GB Feature: The Banner Saga 2 Review

As we had some unfinished business with Stoic’s The Banner Saga trilogy, we made a point of taking the final two installments through a proper run and have finally doled out our full three-page review for The Banner Saga 2. Better late than never, right?

The campaign in The Banner Saga 2 works much like the campaign from The Banner Saga. That is, you manage your group of survivors, making sure everybody stays in good spirits and has enough to eat; you fight enemies (mostly) when they attack you and you don’t have any choice; and you make decisions, sometimes important and sometimes not, during numerous story-related events. I’ll cover each of these areas in turn.

Managing your survivors is much easier in The Banner Saga 2 than it was in the original game. In both games, you have clansmen, fighters and varl under your banner, but while in The Banner Saga clansmen didn’t do anything (other than eat your food), in The Banner Saga 2 they scavenge for supplies and keep your people fed. Also, while in The Banner Saga you fought many “war battles” against the dredge, which required having as many fighters and varl as possible, these battles are much rarer in The Banner Saga 2.