

The quality of the artwork never dips, and the same can be said of the dialogue that keeps you engrossed in the fate of all these people trapped with you inside the walls of Arberrang or the darkness. The combat is broken up by some of the best dialogue and hand-drawn artwork I’ve ever seen in any game. These new additions are fun to play around with, but still don’t do much to change how you fight enemies from your first encounter. You’re able to decide whether to fight or flee after some combats, and if you choose to fight on you can change out your active party on the fly, but so can the enemy once you’ve cleared them out once, twice, or even three times for the chance at a powerful item at the end. You’ll be needing these new buffs during the waves of enemies that The Banner Saga 3 throws at you. You can also assign “heroic titles” to 15 of your favorite characters, giving them further bonuses and special qualities like dodging attacks or damage over time. All characters are boosted to level 8 at the beginning of the game and can now go up to level 15. The new “witch” class, as well as the recruitable dredge allies and “title” level up system add some new possibilities to fights. The new characters also add a level of originality to The Banner Saga 3. The new upgrades and character abilities are fun, but racing to clear a flat, empty battlefield can only be engaging for so many hours. While there are rare exceptions of battlefields with patches of fire or obstacles, the overwhelming majority of combats end with you killing all the enemies just as every fight ended in The Banner Saga 1 and 2. The easy-to-learn, hard-to-master combat is engaging for a while, but becomes stale fast. Unfortunately, many of these choices can lead into combat, which is a weaker aspect. Even when my favorite characters died off, I was the one responsible and it served to remind me of what’s in store for everyone if I fail either storyline. Every choice matters, and more importantly are fair. The tension of knowing characters can die off, and of watching a proud city warp into shambles because of your choices leaves you hanging on every word to make the best decisions possible.
#THE BANNER SAGA MOD CONTENT FREE#
The lives sacrificed in the previous installments are harsh reminders that anyone is free game to kill and, at death’s doorstep, there are more opportunities than ever. Who lives, if anybody, entirely depends on the choices you make on the way to the finish line. The story will flip between these two groups at critical story points, and the way you play one of them will affect the other. One is managing a city on the verge of collapse, while the other ventures into an encroaching darkness to try and secure a future for life. Just as in the previous installments, you control two groups of characters. Thankfully though, those 30 hours are some of the most memorable of any game in recent history and are a joy to play.

Unfortunately, The Banner Saga 3 only offers a bare-bones 100-second recap on the previous 30 hours of content that The Banner Saga 1 + 2 had. Do you have it in you to manage an internally collapsing city and plunge into the darkness in the hope for survival? The Trialīetween stone colossi invading, an ocean-sized snake devouring the planet, and an encroaching wall of darkness, there’s a lot to fear this time around. But to do that you need to use turn-based combat and make heart-shattering decisions that kill characters and murder innocents. Don’t worry though, everyone is dying with you! Well, unless you save everyone that is. You’ve made it to Arberrang, you’ve gathered clansmen and warriors, and you’re probably going to be dead in a few weeks.
