Game News The Banner Saga Released

[DeepOcean]

should have backed this

Who tought a bunch of Bioware rejects fleeing EA's whip would actually do something interesting when free of Gayder tyranny? It's funny how incline is comming from unlikely places lately.

 

[thesisko]

So does this really get boring and repetitive half-way through like RPS says?
I'm not sure how to interpret their review, it's much easier when they are whining about games being difficult and confusing.

 

[SCO]

It's called growing old

 

[Machocruz]

Nonsense. I'm probably as old or older than those guys. My thirst for complex, difficult games only increases with time. They're just dim-witted untermenschen is what it is.

 

[Drowed]

From what I hear, the (supposed) greatest weakness of the game is the fact that you have access to all available combat options within the first hour of gameplay - and there aren't that many. So after a few hours you've seen everything it has to offer, at least mechanically speaking, which makes the rest of the game a bit tedious.

I'm still waiting for a more complete review from a fellow codexer, I'm still on the fence on this one.

 

[nil]

Nonsense. I'm probably as old or older than those guys. My thirst for complex, difficult games only increases with time. They're just dim-witted untermenschen is what it is.

Or maybe you just never grew up. Maybe your growing thirst for complex games is the manifestation of your childish need to appear mature! Maybe it's not the industry. Maybe... it's you.

 

[Machocruz]

Or maybe you just never grew up. Maybe your growing thirst for complex games is the manifestation of your childish need to appear mature! Maybe it's not the industry. Maybe... it's you.

Waitaminnit. What if you're right?! Perhaps my disdain for cinemajestic video games and preference for rigorous mechanics and challenges is a result of my immaturity and inability to evolve to appreciating the more sophisticated and intellectual task of passively consuming stories ripped straight from Hollywood film school? Maybe IGN is the Truth!

 

[bledcarrot]

From what I hear, the (supposed) greatest weakness of the game is the fact that you have access to all available combat options within the first hour of gameplay - and there aren't that many. So after a few hours you've seen everything it has to offer, at least mechanically speaking, which makes the rest of the game a bit tedious.

I'm still waiting for a more complete review from a fellow codexer, I'm still on the fence on this one.

The combat system is very simple, this is no TOEE, but it's well balanced and clever enough that it provides some real depth and difficult choice, as compared to some other recent attempts at TBC.

So I fired up the game last night for a quick crack and ended up completely immersed for six hours straight. The attention to detail that's been put in to the world, its mythology, its history, is fantastic and a big factor in why the game works, along with its amazing animation. The characters feel real because the world feels real, the choices you make feel real because the characters feel real, and the consequences feel real because they can be god damned brutal. I agree with whoever said the story isn't confusing, it just doesn't hold your hand. I found that really refreshing. Pay attention and you'll get it just fine. Really enjoying this so far.

 

[x4nti]

Ive sunk about 8 hours into it now, and I like it quite a lot. The combat system has proper tactical depth and is also rather unique, but the encounters aren't particularly hard though. If you've practiced with the f2p mp spin-off it will be almost a cake-walk on hard. For example I would without hesitation redo a battle if I dislike the outcome from a text-adventure.

 

[fastjack]

The writing seems off to me. Not the characterization or story (at least not yet) just the english itself. For instance, within the first 15 minutes or so three times they use some variant of the following:

character 1 "I was looking for X"
character 2 "speaking of, where is x?"

Not speaking "speaking of him, " just "speaking of,", it's weird and it is only one example that I can remember right now. Just about every sentence in that opening part with the Varl seemed to have something wrong with it. If you insist on using 'rat anus' in your dialogue (which doesn't do it any favors) why say 'whatever rat anus they crawled into' rather than 'whatever rat's anus they crawled into'? I do think that one is correct the way they put it, just seems awkward to me.

Also I watched about an hour of the game and quit when it looked like I wouldn't be able to play in the foreseeable future (slight exaggeration, some clicking was involved on my part, but I'm not sure that counts as playing)

 

[SCO]

you might be curious to know that a well known site release ending with bay relating to this game seems to have a
1: trojan
2: botnet
3: prob more stuff i dunno


i realized this by running it on a 'sandboxed' wine (with no direct access to the normal linux filesystem) where it
1: tried to disable the windows version of dep (a randomizer of the process starting area) during setup
2: tried to redirect keyboard input during setup
3: thousands of err:wininet: open_http_connection create_netconn failed: 12029 during the game (with net disabled of course, not a total moron)


See that you don't need Dr. Crispy services, i heard he likes money.

time to SHIFT+DEL

 

[Tigranes]

Restarted on hard and it's difficult to win clean with no injuries, especially since if you fuck up on positioning you can lose someone easy. The key thing is you can't run away because most enemies have same AP you do. And their one-by-one turn system makes it difficult as well. Good stuff.

 

[InspectorRumpole]

The writing seems off to me. Not the characterization or story (at least not yet) just the english itself.

Exactly. It's a bit clumsy.

I played some more, and the confusion clears up once you get to the world map, and the heroes tent, where you can check out their backstories. I still don't think they did a good job easing the player into the game though.

I also think it would be nice to have a log book that kept track of the characters and events.

I'm really starting to like the game though.

 

[hiver]

I like what im hearing of consequences fucking you up in the ass, hard triple battles - that turn out to be the wrong choice even if you win them, and the general sense of being up against the wall, in retreat - instead of heroically stomping over stupidspawn.

I guess they dont have a serious actual writer o the team but maybe thats something they can improve on later?
as long as its nothing too terrible it can be lived with. As long as the rest is good.

