Developer: Shining Rock Software LLC
Publisher: Shining Rock Software LLC
Genre: Indie, Simulation, Strategy, City Builder
Platform: PC
Release date: 18 Feb, 2014
Find the game here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/242920/Banished
City builders are a personal favourite of mine. I think it’s because of the rewarding feeling you get when something that you planned and created becomes self-sustaining and flourishes into a vast cityscape. However, I’ve always felt like these city builders don’t quite get it right. Time and time again I find that the games are either far too easy with their forgiving mechanics or automated building processes, or on the other end of the scale, the city builders that require you to juggle so many variables that any form of progression feels nearly impossible. Banished offers what I always wanted from a city builder, a challenge, but one that can be achieved with strategic thinking and of course, trial and error. But it does lack in key areas...
In Banished, your task is to direct a handful of settlers to gather, build, hunt and survive through gorgeous and productive warm winters and desperately deadly winters in order for your town to expand and develop with the goal of becoming self-sustaining. As time passes, your townspeople will complete the full life cycle, from being born all the way to a working adult, having children of their own until they finally keel over and die. It is vital that a variety of criteria such as health and happiness are met so that your town can grow efficiently. Unlike most other city builders, Banished has no skill trees, and therefore, the choices and decisions are always in your hands. It's playing God at its finest.
Right from the off, Banished entices you with its minimalistic and clean user interface which reveals a stunning randomly generated world that is untouched and completely at your disposal. Many informational windows and statistics are accessible through the menu which lets you keep a close eye on a variety of things, such as population and resource management. When compared with the clustered user interfaces of other titles within this genre, Banished simply conquers them all in this department, offering a fantastic and memorable first impression. The controls are very fluid and intuitive, placing and rotating buildings is simple which make creating and designing your idealistic town a joy.
The gameplay itself is very enjoyable. You are kept busy with the seemingly endless imbalance in the ratio between people and resources which makes you feel uncomfortable and consistently concerned about the future of your town. Banished requires you to be strategic at all times. Place your food supplies to far away from your housing? Don’t be surprised if poor Jimmy dies of starvation! Forgot to stock up on firewood before winter sets in? That’s the end of, well, everyone probably… As well as this, you need to ensure that your people are distributed effectively between the varieties of jobs that need completing. Furthermore, if you have too much housing, you’ll fall into a cycle of negative feedback, where so many people will be born that you simply can’t sustain that populous, especially as those darn teenagers won’t help out on the farm!
The stunning graphics alongside intricate weather effects make for an enchanting experience, not forgetting the soothing sound of rain and snow pattering off the thatched rooftops of your ever expanding hamlet. One thing I noticed about Banished, is that the environment feels alive. There’s never a dull moment, whether it’s a herd of deer frolicking across the open expanses, the smoke gushing out of the chimneys during the winter months or the harsh snowfall that blankets the landscape and puts a halt to your crop yielding in times of high demand. The randomly generated worlds lead to a pleasant change in scenery with every new play through. The meandering rivers and glorious groves make this a charming and engaging game to play. Each placed building differs from the previous one which gives your settlement character and sets it apart from the good old copy ‘n’ paste that most other city builders seem to use… How lazy!
Unfortunately, Banished lacks heavily in one department, it never pushed back at you. Once you have nailed your balancing and ratios of resource collection, workers, builders and everything else, (not that it’s an easy task by any means) that’s pretty much it, you’ve effectively won. After several attempts and a LOT of trial and error, the ideal strategy becomes apparent. When you realise that you were simply rushing or overpopulating your town before it was sustainable enough and instead play it slowly and with more caution you are effectively there. The townspeople do not demand anything more than what you already offer, for example, they will quite happily live on cabbages alone for the rest of time. With nothing else to drive you to continue, the game can suddenly feel fairly unenticing.
Overall, I have really enjoyed playing Banished. It offers a somewhat unique experience compared with the others in this genre. The graphics are beautiful and a pleasure to look at for long periods of time and the gameplay is very intuitive. However, I really wanted more from Banished. Long term goals and a vaster variety of buildings and customisation would have extended my play time and upped my score. I would definitely recommend this for any fans of the city building genre, and for just £15 or regional equivalent, it might even be worth a try for those looking to try out the genre!
Banished – 7.5 out of 10
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