Mengy
wishes it were bannable to say mean things about Marvel
Release Date: February 18th, 2014
Platforms: Windows (Linux, Mac, and SteamOS planned)
Publisher: Shining Rock Software
Developer: Luke Hodorowicz
What is Banished?
Banished is a city building strategy game that starts out with a small band of villagers, exiled into the procedurally generated wilds, with only a small cart of supplies to accompany them. You must keep the population alive by building them a community and living off the land while finding ways to feed and clothe your people. Survival is the goal, and while the summers can be pleasant the winters can be very harsh. Hunt and forage for food, grow crops, fish, trade for goods you can’t find. Collect materials to build houses, blacksmiths, sawmills, roads, and many other buildings. Expand the village as people are born, grow, work jobs (twenty different professions), have more children, get old, and die.
However, actions have consequences. Cutting down trees will lower the deer population. Newly planted trees take time to grow, but many herbs can only be found in old forests. The soil in planted fields will deteriorate if farmed for too many seasons in a row. Fish too hard in a good spot and kill off the fish population. Choices made to keep your people alive must be carefully balanced with the risk of death.
The game does not have any skill trees nor gating of any kind. Build any structure whenever you want, as long as you have collected the resources for construction. Money does not exist in Banished, it has no value out in the wilderness. Goods have value and can be traded for other necessities, things like seeds, tools, food, and livestock. There’s no one way to play the game “correctly”, and every map is different (although each map has a seed value allowing you to replay or trade map seeds with others). The only factors in whether your people live or die are the choices you make as their leader. Will they flourish while growing into a large community, or will they die in the cold of winter by freezing or starving to death?
Banished was completely created by one person, Luke Hodorowicz. He did the game design, the programming, the music, and the art and modeling, over a period of three years.
Achievements in Banished serve as gameplay challenges of a sort, acting as little missions you can undertake if you want to. Some will likely be earned via normal playing, but many will most likely take dedicated effort to get:
- Healthy: Maintain high health for 10 years in a town with at least 100 citizens.
- Builder: Build a town that has at least one of every possible structure.
- Trader: Use trading posts to trade 50,000 units of goods in a single town.
- Smiles all Around: Maintain high happiness for 10 years in a town with at least 100 citizens.
- Farmer: Acquire 3 livestock types, 8 crop seed types, and 8 orchard seed types.
- Foodie: In a single year, produce at least 2000 food each from hunters, gatherers, fisherman, pastures, fields, and orchards.
- Immigrants: Allow 200 nomads into a single town.
- Master Trader: Use Trading Posts to trade 100,000 units of goods in a single town.
- Tombstone: Fill graveyards with at least 400 graves.
- Stylish: Cloth a population of over 200 with warm coats for 4 years.
- Jack of all Trades: Build a town of over 200 people that has someone working in every profession for at least 5 years.
- Mason: Maintain 2 quarries with 30 workers each for 3 years.
- Blacksmith: Equip a population of over 200 adults with steel tools for 4 years.
- Built from Stone: Build a town with 100 [[House#Stone House|stone houses.
- Smelter: Produce 10,000 iron in a 100 year period.
- Golden Gate: Build a bridge that is at least 50 units long.
- Highwaymen: Build a town with 2000 stone paved road tiles.
- Stonework: Produce 10,000 stone in a 100 year period.
- Established: Build a town that has a population of 300 after 100 years.
- Master Builder: Build a town with 3 Churches, 5 Boarding Houses, 4 Markets, 5 Hospitals, 2 Trading Posts, 6 Taverns, and a Town Hall.
- Ready for Anything: Simultaneously store 2000 fuel, 2000 wood, 500 stone, 500 iron, 200 tools, 200 coats, and 30000 food.
- Tenure: Build a town that has a population of 500 after 200 years.
- Livestock: Build a town that contains 60 cattle, 75 sheep, and 180 chickens.
- Uneducated: Reach a population of 300 citizens without building schools.
- Mountain Men: Using a harsh climate and a small mountainous map, maintain a population of 50 people for 20 years.
- Educated: Have a fully educated population with 200 adults for 4 years.
- Town: Reach a population of 900 citizens.
- Village: Reach a population of 600 citizens.
- Settlement: Reach a population of 300 citizens.
- Isolationist: Reach 300 citizens without building a trading post.
- One with Nature: Reach 400 citizens without building crops fields, orchards, or pastures.
- Miner: Maintain 2 mines with 30 workers each for 3 years.
- Food variety: Grow and harvest 8 different plants and 8 different orchard tree types in a single year.
- Firefighter: Build 20 wells in a single town.
- Exports; Stock the Trading Post with at least 500 ale, 300 Steel Tools, and 200 Warm Coats.
- Lumberjack: Produce 50,000 logs in a 100 year period.
All of the achievements are listed in game with an easy to access interface:
Screenshots:
The game looks stunning and oozes style and polish all over. Here are a few examples of how the game looks.
Videos:
Good video introduction to the game by Arumba: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vglRqqyghg
Shining Rock's own Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/ShiningRockSoftware
Series of videos by Quill18: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLs3acGYgI1-vZpczu2p5qMXfUWFtg29py
Elder Geek review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv2w4zXySDI
TotalBiscuit's WTF preview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAi5wWPDZjw
Important Links:
The Steam Store page for Banished: http://store.steampowered.com/app/242920
Shining Rock's website: http://www.shiningrocksoftware.com/
Also available to buy on GOG: http://www.gog.com/game/banished
NPR Article about Banished
