The Banner Saga 2
Strategy with a captivating plot and beautiful hand-drawn art
$19.99 Developer Stoic Studio, stoicstudio.com Requirements OS X 10.7.5 or later, 2GB RAM
The Banner Saga 2 benefits from recent exposure to its predecessor. For one, it opens in the aftermath of the Battle of Boersgard, the first game’s climactic finale. The broad strokes of the Banner Saga are still in place: in a world of men and horned giants, you lead a caravan away from a horde of villainous, stone-skinned “Dredge.” Your time is split between two groups: one, the convoy from the first game, complete with equipment and characters; the other, the Ravens, a mercenary band led by Bolverk, a brutish “Varl” who whittled his amputated horns into a set of twin war axes.
And again, the Banner Saga offers a mix of turn-based combat, resource management, and branching narratives, each under-pinning the other. “Renown” earned in battle buys supplies for the entire caravan; choosing the wrong path through a bog may get your most lethal spearman killed – both could dramatically alter your next skirmish. The interplay between phases imbues each with tension and meaning.
Combat is preserved whole cloth, including the series’ signature “strength” mechanic: the more damage a unit takes, the less it can deal. New abilities and classes – namely the horse-born, who specialize in crowd control and damage over time – allow for new tactical possibilities. With patience and foresight, skilled players can use traps, taunts, and blockades to funnel enemies toward deadly chokepoints or let archers take potshots from behind impenetrable shield-walls. The Banner Saga 2 is more intricate and sophisticated than its predecessor, but it takes a fair number of fights before the more interesting strategies crystallize.
The Banner Saga 2 raises the narrative stakes, pulling back from a few ragged field hands to the fate of the world itself. Where the first game was marked by a quiet sadness, this one explores loss, moral compromise, and the hardening of hearts in the face of existential threat. Dramatic irony, a bold plot, and the soothing rhythm of life on a hard-bitten trail compensate for prose and dialogue that sometimes fall flat.
the bottom line. Both as a set of technical refinements and a captivating plot, the Banner Saga 2 brings a sense of energy and momentum to what could have been a middling stopgap in Stoic’s Norse trilogy.