These dilemmas aren't the only interruptions to your journey. These are pretty universal truths, and it's refreshing to find a game that doesn't try to sugar-coat them. Trying to do the right thing doesn't always work out, and living with your mistakes can be hard yet you must press on regardless. The results may at times seem random, and yet its apparent capriciousness feels strangely honest. You're not really a hero - in each case you're a reluctant leader tasked with making impossible choices under extreme pressures. And yet screwing up is kind of the point. People here aren't living, but surviving - and barely.įailures can be devastating, and it's frequently tempting to reload your last save (the game periodically records your progress to allow this). Meanwhile, a race of armoured enemies called The Dredge are massacring anyone and everyone, forcing you to hurriedly abandon each settlement you find. The sun has gone, leaving the world in a perpetual half-light, while just about everywhere you travel is covered in a thick blanket of snow. 'The gods are dead' are the first words you'll see as the story kicks off, and it only gets worse for your band of bedraggled heroes. Stoic's semi-fantastical Norse setting is beautiful, but by golly is it bleak. The harsh conditions it enforces are a perfect fit for this world. The main difference between the two is that here you're more likely to contract pneumonia than dysentery. Progress is arduous, supplies are continually dwindling, and members of your caravan repeatedly cark it. It may ostensibly be a turn-based strategy game with light RPG elements and some Walking Dead-esque moral dilemmas, but in your slow march across an inhospitable landscape, it most often resembles The Oregon Trail. The Banner Saga is a Kickstarter game that takes the first part of the word all too literally, repeatedly laying the boot in while you're at your most vulnerable. No good deed goes unpunished in this crowdfunded passion project from a trio of ex-BioWare devs.

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