While not necessarily that bad a notion, it can very quickly become tiresome. Despite the beautiful and melodic opening, setting the scene via a world-weary voice-over, for the most part you are presented with reams and reams of text to sift through. The problem is that to get fully immersed into the story, you need to pay close attention and actively seek out a lot of backstory. The hand drawn visuals are incredibly good-looking and give the whole ensemble a unique, albeit a little classic Disney, look (think The Sword in the Stone era). This, along with the strikingly beautiful visuals, immediately give The Banner Saga a real character in itself. There is a real history woven into the overall fabric of the game, and on the world map you can click on any area, path, mountain range, etc and read up on their significances to the plot and the parts they play. And thus begins the main story, as through different protagonists at different ends of the world stage you must take control of huge armies and villagers as you lead an exodus, flying long banners into which your clan's families' stories are woven, fleeing your homes before the dredge have a chance to kill and destroy everything you own and love.įrom the off, The Banner Saga is rich with story. The dredge are large, unforgiving forces of evil, driven into the wilderness after the war but for reasons yet unknown make a return and begin terrorising villages, killing anyone they come across and advance from the edges of the map inwards. However, these races must band together once more as the dredge are coming back.

Still mainly segregated across the land and in groups, the two races get along but relations are a struggle at times, mirroring real life and bringing a mature element into the fold.

Humans have relatively recently begun to coexist somewhat peacefully with the giant hulking varl race after the Second Great War against the dredge many years prior to the game's beginning. Despite constant sunshine, the world is, as always, covered in snow, and against this backdrop The Banner Saga tells a bleak and desperate story. Some foretell this as an impending apocalypse being on the horizon, while others are thankful for no more 'dark months', where things like food and nature have a chance to flourish. The gods are dead, and the sun is forever beaming, casting the planet into a state of perpetual brightness. As soon as The Banner Saga is booted up, you know you're in for something special. The first part of a proposed trilogy, The Banner Saga fuses some old school gameplay styles with some more modern ideas, and it works well, combining some Norse-inspired ethos with exceptional visuals and musical score. Reviews // 14th Jan 2014 - 9 years ago // By Gary Durston The Banner Saga Review

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