Games about a difficult moral choice and the need to make important decisions in a situation where the world around flies to tartarars, terrible monsters attack people everywhere and you just need to survive, today are especially popular today. And everywhere they are talking about zombies. Some The Walking Dead, make a bet on text and history, others like Dayz, – On the action. The Banner Saga manages to combine both of these trends, but at the same time appears to be completely unique: there is no zombie, the action takes place in the fantasy world of Scandinavian legends, most of the time what is happening like a beautiful cartoon in the format of a revived text quest, but there are also extremely exciting step -by -step battles.
Naturally, it is unlikely that any serious publisher decided to sign such a project-a too wonderful concept resembling a patchwork blanket. Most likely, the fact that the authors, three founders of the studio would not help, would not help Stoic, worked in BioWare over Star Wars: The Old Republic. The answer in such situations is known – Kickstarter. Back in 2012, the authors gathered on The Banner Saga almost 700 thousand dollars. Development, as usual, lingered. A year ago Stoic I released the freeid The Banner Saga: Frations, which revealed the combat system – there the players fought with each other in step -by -step battles. The latter, no doubt, were good, but the full version was even better.
You can rob caravans
So, the next Ragnarek is approaching the snowy Scandinavian world, that is, the apocalypse. Let there be no zombies, but there is an inconspicuous army of mechanical monsters (Dredge), led by an immortal commander who attacks the settlements of people and Varlov (this is such a local race of horned giants). The latter are united to resist the general danger, but then they understand that all these are only flowers against the background of a true catastrophe. After all, the mechanical monsters themselves run from infernal darkness, absorbing everything in its path.
The plot, you must admit, is not the latest, but it forms the desired atmosphere of despair and puts heroes in the most difficult conditions. And the heroes here are
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rather not specific characters, but clans and caravans, which they lead. More precisely, two caravans, which begin their way from different ends of the large map, then meet somewhere in the middle and disperse again in different directions in accordance with the idea of the scriptwriters.
The caravan in this case is a living organism that needs food and dream. Warriors of people and Varlov, along with carts, women and children, go from city to city day after day and meet with different dangers, the main of which is not even mechanical monsters (although, of course, they have to fight periodically), but hunger, depletion of resources and resources and depletion of resources andThe fall of moral spirit. You buy supplies in every new settlement, but they are spent every day – and the faster the larger the number of caravan. At any moment you can make a halt to give people to relax, eat and spend the night – this increases morality, but again reduces the number of supplies.
When the food ends, people will begin to gradually die. Their moral spirit will also fall, which is why the conditions in tactical battles will deteriorate. Meanwhile, the game constantly throws up situations when someone wants to join the caravan. And this, as a rule, is a very difficult moral choice. Most often to take with you is to save your life. It happens that entire villages are ready to join you. Refuse – and in a day you will find out that the settlement remaining behind was destroyed by the army of monsters. You can try to look for the survivors, at least partially facilitating your conscience, but you can only accelerate the step – after all, supplies at the end of it, you already have people every day.
This is only one example. But every day something new happens. Try to save the child from the fire or think first of all about the salvation of supplies;share food with wounded Varla or pass by;turn off the main road to check where the smoke comes from or not;To chase the thieves that stole part of your resources, or order to guard the remaining ones – choose you.
It would seem that the decisions are obvious: do not turn anywhere, do not take anyone to yourself, think only about survival. But not everything is so simple. In addition to some moral torment (well, how not to rush to save the child from the fire!) Always dares doubt: maybe the same saved Varl will become an indispensable warrior or give a powerful artifact that helps your characters in fights? Some of the rescued and heated by you, on the contrary, can share their supplies. Or it can become a burden that is nervous of the rest of the clan. Finally, an increase in the number of caravan is not only harmful, but also useful: the higher it is, the easier the fights with the monsters when the army converges into the army. It takes into account how many fighters are in each of them, and accordingly the conditions of the duel are built, where the fate of the whole battle will be determined.
At a halt they are allowed to conduct training fights to hone different tactics and experience fighters.
Survival tactics
Battles are the same important part of the game as the moral choice. They participate in them not faceless people and Varla, but specific characters with their names, biographies, motives and the history of joining the caravan. Gradually their number increases, but each time you must choose a maximum of six defenders for the battle.
