Banished

Banished is a huge city-building game that’s very reminiscent of SimCity but takes place in a much more rural environment. It’s fun, rewarding, and gives you a lot of flexibility in how you want to play. Let’s jump into some of the features of the game.

A new beginning

In Banished, you take control of a group of travelers looking to begin a new life somewhere out in the world. You don't start out with many resources so you have to do your best to gather materials and build up your settlement from scratch. It takes time to expand your small settlement into a full-blown city, but it's worth the wait to see how beautifully things turn out.

The citizens of Banished

For the citizens of Banished, the circle of life starts and ends in the same place. Your aim is to keep them as happy and healthy as possible as they progress through life so that your city can expand. If you don't take good care of your citizens, you won't have any stable growth because people will die – that's why resource management is important in this game. Don't worry though, as you're sure to get the hang of things pretty quickly. There's a lot of strategy involved in Banished, but it's not so complicated that it'll overwhelm you.

Citizen occupations

Twenty different occupations are available in the game that can be assigned to various townspeople. This includes things such as mining, blacksmithing, hunting, teaching, farming, etc. There are lots of different options so be sure to explore all your possibilities so that you can get the most out of the game.

Build however you want, so long as you have the resources

Banished doesn’t follow a skill tree system, so you can build anything you want at any time so long as you have the necessary resources. Certain builds will naturally require large amounts of resources and rare materials so even though everything is available from the start, it’ll likely take some time before you manage to build everything you want to. It’s worth also noting that some maps will have more of certain resources than others, so you’ll have to adapt your strategy for success if you're lacking a particular resource. It may seem like a nuisance, but that's part of the fun!

Pros:

• Lots of creative freedom to play the game however you want
• Full of challenges and situations that are incredibly satisfying to get through successfully
• There’s always something new to discover with how much variety the game offers

Cons:

• Can come across as a bit complicated if you’re not used to city-building games
• If you struggle to manage resources well it can get frustrating having to restart over and over when all your townspeople die due to starvation or freezing

I have long been a fan of city building, god sim style games so Banished was a game that I was very excited to finally get round to playing. If you love watching a civilization grow and like to feel like you have a hand in helping them thrive. Banished could be the exact game that you are looking for.

Those That No One Wanted

One of the more interesting aspects of Banished for me was the people that are part of your civilization. These are people who have been exiled from elsewhere and you being the kind hearted soul that you are make a home for these outcasts and try to do what you can in order to make sure they do not just have a home, but also that they flourish for generations to come.

The Person In Charge

You are in charge of how your settlement will grow. The people that you are looking after actually work as a resource. You need to make these people do certain things and by doing this, your settlement will start to grow. So you will need to make sure that the right people have the right job. For example, you need to have people to catch the food, build houses, work as a blacksmith and so on. Once you give a person a job you do not have to worry about micromanaging them. This is something I actually like, but on the flip side of this if you are the kind of player who likes to be able to micromanage every little aspect of these people’s lives it may not be enough for you.

Keep Them Happy And They Will Keep On Going

While your people will go to work and make sure the settlement is coming along nicely. You do have to make sure that they are happy. You do this by ensuring that there are things being built that will make their lives better. We are talking about things like hospitals, places to eat, schools and so on. I had a lot of fun doing this, but the game I feel could do a better job at letting you know what you need to do. There were times that I had lots of unhappy people on my hands and had no idea why. Well, it was all down to my little hospital and that I needed to make another one! I found this out by pure luck. Eventually, you get the hang of what is required to make sure your settlement keeps on running smooth….. well as smooth as possible.

Stop Dying!!!!

Of course as is the case with any god sim, town builder, civilization style game. Your little people are going to die. Death in Banished tends to happen at the hands of some kind of natural disaster or due to people aging. What is kind of cool though is that people in this game can reproduce. So if they are happy, they will date, they will get married, they will….. well they will keep the settlement flourishing. As well as this new outcasts will come calling so that will add more people. Having new people is great as it means more people to work and make sure things keep on working. Also though it means you need more homes, schools, hospitals, food and so on so it is a very delicate line you have to keep walking.

I thought that Banished was a really fun game. It offered you a lot of choice and things to do, but it was not as overly complex as some other similar style games I have played. I do feel that it could have given you a little more of a nudge in certain directions so you knew exactly what to do, but that is a very small nitpick.

8/10

Pros:

• The idea of making a home for outcasts is interesting
• I like the presentation they went for
• You actually want to make sure the people are happy
• It is not overly complex
• Interesting life and death cycle

Cons:

• Sometimes can be hard to know what they need
• Might not be enough micromanaging for some