The game is certainly not to be used as a litmus test of bleeding edge graphic quality that a growing portion of gamers seem to think is what constitutes the mark of greatness. Instead of saying the graphics are “bad” I prefer to think of them rather as “elegantly simple”. Most likely due to the fact that the game was almost entirely developed by a single person, the graphics in Banished are nothing to write home about, but it’s not the ugliest game I’ve come across either. If you’re looking for a title in a category you feel hasn’t gotten due deference, certainly nab a copy of Banished you won’t be totally disappointed. The game doesn’t radically shake up the city simulation field, but what it does set out to do it does quite well even when the few problems become clearly obvious. While Banished doesn’t contribute in grandiose ways to the genre, it’s honed approach to its guidelines, the gently increasing challenge level, and the random planetary resistance to the continued survival of your outcast citizenry all add up to a game that’s relaxing and tense in natural turns and a great diversion from some of the flashier (if not always successful) cohabiters it shares space with. The populace doesn’t need no stinkin’ money to buy what they need to stay alive as consumable goods are created and freely distributed in a perfect communist society.
Money is of little consequence when the main goal of your villagers is simply to stay alive by being well fed, clothed, and sheltered.
Cash has been completely eradicated from the formula, instead opting on resource management for the currency du’ jour and every building is available for construction from the outset, something most city simulations opt against. Banished takes the agent based playstyle of the recently revived, then unceremoniously shuttered, SimCity but simplifies the system and refines the flow of goods within your town’s local economy. Enter Banished, a Medieval-themed village simulator, created essentially by a single programmer with surprising depth, a challenging yet easy to cope with learning curve, and some nail biting moments due to the unpredictability of random weather events that may outright kill your city’s population if you’re not proactively managing the flow of daily life in your digital community.
Ah, the city builder genre, a woefully underappreciated theme that’s had its share of massive hits ( Cities: Skylines which received generally favorable critical acclaim) and tragic misses ( SimCity, which seemed to go totally off the rails in the eyes of the faithful and was systematically railed against due to a required always online presence), and one that systemically gets few new entries with truly groundbreaking gameplay additions or exciting twists to conventionally time-tested staples, if released at all.