The dialog is well written, but the pace of the story and the constant betrayals might create an atmosphere that’s a little too dark for some players.Īt its core, The Banner Saga takes the system that was already present in Factions, adds a number of new ideas and uses it for battle against the Dredge instead of humans, with very solid if sometimes repetitive results.īefore each combat sequence, the player can select the team he wants to use and he is then able to deploy it to make sure that he is in a good tactical position.

I initially had a little trouble following the constant changes in perspective, but overall, Stoic manages to make The Banner Saga intelligible and interesting, dropping small details here and here, hinting at a heroic past and a grim future. The entire narrative is told sparingly, with characters that allude rather than directly accuse, with small stories about mundane problems that blend into each other to show a world that’s slowly disappearing despite the constant fight back from its inhabitants. To make things worse, the alliance between humans and Varl, giant horned creatures, which has kept the enemy at bay, seems to be fraying at the ends and the fates of all those involved in the current fight seem to be tinged with tragedy and loss. The story is a dark one, with the sun literally disappearing from the heavens just as supernatural enemies called the Dredge, big slabs of metal and death, attack the world. When I first played Faction, the Banner Saga multiplayer components, I thought that the game did a good job of creating a faux Viking style with some added horns, but after spending more time with the single-player campaign, I came to really appreciate the way re-interpreted history and then mixed it with fantasy. The game is developed by Stoic Games and manages to create a very interesting world that includes one of the best turn-based combat systems I have seen in the last few years, with clear rules and a lot of systems that interact in innovative ways.

I loved that little change of the rules and how it affected my experience of The Banner Saga and I look forward to never doing that again when under pressure in battle. The game surprised me by keeping all the damage that my own characters had already received, which increased the difficulty level of the fight and resulted in two injuries that I really did not want to carry for the next few days. I decided to continue the assault and destroy as many of the Dredge as possible, while also offering precious experience to my combatants, which meant that a new wave of enemies rose up around me and I prepared to deploy my forces once more. At one point, The Banner Saga inquired whether I was willing to continue my attack and use the hard earned advantage to take out some more enemies or if I was willing to let them run in order to keep my own force largely intact.

The banner saga 1 story