Banished (video game)
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Banished is a city-building strategy video game developed by Shining Rock Software. It was released for Microsoft Windows on February 18, 2014. The game focuses on careful resource management and survival as an isolated and growing society. Its gameplay can be compared with economic theory on sustainability and optimization.
Gameplay
The player guides citizens of a remote community of outcasts to grow and maintain a settlement through a command economy. The game focuses on the player's town as a whole, with the citizens of the town acting as a resource to be managed. The player must assign citizens to various jobs such as a builder or fisherman. The citizens then perform the job without specific direction from the player. Citizens have needs that must be met in order to keep them happy and healthy, such as ensuring enough food is available or that they have a home. Additional citizens come from two sources, the birth of children and the arrival of nomads, wandering groups of citizens that wish to join the player's town. Citizens age and eventually die.[1][2][3]
The player must order the building of various structures in order to support the citizens, such as houses, blacksmith shops, hospitals, farms, and schools, while ensuring enough resources are being produced to keep the citizens stocked. The player must balance the use of resources against the town's growth.[3][4]
The developer states that "the townspeople of Banished are your primary resource. They are born, grow older, work, have children of their own and eventually die. Keeping them healthy, happy and well-fed are essential to making your town grow as you have to deal with relentless weather conditions, fires, depression, starvation, an aging population and more."[4]
Development
Development of Banished began in August 2011 and has been developed solely by Luke Hodorowicz under the studio name Shining Rock Software.[5][6] In a September 2013 interview, Hodorwicz said that the Anno series of games was a big inspiration, which influenced his decision not to include combat in the initial release.[7]
PCGamer interviewed Hodorowicz in December 2013, where he noted that he hoped to release the game by January 2014. Hodorowicz stated he had put over 5500 hours of development into the game, and hoped to eventually add support for Linux and OS X.[8]
On January 9, 2014, it was announced the game would be released for Microsoft Windows on February 18.[9]
Support for mods was announced in July 2014.[10]
Reception
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Banished received mixed to positive reviews upon release. Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average score out of 100 to reviews from critics, gave the game a score of 73 based on 32 reviews, while GameRankings has a score of 72.89% based on 19 reviews.[11][12]
Polygon scored the game 7.5 out of 10.0, noting that Banished felt more like a "survival simulation" than a city-building simulation. While praising the games graphics and animations, they noted that the game struggled with giving players solid feedback on the results of their actions.[16] Eurogamer gave the game a score of 6/10, noting that the game was a "survival sandbox. It's harsh", agreeing with Polygon that it was difficult to get information. Eurogamer noted that having to build structures in a strict grid-like pattern felt generic and formulaic.[2]
PC Gamer gave the game a score of "70/100", stating that it is "a nice change of pace for city-builders", but noted that as the population grows, survival becomes less of a focus and city management takes over.[1] GameSpot scored the game 8/10, noting how the different mechanics of each structure interlock and provide relevance, and praising the difficulty. However, they noted the game suffered from lacking a sense of progression.[14]
Game Informer rated the game with an 8/10, comparing it to games such as Dwarf Fortress and Towns, but more accessible and with improved graphics.[13] IGN provided an 8.3/10 score, noting that Banished suffered when the gameplay difficulty was lower, while also making the same comparison to Dwarf Fortress as Game Informer. IGN praised Banished for creating difficulty through the lack of a money resource, rather than using money as the primary source of difficulty.[15]
The Escapist gave the game 3.5/5 stars, praising the simulation aspects and interface, but noting that it doesn't take long to see everything it has to offer. Escapist felt the game's difficulty suffered as the town grew larger, with no proper end game goal to keep players engaged beyond earning achievements.[3]
References
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