The Banner Saga 2 Previews, Gameplay Footage
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With The Banner Saga 2 coming out tomorrow, I figured this would be a good opportunity to make a round-up of the recent previews and the gameplay footage that has been released over the web in the last few days. Hopefully, this should help our readers decide whether the game piques their interest or not, while we wait for the reviews.
The Banner Saga 2 picks up straight after the events of the first game; the world is reaching its end and the Dredge are as evil as ever, with the deaths of loved ones still weighing heavy on the hearts of your characters. I don't want to ruin anything so we'll leave it there, but those tough decisions and unexpected deaths of The Banner Saga are just as present in the sequel. Tears will be shed, I promise.
Everything from the mountains in the distance to the look of the camp enclaves are just as beautiful as before, but the subtle changes to environments give more depth to the world. They look a lot sharper this time around, and the different weather conditions help to intensify the struggle to keep going. There are also animated sequences as well as the static sequences, and in the four chapters I played, these stood out as one of the better inclusions.
Combat remains relatively unchanged from the original; you still have armour and health gauges, and you still use willpower and special abilities like before, but this time around certain variables can affect how the fight is won, removing some of the repetitive nature present in the first game. In one particular battle, I was almost victorious and the few Dredge left were all but destroyed. Suddenly three more enemies appeared, each with full armour and health and each ready for a scrap.
Clansmen (basic civilians) now will forage for supplies to help restock your larders while on the move, allowing you a little bit of breathing room in between set pieces or battles. This is a welcome addition as previously they were mostly a drain on resources as only Varl and Fighters (your other human type) could help you out in war and battle events. I always tried to keep as many of them alive as I could out of principal, but I know alot of players who did not take that route as there was no incentive to do so.
Still, when the yox droppings hit the fan you are going to want those fighters around. While tactical combat is the other pinnacle of The Banner Saga games it's just as unforgiving as the caravan itself. To make things easier you can use your fighters or Varl to deploy and help you out before the tactical fights start, though again each choice here could spell the deaths for many of your followers.
Once that's done and you're in the battle things will feel familiar to any TBS veteran. There is a grid-based map on which you deploy your heroes and which will have enemies and terrain like obstacles dotted throughout. The careful positioning and movement of characters is key to winning and, unlike many games, there is no healing or resurrecting units who fall unconscious so every move and swing really does matter. It's a simple system to understand, but an incredibly complex one to master. It's also, as far as I was able to tell, exactly the same as the original. It's a little disappointing to see no real innovations in this department with the new game. Admittedly you do get a new race of characters in the form of the Centaur-like Horseborn but this seems more like expansion back stuff then sequel.
The Banner Saga 2 allows players to control a second caravan led by one of the Banner Saga's most memorable characters, a giant varl (a man/animal hybrid) named Bolverk (Bloodaxe.) The leader of a mercenary group called the Ravens, Bolverk is a ruthless berserker who's prone to losing his temper. After this split, the rest of The Banner Saga 2's narrative bounces between your original clan and Bolverk's band of mercenaries.
(We wanted to I don't want to say lighten the mood but we wanted to let players experience the world from a different point of view, one that's not necessarily about trying to be the good guy or save as many people as you can,) says lead writer Drew McGee. (I think players will really enjoy playing as Bolverk, because it's a very different pace for the game. You don't have to worry so much about whether or not people like you. It's almost to your benefit at times to not worry about that at all. Bolverk is a mercenary, he's very selfish, almost evil.)
The enemies you will encounter are more diverse and many new abilities were added for the new creatures like camouflage or enemies appearing in the middle of combat out of nowhere, making a battle that seemed won to become a lot more challenging.
You level up through renown, just like in the previous game but you can get new abilities from time to time, giving you a deeper sense of growth and character progression. Now there are enemies that flee if you defeat their leader, so you don't have to kill the whole party every time.
Other changes come in the interactions you can have with your enemies, if you scout some ahead you can try to back away, try to go past them, attack them or several other choices like this, each with different consequences.
The biggest change I encountered was a greater frequency of instances while traveling . The Banner Saga 2 has players travel frequently with their caravan of soldiers and civilians, and it felt like there was some crisis or moral dilemma every few minutes. Helping out a band of refugees? Turns out they were bandits and they stole your stuff. Injured civilians slowing you down and need to be left behind? Turns out they were good at foraging and now there's less food.
A well-placed Oregon Trail easter egg does a nice job of evoking some of that schoolroom nostalgia, which gives you a warm fuzzy feeling before things get bleak. This is a tundra going through an apocalypse after all: not a lot of rainbows and sunshines in that ragnarok theme.
Those decision points are very compelling, but I hope there's some kind of (Ironman mode) at launch that doesn't allow me to reload saves. Like Tantalus, I'm a coward, and I reloaded multiple saves to change the outcomes of unfavorable decisions. The good news is that decisions do seem to matter, and if the previous title was any indication the decisions in the early part of The Banner Saga 2 will span the entire game (and maybe into The Banner Saga 3 ).
The Banner Saga 2 keeps the same elements that made the original great. The combat is still a complex dance of breaking armour and going for health damage, figuring out when it's better to shatter enemy defenses instead of sapping their strength and positioning is still paramount, unless you're a Varl with the Tempest attack, in which case you might be able to use it to your advantage.
But now, in The Banner Saga 2 they build on these elements, adding new layers to them. With the ability to import characters from the first title, simply increasing stats is not enough. So once you max out a given stat, you can now unlock one of two perks for it, each with three levels, giving you extra bonuses such as a higher chance to dodge or improved critical percentages. These add more customisation to the characters, letting you create '˜builds' that make two heroes with the same skills completely different.
The changes made to The Banner Saga 2 are small but very significant, improving a game that didn't need much improving in the first place. Combat has especially seen changes and been dramatically improved. I felt that there wasn't enough variety or room for tactics in The Banner Saga 1 and towards the end of the game grew tired of the stale combat. However, The Banner Saga 2 has added some new and fun classes to play around with that help on the battlefield, like the Wanderer with the skill to dictate when an enemy can attack by sending him at the back of the attack queue. There's also the Poet that buffs your party with more strength and the Berserker that can attack multiple people in one turn including party members. There are even more classes and they all come with new skills and abilities that completely change the combat which wasn't bad by any means in The Banner Saga 1, but I didn't particularly enjoy it towards the end as there wasn't anything new to see to keep it fresh. The new changes added into this game make combat enjoyable adding a new dimension and tactical approach.
IGN has the game's first 25 minutes:
While Eurogamer has an even more generous 33-minute video:
Youtube channels and Twitch streamers have also had access to an early build of the game and have been covering the game's early chapters. A couple of examples:
