map is useless since you can't go anywhere. The great opening intro is the only, repeat THE ONLY, good animation in the game, everything else is sliding still pictures. You'll swap the main character twice, the short prologue included. And that sun just stopped in the sky has no relevance at all. More of this later.

    Few points;

    - False suspension. Your village is sacked and you'll have to run for it, enemy at your heels. But there is no enemy. You can camp for years and rainbows happen.

    - False feeling of choice. As you travel you must (un)manage your caravan. It's like Oregon Train except without ANY interference. You can't ration food, you can't change pace, you can't hunt for food, you can't do anything. You have random events where you'll have to make decision. Bad decisions lose lives/resources, you understand. But it's all a joke because the caravan doesn't matter at all. Starve them all to death and the game just becomes easier. The heroes can't starve so nothing lost.

    - You remember that the sun stopped? That's the game's cheap excuse for not having day/night change. You can rest but it's not obligatory. Just march 120 days without sleep, and nothing serious happens.

    -Characters are uninteresting an uninspired. This is not fallout 1 or 2, or even Dragon Age. Seriously, Final Fantasy Tactics had hundred times more character building and dialogue. You can maybe speak four sentences to each hero, and this is without voice acting. There is a ghost of character building; some dude has a crush on your daughter, your daughter doesn't want to hurt people, that widow kind of starts to warm on you. But none of this goes anywhere. Sometimes the game kills some guys in unavoidable walls of text and then nobody mentions the dead guys ever again. Even the much-vaunted art gets repetitive as every character is only one picture copy pasted infinitely.

    -The dialogue is bad, bad like written by an 15 year potato. Every character speaks modern American English with crap, creepy, yeah etc. which doesn't improve the atmosphere much. Yes, this game is 90% text-driven adventure.

    The combat isn't bad but it's quirky, hit or miss for most of us. It's all about herding/hamstringing enemies and abusing turn order to your advantage. It might seem difficult at first but once you get the system it's baby cakes. The heroes are pretty simplified as far as character building goes and there are only so many ways to build a good team. Magic items are 1/hero and there are no skill trees to unlock, so there isn't much room for customization. Once you learn those about 5 different enemy types battles grow repetitive.

    Also there were small matters which annoyed me:

    1. no free saving, just checkpoints

    2.No subtitles, no keyboard support, no resolution change, no nothing

    3.Can't see heroes stats or swap items in pre-battle roster.

    4.Battle camera can't be rotated or zoomed

    5.Can't skip cut scenes, walking animations, anything, in an absolutely linear story.

    Then there is the story. I'd love to spoil it but there really isn't much to spoil. The story might seem strong at first but soon degenerates to standard fantasy pulp. 120% of the game you just run away from that invisible, nonexistent enemy army to destination which you can't choose, and what happens during the journey doesn't make much sense. So sun has stopped, gods died about a week ago and there is a giant world-eating snake straight from Viking myths. None of these has any relevance to anything, and all are soon forgotten. Then you just reach the final city and oh, it's the final boss. The ending provoked many complains in steam forums btw.

    It's not an awful game but it's not that deep fantasy saga some people paint it to be. It's an mediocre tactical game with an below-mediocre story /writing to glue it together. It gives an odd mixed feeling, for clearly some parts of the game were made with love. It seems somebody had great ideas and passions which died about 70% way through, and they couldn't be bothered to finish the job.

    Currently it costs 22,99€ in Steam and honestly, that's about 12,99€ too much. It doesn't feel like a complete game because it isn't.
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  22. Jan 17, 2014
    8
    If you are wondering what kind of game it is, it is not exactly in its own genre. It has adventure/pick-your-own-adventure elements, with turn-based strategy battles, with some rpg features like party management with upgrading units, abilities, and items. I would say it is like Oregon Trail meets Final Fantasy Tactics. Because half the time you are in oregon trail travel mode, whilst theIf you are wondering what kind of game it is, it is not exactly in its own genre. It has adventure/pick-your-own-adventure elements, with turn-based strategy battles, with some rpg features like party management with upgrading units, abilities, and items. I would say it is like Oregon Trail meets Final Fantasy Tactics. Because half the time you are in oregon trail travel mode, whilst the other half you are playing in turn-based squad combat.

    I will begin with the positives of the game. The artstyle and music are perfect. And the word perfect gets tossed around a lot, but I really mean perfect. The artstyle is truly terrific and one of a kind, and there is a grammy-nominated composer for the soundtrack. Combat system and mechanics were refreshing and unique to the genre of turn-based strategy games.

