Game Review: The Banner Saga 3 is the end of an epic story

The most ambitious fairy tale since Mass Effect finally comes to a conclusion and only You can decide what is happening

Game Review: Removeded: Fathers tormented is a horror of old school survival

It's been four years now that the developer Stoic, who has many BioWare veterans among them, embarked on their epic adventure inspired Viking. The games themselves have changed little at this time, but the story and the characters have evolved a lot, while the weight and horror of their situation become obvious. It's possible to get a happy ending with The Banner Saga but the odds are against you, and the only way to know how it ends is to play yourself.

Although The Banner Saga has little in common with BioWare games in terms of game mechanics, there is a clear connection with Mass Effect, the way it uses backups of previous games in new ones – so that all the decisions you made before (and perma under the characters you killed)

But unlike Mass Effect, these are not really separate games but simply chapters of the same story. You can start by playing The Banner Saga 3 and ignore others but this is not something we would recommend. Not only do you have no idea what's going on (there's a recap at the beginning, but only for people who have forgotten what happened last time, rather than new players) .

Since this is the third game, we will have to pay attention to the spoilers, although we confess that we do not know exactly which elements of history are carved in stone and that is a consequence of previous actions. But the basic configuration is a derivative of Nordic folklore, which takes place in a semi-fantastic version of Scandinavia where the earth was thrown into a perpetual twilight. The tone is more melancholy than most BioWare games, and the humor is rare.

Although there are many sub-factions, ordinary humans mingle with horned giants called Varl, while they flee monsters resembling golems. In previous games, your main concern was to protect the refugees and build up your reserves and cadre of warriors. But all this is finished in the third game, as the countdown to the passing days and weeks so well highlights, now counts at the end of the world

. : the main group of survivors who are besieged by Dredge in the last safe castle in the country, and a small team of mercenaries trying to stop the end of all while going to the source of evil

The gameplay in the three the games have only varied a bit and beyond strategic and story-based decision-making, the majority of your time is spent in a turn-based tactical combat system that is not different from Final Fantasy Tactics and others

The grid reminds all of Disgaea to XCOM, although one of the main Each fighter has a separate odds for strength and armor, the first determinant not only how much of damage they can do but also acting as points of health. This means that the more a character is injured, the less effective he is at fighting, which is not only more realistic but creates an interesting tactical dilemma when deciding where to focus his attacks and when to finish. 39; a. Especially when you consider that each character is subject to a permadeath.

There are, however, new unique elements to the third game, including the fact that you can now control Dredge's characters. But the most significant difference is that the enemies will now attack in waves and if you do not erase them before the next one arrives, you have serious trouble. In this way, the game refreshes the fact that time is always against you, especially when you face new types of mutated enemies that explode when they are defeated.

[19659007] The fight is enjoyable and interesting, but in truth, it has never seemed engaging enough to support a trilogy of games. Except for inflexible isometric camera angles, it's perfectly entertaining, but narration is the real attraction. Anyone who has played since the first game will (hopefully) have several characters who have lasted all the history and find out what is happening to them, or lose them in the last hours, creates a wonderful mix of tension and d & # 39; dread.

the question arises, as is always the case with narrative games, to what extent your decisions actually affect the general history. The characters can live and die, and how much resources you have accumulated is certainly important, but it seems that some of the decisions you make at the end of this sequel have far more effect on the different ends than anything else. has happened. before.