It comes as surprise to only those that don't really know me that I'm not shy of trying out 'unknown' titles or taking the road less travelled when searching out new games, and so, my attention was easily swayed when 'Banished' showed its face (Via the Steam Spotlight...)
My initial impressions were that it looked to play very alike the original settlers games, which I loved with elements of style influenced by other city-builders a genre which I'm a big fan of. A fool and his money... and perhaps this time, I have played the part of the fool.
My Impressions Were Right!
Kind of, the game was tough - a learning curve which nearly put me off but, I took to it that the challenge came in overcoming adversity a core element of 'survive and build' games, of which this is one.
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| (above) This is about as exciting as it gets... |
I soon got into the swing of things and before long I was mildly overjoyed that I had a small functioning village of happy virtual people... but very quickly afterwards, I realised that there was nothing to do.
I allowed the game to progress a little but it bored me, nothing was happening to entertain me (and for me being entertained is why I play games!)
Push The Limits, Let's Find The Excitement!
I decided that the only way forward was to ramp up the difficulty, and where possible task myself to perform the required hoop diving for the in game achievements. At first the challenge came back again, several games which fought me tooth and nail while I attempted to find the working balance, and keep my little peeps alive and happy but then, just as before: boredom.
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(above) Graves, clearly all of people whom,
having played this game died of boredom. |
I realised that I had perfected the route of things to do in the game such that even on the hardest setting and with achievements in site the game was little more than a quasi-interactive screen saver. There was no more challenge, no more effort, nothing more to 'aim for'.
It's All In The Early Game.
Sadly it all comes down to the fact that this game, appears to have little to no longevity, no late game satisfaction, the early game really pushes hard, resource management, planning, double-guessing yourself on the correct thing to do at a given point... but then, it all disappears it's pretty much all or nothing, you either make it past the struggle or not. After that, there's little to do but vegetate as you oversee the somewhat more dull procedure of 'management' stage of things, overseeing tedious aspects of making sure there are X number of workers doing Y job, at this point the fun ratio quickly sinks.
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| (above) Marvel at the wonder of a functioning settlement .. - wooo! |
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| (above) Gaze on in awe as your little virtual people GROW CROPS!! - oooooh! |
To Sum up;
I can see how this game really really REALLY could be fun, and I so badly want it to be, but there are too many things that hold me back from really being able to enjoy this.
Gaming Review summary:
Graphics 4/5
Audio 3.5/5
Gameplay 3.5/5
Features 3.9/5
Weighted Score: 62%
And you Shall be BANISHED!
I thought I'd have a game with all the intricacy of Settlers, the graphics of a modern Sim-City and I found that I've been aomewhat disappointed, while it's purely my opinion - even fans of this genre should give this one a miss.