    The negatives: for a story game, the story really was weak. It started out pretty strong, with introducing interesting characters, but later seemed to dip in character development and instead focused on 2 stereotypical characters (Rook and Alette). The ending was very disappointing, and without getting specific, it just ends abruptly, without resolving any conflict whatsoever. The entire story you are met with problem after problem, and at the end you feel like you haven't solved any of them at all, leaving the player with more questions than answers. The problem is that this story doesnt stand on its own feet, since it is one part of a planned trilogy. Although it does a good job of introducing the characters, world and the problems they face, it does not do anything past that. The story really does feel incomplete. I am sure the game will stand better alongside its other two parts, but I cannot recommend this to anyone looking for a standalone game, this is a piece of a great pie, but you are not given a vertical slice, but a horizontal one, and tasting only the crust you are left wanting.

    After all is said and done, I am sure it is going to be a masterpiece of a trilogy. I would recommend it if you can take this for what it is, one part of a series.
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  23. Jan 17, 2014
    9
    The game is made up of three parts:
    (a) Dialogue & Role-playing -- You assume the roles of fixed characters and guide them through the story in a choose-your-adventure style.
    (b) Traveling -- You manage a viking caravan that's almost always in peril, with enemies constantly its heels. (c) Tactical turn-based combat -- You assemble your heroes (1-6 of them) and fight against various
    The game is made up of three parts:
    (a) Dialogue & Role-playing -- You assume the roles of fixed characters and guide them through the story in a choose-your-adventure style.
    (b) Traveling -- You manage a viking caravan that's almost always in peril, with enemies constantly its heels.
    (c) Tactical turn-based combat -- You assemble your heroes (1-6 of them) and fight against various enemies in on a grid-board.

    The first thing you've probably noticed about The Banner Saga is the so special graphics visual style. That's fantastic, a straight 10/10. Just look, if you haven't. What you can't actually "experience", unless you actually play the game, is the excellent bonding of the music with the visuals and the atmosphere it creates. That's also unique and powerful, worth another straight 10. One more straight "10" that the game deserves is the combat system. If you've played Factions, the free-to-play offspring release in March 2013, you know what I'm talking about. The combat mechanics are very sharp and allow for great simplicity and remarkable strategy depth, a the same time! It's really this "easy to learn but hard to master" type of game. Finally, the last "10" I'm gonna give to the game is to the very beautiful lore and world they have created. It takes a lot off of the viking/Norse history but blends in many fantasy themes in a very successful way.

    OK, enough with the good stuff. Lets see the bad ones. Actually, what hurts most about this game is its own extremely high potential. I mean, it offers so much potential that seeing it come short of that is ofter enough to let you down. For me, the biggest problem about the game is that the final product feels a little rushed, kinda unfinished in the sense of consistency and balancing. There aren't big flaws in the core mechanics of the game, but it could use a lot more polishing. I'm gonna bring up some specific issues so that you understand what I mean:
    -- No subtitles : VO is really scarce (not a problem for me), so why ain't there no subtitles?
    -- Caravan/Survival balancing issues : Sometimes the game feels too hard for its own sake. I mean, it's supposed to be hard, about survival and all, but at some points it just feels wrong and fall out of perspective.
    -- Language & typos : In my opinion, the language used is often too "American" styled, something that hits bad in the viking theme of the world. Also, there's quite some typos and syntax errors. The game's text is enough, but not so much...
    -- Inconsistencies and awkward "story delivery" : The game is all about a branching story line, where each choice you make has consequences. That's fine. Problem is that it feels like some story parts don't quite glue together or the pacing of the story changes from Chapter to Chapter sometimes putting you off. That's more noticeable near the end of the game, where the pace dramatically picks up, and you are bombarded by a lot events all at once, that you barely have time to digest. Also, I could argue that the ending sequence is a little wanting in view of the climax that precedes it. Finally, it's quite evident that the game is just the part 1 of the proclaimed trilogy, so it leaves a lot of open questions.

    To conclude, I'm giving it a 9 because of the four very strong components (visuals, music, battle system, theme/lore) and because I believe that most of the problems I found can be easily addressed with patches without meaning that the game is "bad" in its release state.
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  24. Jul 18, 2014
    3
    The initial impression given by this game is that it is 'old school' and mysterious. It is beautiful. I distinctly achieved that excited feeling in my belly as the game began. I just knew that this game had been done right, and that I was about to experience one of the greatest moments in gaming history. The feeling persisted until about the third hour of game play, unfortunately. At thatThe initial impression given by this game is that it is 'old school' and mysterious. It is beautiful. I distinctly achieved that excited feeling in my belly as the game began. I just knew that this game had been done right, and that I was about to experience one of the greatest moments in gaming history. The feeling persisted until about the third hour of game play, unfortunately. At that point I was waiting, no begging, for new elements to emerge. Then I realized that the game had reached its pentacle and I had experienced everything that the game had to offer.

