Update: Our full review of The Banner Saga 2 is now available.
It’s hard to relate to people sometimes, especially someone from thousands of years ago who may or may not have existed. But, after seven hours playing the preview build of The Banner Saga 2 , I feel I have a kinship with one of Greek mythology’s biggest losers - Tantalus .
For those who don’t have a six-figure loan debt courtesy of a futile liberal arts education, Tantalus is a man punished by the Greek gods to spend eternity in the underworld wanting things he can never have. He stands up to his neck in a cool, refreshing stream while a tree branch heavy with fruit dangles above him. But when he reaches for the fruit, the branch moves higher. When he bends to drink, the water recedes. And, if it existed, I’m sure the gods would have added to his torment by only giving him a taste of The Banner Saga 2 because it is, so far at least, a wonderful game with a deeply compelling narrative.
This review falls way short of being comprehensive, unfortunately. Stoic only provided the first three chapters of a nine chapter story for the preview, so I can’t speak to things like end game battles and conflict resolution. But there are things I can speak about. If you were a fan of The Banner Saga you won’t be disappointed. Stoic stuck to the same basic formula - Oregon Trail meets Fire Emblem but Norse - for The Banner Saga 2 . This isn’t to say there are no changes, but the tweaks are slight. The Banner Saga remains a near perfect game . There wasn’t much room for improvement, but in my time with the preview build it appears Stoic has found some.
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 narrative itself is fantastic. If you have a saved game from The Banner Saga it will carry over into The Banner Saga 2 and the choices you made will continue to impact the game. Even better, if you don’t have a file or are new to the franchise, there’s a brief video that will get you caught up on the story and allow you to make plot decisions before starting your game. The main story in The Banner Saga 2 splits its focus between two characters who have vastly different temperaments. It engaged me in a way few games do, because one side is clearly the good side and one side the bad. So I got play both a holier-than-thou savior of the people AND a bloodthirsty, selfish brigand only interested in coin and glory. And in a game where so many decisions feel like they have real weight to them, I enjoyed being able to explore both sides of the karmic coin.
The rest of my time with the preview build of The Banner Saga 2 felt familiar. The combat remains largely unchanged, with the addition of some new enemy types and traits mixing things up. A training camp allows players to earn renown (essentially the currency of the game) in between combat while also serving as a tutorial for more advanced tactics. The turn-based battles are well balanced and challenging. I have a lot of tactical gameplay experience as a devotee of both Fire Emblem and XCOM , and even I found myself on the losing end of a few combat scenarios. But the difficulty can be adjusted at any time, so you won’t have any Dark Souls 3 -style roadblocks .
And it wouldn’t be a review of The Banner Saga 2 preview build without mentioning the gorgeous art style. It’s unlike almost anything else out there and it says a lot about the gameplay environments and travel screens when they make the cutscenes feel rough by comparison. This is a world being torn apart by a mystical serpent, and magic rules the day. There were many moments where the environment came alive in a way I had not experienced in a game before. I don’t want to spoil anything, but there is one especially tense, jaw-dropping sequence early in the game that makes the stunning landscape art really sing. It was a breathtaking experience. And the preview ends on a cliffhanger on par with Negan’s arrival in The Walking Dead , except a lot less annoying.
Overall, my review of the preview of The Banner Saga 2 is overwhelmingly positive. All of the strengths of the previous game are there and supported in meaningful ways. Quite simply, it’s more of what you wanted. And it’s coming on April 19 . It’s not as long a wait as Tantalus’ eternity in the underworld, it just feels like it.