In the battles of history and motives, they fade into the background – here the main role is played by classes and special skills. Huge slow barls, of course, make a bet on gross power and their decent proportions, and also have different skills: one can beat several enemies at once, the other can push the enemy away from him, the third is able to inspire an ally on an extraordinary move. Faster and nimble people know how to use long -range weapons, place traps, hit enemies with thunder and lightning and apply insidious strokes in the back – it all depends on the specific class. Battles of step -by -step – each participant can move in his move, attack, use the ability or wait, accumulating an additional point of special energy (Willpower), which is spent on special receptions and increases the power of the usual attack.
Everything seems to be clear and familiar (before the fight, you still need to correctly place the wards), but in The Banner Saga There are nuances that give all this a special depth and uniqueness. Firstly, it is already mentioned above WillPower: to competently save and use this resource-the path to victory. The enemy, for example, has 3 points of life left, and you can apply him only 2 units of damage. He will survive, and on the next move he will lay on the land of your warrior. But if you use one WillPower point, then you will increase the attack and kill the adversary faster.
Accordingly, the parameters appeared in the role system responsible for the total amount of energy available to the fighter, as well as for the quantity that you can use directly during the attack. Each murder of the enemy gives an additional WillPower point – it is placed in a common piggy bank, and you yourself decide which of the characters and when to issue it.
The artist of the game Arnie Jorgensen once collaborated not only with BioWare, but also with DC Comics and Ion Storm.
Secondly, the strength of the attack is equated with the level of health of the character, and the damage itself can be two types: you can try to quickly reduce the vitality of the enemy to zero or beat him by defense. And the lower the level of armor, the more damage you cause directly to health. That is, another dilemma rises – stubbornly destroy the armor of a particularly powerful enemy, so that later the archers can dump it with one critical shot, or try to deprive him of his health rather.
By killing enemies, your characters naturally develop, but to directly open a new level and “pump” the characteristics is allowed only in the city or during a halt. Moreover, here there is a difficult choice: the fact is that Renown glasses are spent on improvement, but they also go to the purchase of artifacts that give bonuses in battle, and to the purchase of vital supplies for the whole clan. As a result, closer to the final “pumping” slows down, and fights are even more complicated. Well, at least, the fallen in the battle does not die – they get serious injuries that reduce the characteristics, which does not stop going into battle again. And after a few days the consequences of injury disappear.
Northern saga
Important moral solutions, interesting and deep tactical battles – this is already enough for the game to find its audience, but this trump cards in the sleeve Stoic Not exhausted. The plot is more and more delayed as it develops-new bright characters appear, someone is tragically dies, someone is revealed mysterious secrets and personal dramas. We see how whole cities perish and mountains grow, we are experiencing an earthquake, contemplate some visions of one of the heroes where a huge infernal worm and a strange girl appear … Scriptwriters very successfully juggle the past characters and switch between the stories of two caravans, cutting them off into itself in the very timeAn interesting place.
Gradually, the situations of moral choice themselves grow from simple problems of survival to some global dilemmas and dramas. For example, there are options to try to protect or, conversely, to destroy a certain important bridge in the capital of Varlov – in the latter case, the union between the two races will be violated, and soon friction with horned giants will begin in your caravan.
It is also important how deep the authors worked out the world The Banner Saga. Here the hand of former employees is clearly felt BioWare: they came up with a unique living universe with their myths, legends, races, heroes and villains. On a huge global map, you can study the names and history of different cities, mountain passes, valleys and other interesting places for hours.
Finally, the project looks and sounds like a real harsh fairy tale. You hear the howl of the wind and the gloomy Scandinavian chants, you see the most beautiful casual drawings in the places of worship to local gods, notice how the eyes of characters burn with lively fire during numerous dialogs. The “cartoon” style does not destroy and does not facilitate this atmosphere, but makes what is happening like an animated adventure of the highest quality, which is usually customary to watch on the big screen in the best cinemas.
We are already used to the fact that the stamp “approved on Kickstarter” does not always mean that the game funded by the people will turn out as good as the developers promise. WITH The Banner Saga, Thank God everything succeeded! The authors fulfilled almost all promises and at the same time did not ask for anything from above. Yes, the exit was delayed, but this is just the case when the expectation with more than was justified by the final result.
Pros: chic graphic style;living world;exciting tactical battles;variable dialogs;An important moral choice that affects the course of the game;An interesting plot.
Cons: The interface in the battles could be made comfortable.