    The rest of my short experience with this game was a litany of letdowns.

    "Puh-lease don't be another fight!" I found myself saying quite often. The main enemy, these Dredge, are interesting at first, and at second, but ten redundant fights down the line and one begins to ache for an auto-resolve feature.

    Beyond being mind-numbingly similar, once you get the hang of it every fight is ridiculously easy. The game touts the necessary use of items and tactics but I was never challenged by anything that a few shield bangers and warhawks couldn't put down with ease.

    Another deflating feature is the game's map. The map is awesome. One can click on the numerous and varied locations and read all about the game history. As you do so, excitement rises as you wonder which of the many paths you will take... and then you realize that the map has no function other than flavor. And it loads slow.

    The final disappointment to mention, which sadly goes hand in hand with the redundancy of combat, occurs when your band reaches places of "interest". Arriving in villages or cities is at first arousing, and then you realize that the most common options - to "rest", "heroes", "market", or "leave" - are similarly devoid of excitement. My goodness, there is even an option to "train" which gives you a chance to "try out new tactics" in a mock combat. I had a good laugh at this invitation to engage in another boring battle. Really?

    In summary, you'll get as much enjoyment out of this game by watching online trailers and youtube reviews as you will by playing. And save money as well.
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  25. Jan 26, 2014
    8
    The story is a bit formulaic but with superb delivery. Visuals are great; Soundtrack immerse; and game play very fun indeed. The Banner Saga is a great game - go buy it.
  26. Mar 1, 2014
    9
    This is a great game, and a real breath of fresh air for the RPG genre, which arguably has been pretty stagnant for a while now. The Banner Saga boasts well crafted and fun gameplay to go along with an engaging story filled with a large cast of interesting characters, but the real jewel for me is the setting itself, and the way it's presented. The artwork, as most reviewers have pointedThis is a great game, and a real breath of fresh air for the RPG genre, which arguably has been pretty stagnant for a while now. The Banner Saga boasts well crafted and fun gameplay to go along with an engaging story filled with a large cast of interesting characters, but the real jewel for me is the setting itself, and the way it's presented. The artwork, as most reviewers have pointed out, is just outstanding, and it really enhances the aesthetic of an already unique and deep world.

    Gameplay: The gameplay could I guess be divided into three broad areas: the combat system, the caravan system, and the character advancement system, which sort of straddles the border between the other two systems.

    The combat system is rather simple, but very elegant in its design. It's the sort of system whose simplicity makes it easy to learn, but I feel like the more discerning gamers will note that there is a level of subtle tactics, which is not so easy to master, which can really enhance your effectiveness. I wouldn't go so far as to say that the combat is excellent, but it more than serves its purpose, and it kept me entertained.

    The caravan system is arguably the more essential part of the game. Throughout the game, the player is responsible for looking after a caravan of his clansmen. You're constantly making decisions, whether they be in the form of random events that pop up along the road and demand your attention, or in the form of making decisions regarding whether to spend your renown on supplies to keep your people alive, or equipment and level ups for your characters to make combat easier. There's a keen feeling of desperation, survival, and leadership, and I think it's a real key to what makes the game so cool.

    Finally, there's the character advancement system, which to me is one of the most vital parts of any rpg. Sadly, I think The Banner Saga is just a little bit lacking in this area. Your ability to advance your characters is constantly being hamstrung by the supply demands of your caravan. Yes, this does contribute to the survival aspect of the game, and I understand why the devs decided to design it this way, but it is a frustrating tradeoff for someone who really enjoys building and customizing his party. Still, the character advancement is much better than what you would find in many rpgs, so I was able to get over my quibbles.

    Story/Setting: This is where the game really starts to shine. I've played a pretty decent number of video games, especially of the fantasy rpg variety, but I was really caught off guard by the feel of this world. Early on in the game, you get access to the world map, and it is riddled with clickable landmarks (cities, mountain ranges, regions... all sorts of stuff, really) which each have neat little tidbits of lore. After spending just a little while reading the lore, I could tell that this was a really deep and well crafted setting, very unlike your typical Forgotten Realms esque high fantasy world. You really feel like you've been transported to a pre-Christian world of nordic mythic, and you get caught up in some pretty fascinating events of pretty epic proportion. A lot of the characters are also pretty neat, though you don't really get to know any of them extremely well, as you're too busy managing things.