 

[bledcarrot]

The writing seems off to me. Not the characterization or story (at least not yet) just the english itself. For instance, within the first 15 minutes or so three times they use some variant of the following:

Yeah I noticed that too, some of it seems a bit awkward. Generally though I think the dialogue is pretty good, grammatical problems aside it seems to stay on the right side of cheesy and has a believability to it that works for me.

 

[Sensuki]

Looks boring and banal, not an inclination at all.

You not liking something half the time is a sign of incline

The game is OK. You wouldn't like it. It has some lows (writing). I think I prefer this combat to E:C but E:C has better overland/C&C, writing etc

Unit progression is (IMO) better than SRR so far, and so is the weight of positioning and whatnot (slightly different style of TBC though) but SRR has item use and stuff and more abilities.

 

[DalekFlay]

Something stopped me from pulling the trigger on this Monday. Not really in a video game mood lately anyway. The whole pre-order DLC thing annoys the fuck out of me as well.

 

[Stabwound]

Not sure how they can call it influenced by games like Final Fantasy Tactics and then not include something as simple but vital as equipment and inventories.

 

[Sensuki]

The whole pre-order DLC thing annoys the fuck out of me as well.

Ahh that might be why I'm finding Rook's side a bit harder. I don't have the DLC guy.

 

[Gicusan]

Finished it. A rather abrupt ending I may say.

Game feels good. Love the 2D scenery. On hard, fights are hard for a first timer to the game. "Money" and "experience" being the same pool make for an interesting balance. It sounds stupid but it works. C&C is good but can be better. I mean it is good and there are times when it feels limited, like you say: Here it should have been more choices and depth. It also may be the hungry C&C me. Still, you get that feeling of the end of times with the sun gone and the apparent easy decisions kicking you bad in the balls. Punishing but feels good. I mean it makes you angry at times but that is the setting and that is good. Be careful, this game may not have a happy ending. They may very well be fighting for the way their world ends there. And if by any chance, later in the series, it will have some sort of happy ending, it will be obtained with your heroes sitting on a huge pile of corpses. Children and women included. All species. The more I write here, the more I think this is a pretty good game after all.

As or combat side. I love TB but I miss a good initiative system here. I mean it is once your turn, then the opponent's turn. No matter what. If you kill the enemy that is next in order another enemy, later in the "initiative" line, will pop up and do a turn. Even if you have 6 guys left and they 2, those 2 will do turns 3 times each for your 6 guys turns. Ugly. I am a fan of hard combat and I could enjoy the punishment it brings in Banner Saga, but I dont like the way they choose to punish me. They have a certain system in place when you are left with the last enemy but I think it should kick in sooner or differently.

I see myself doing one or 2 more runs of this. There is room for that.

Over all, this is incline in the bitter-sweet way that indies bring. Felt better than Shodowrun. Anyway, I would have Banner Saga anytime over shit like Skyrim or some Dragon Age Effect. Still I expect Original Sin to be in a whole another league after playing their Alpha. This is incline but there is more to come this year

 

[x4nti]

I love TB but I miss a good initiative system here. I mean it is once your turn, then the opponent's turn. No matter what. If you kill the enemy that is next in order another enemy, later in the "initiative" line, will pop up and do a turn. Even if you have 6 guys left and they 2, those 2 will do turns 3 times each for your 6 guys turns. Ugly. I am a fan of hard combat and I could enjoy the punishment it brings in Banner Saga, but I dont like the way they choose to punish me. They have a certain system in place when you are left with the last enemy but I think it should kick in sooner or differently.

The initiative system and the armor/health dualism is what makes the combat unique - for better or worse, at least we will always remember that it was different.

Instead of killing the opponents outright, you can employ a tactic called maiming; leave the unit with 1-3 hp. That should render it pretty useless, while still taking up a turn order for the other side.

 

[SuicideBunny]

Even if you have 6 guys left and they 2, those 2 will do turns 3 times each for your 6 guys turns. Ugly. I am a fan of hard combat and I could enjoy the punishment it brings in Banner Saga, but I dont like the way they choose to punish me.

nah, it makes combat harder when you are steamrolling the enemy, less punishing when you are loosing since the same goes for your units as well and it means that sometimes you'll have an easier time when not fielding everybody you can. it's a good system.

 

[InspectorRumpole]

Instead of killing the opponents outright, you can employ a tactic called maiming; leave the unit with 1-3 hp. That should render it pretty useless, while still taking up a turn order for the other side.

Just don't leave the big Dredge ones with low ST. I'm pretty sure they can summon something, and they're going to try when they get to low ST. (haven't seen it happen as i quickly kill them when they start the summon spell)

 

[Cyberarmy]

Instead of killing the opponents outright, you can employ a tactic called maiming; leave the unit with 1-3 hp. That should render it pretty useless, while still taking up a turn order for the other side.

Just don't leave the big Dredge ones with low ST. I'm pretty sure they can summon something, and they're going to try when they get to low ST. (haven't seen it happen as i quickly kill them when they start the summon spell)

Yup, they summon one of them small dredges on their next turn which happens pretty quickly if there are only a few dredges remaining on battlefield.
In on battle one of their tower shield guys pushed another giant that trying to summon, out of my reach yesterday. Clever tactic I say.

 

[felipepepe]

Not sure how they can call it influenced by games like Final Fantasy Tactics and then not include something as simple but vital as equipment and inventories.

Right when the kickstarter launched, I asked them that, right here on the Codex. They promised they were going to include them if they got enough money.

A few weeks later, they get 700% of their goal and add in a full orchestral soundtrack... no sight of any inventory.