The Banner Saga 2
The saga continues and the battles improve
Don’t let the name fool you. The Banner Saga 2 isn’t a sequel to Stoic’s beautiful Norse fantasy tactics game, but rather a continuation thereof. It’s part 2 of the epic saga of a land in which the gods have died, the sun has stopped, and everything living is on the run from the terrifying Dredge. Set right after the events of the first game, the player finds themselves once again in charge of a small caravan, pressing through the ice and snow trying to make it to the human capital and supposed safety. Even though the game is a continuation rather than a sequel, aside from the fact that players can bring their characters over from the first game with experience intact, there’s no reason not to start the Viking adventure in the middle. The Banner Saga 2 starts with an excellent catch-up video to get players up to speed with the story, and underneath the hood many of the mechanics have been improved or redesigned, making Banner Saga 2 both richer and more enjoyable than the already excellent first chapter.
The story suffers a little from middle trilogy syndrome, explaining things from the first game and setting things up for the planned third and final instalment, but there’s more than enough in the main story to hook players. Just in case you’re not fully engaged, there is a second caravan story in the game as well, following the berserker and sellsword from the original game. It adds a brutal overtone to what is already a rather melancholy experience. The action of the game is split between Telltale by way of Oregon Trail decision making and turn based combat.
It adds a brutal overtone to what is already a rather melancholy experience
While the route and destination of the caravan are predetermined, the choices the player has to make along the way can drastically alter the way the game plays out. New heroes can be recruited, bad decisions can kill characters, not having enough supplies can seriously affect the morale of the caravan and so on. Each decision made has a palpable effect on gameplay, whether it be something as simple of gaining some new supplies to stave off the long winter hunger through to having one of your levelled and important characters die due to bad management. The single save slot makes these decision even more important, as unless you want to lose progress there are no do-overs.
Combat has been significantly improved with the addition of new troop type to fight with or against, necessitating new tactical approaches, and battle specific win conditions. Rather than completing a battle by simply killing all the enemies in an area, battles in Banner Saga 2 may require fighters to defend an area for as long as it takes to clear a snow drift, kill a single important enemy or any number of other win scenarios. This simple change adds some extra spice to the otherwise already solid combat. A new tutorial and hero training mode also gives players a chance to really come to grips with how to use all the fighters to their greatest effect.