    As I understand it, this is just the first chapter of a planned trilogy, and I'm very eagerly awaiting a chance to see what happens next.

    Presentation: While the story and setting certainly stand out from the crowd, I think that the look and feel of the game is truly one of a kind. The character art is beautiful. The cinematic backdrops that your caravan travels through are breathtaking. The music rules. I've really never experienced anything like it. Watching your caravan wearily journey through this lovingly created world is just awesome. It's hard to describe. You've got to try it for yourself.

    Conclusion: What a wonderful game. In the midst of all the gaudy, big budget, mass produced AAA titles, it would be easy to convince yourself that the future of gaming is bleak, but games like this renew my confidence in the industry. I'm so excited to see the next batch of kickstarter games, and of course the other two games in this trilogy. If you're as eager to see the progress of video games as a medium of storytelling as I am, and if you're the sort of person who can appreciate subtlety and art, you should try this game.
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  27. Jan 31, 2014
    7
    Slow game, good story and awesome graphics. I enjoyed the tactical battles very much.

    It does somewhat fails at the game-play - I am not a fan of linear games. I am sure the dev's next title will be worthwhile.
  28. Jan 26, 2014
    7
    I'd been waiting for this game since the kickstarter. The Scenic backdrops are really beautiful though i think the character art leaves something to be desired. Its kinda like Oregon trail with turn based fights. The story is good though i was expecting it to be better. The actual turn based fights are getting pretty repetitive (fighting the same enemies over and over), but they are stillI'd been waiting for this game since the kickstarter. The Scenic backdrops are really beautiful though i think the character art leaves something to be desired. Its kinda like Oregon trail with turn based fights. The story is good though i was expecting it to be better. The actual turn based fights are getting pretty repetitive (fighting the same enemies over and over), but they are still pretty fun and the additional strategy elements involving enemy and character placement on the board is interesting. All in all, the game is a solid good play, with a good story, and some good strategy. Expand
  29. Aug 25, 2014
    7
    Not really a Viking X-Com I was hoping for, but definitely interesting and unique piece well worth playing. The start is a bit slow, game is doing quite a poor job in immersing you right away in it's story, throwing tons of viking names at you, not really knowing who you are or what's going on, but you slowly get a grip, learn the game mechanics, and by the time the story switches from theNot really a Viking X-Com I was hoping for, but definitely interesting and unique piece well worth playing. The start is a bit slow, game is doing quite a poor job in immersing you right away in it's story, throwing tons of viking names at you, not really knowing who you are or what's going on, but you slowly get a grip, learn the game mechanics, and by the time the story switches from the viking bunch to the eastern storyline with the dad and daughter, things get much better. Challenging turn-based tactical battles, beautiful visuals and amazing music. Very unique flavor is gathered in the sections of the game where your caravan is traveling the beautiful northern lands, visiting old god stones, where you have to make important decisions, quite a memorable adventure there. Despite it's slow start, quite short length overall and some of the budget shortcomings such as no voice-overs, I was pretty happy with The Banner Saga in the end. 7/10 Expand
  30. Mar 8, 2014
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The banner saga is not a bad game.i enjoyed playing the game although i was never been able to finish it because of the last battle i tried many times yet all there was is failure.
    The good : the game soundtrack and the artwork were amazing,the fights were actually pretty good and i was impressed by all strategies you could make .
    Now the bad :the story started pretty slow and most of the time i was reading texts and choosing random answers.The game says that you can choose your destiny but all i saw was answers that lead to the same result********spoiler:for example onef betrayal left me in frustration and rage*******.the game difficulty was pretty good until i reached the end of the game where i was left helpless against the enemy(and why the **** must alette join the fight???)

    IN the end the game is pretty good but as you progress through the game you just start hating the game!!!
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Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 74 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 59 out of 74
  2. Negative: 0 out of 74
  1. Pelit (Finland)
    May 11, 2014
    85
    Banner Saga is a fine - but towards the end a bit repetitive - turn-based viking adventure. [Feb 2014]
  2. games(TM)
    Mar 12, 2014
    80
    It's an outstanding start for a trilogy, and one that we can't wait to see to its end. [Issue#145, p.116]
  3. Hyper Magazine
    Mar 9, 2014
    80
    A fantastic combination of fantasy storytelling and RPG tactics. One hell of a debut from Stoic. [Apr 2014, p.62]