TotalBiscuit got the feeling that the game has an optimal build that is applicable in most situations with little variation. Could anyone with a decent number of playthroughs comment on how true this is? Is there indeed mostly one way to play or does the game force you to adapt like, say, FTL?

are there any other channels showing the game off at the moment? I wouldn't just go by his opinion alone, just try it for yourself and enjoy the game first hand while you're at it.

There's quill who manages to get through quite well. He has a bit of an annoying delivery though, could take a breath every now and then. Aaaand he plays the game offline too, so there are holes in his LPs, but it's managable. Besides that, it's one of the best LPs of Banished i've seen, You can learn quite a lot from it.

Is there some disadvantage to playing this game offline and what do you mean by LP? I definitely don't want a single player game that requires me to be online.

This game has no "online" to speak of, the game is solely offline single player. LP stands for "Let's Play".

This is the kind of game where once you get the mechanics of it the setup of a town is likely going to be quite similar. This is the same for most sims like this - even ones like Sim City 3K have very similar setups.*

The variety and fun comes not with your own choice. How you choose to advance your town; design it and work with the terrain you've got. Designing and building up your town - choosing how far to advance it; do you build it one big city or lots of little towns etc....

I do hope that it sells well though, its hte kind of game where adding things to it through patches/addons/mods would be great additions to the fun.



*edit let me clarify - the setup will be similar in that you'll need food and resources in a similar fashion each time. But you've actually a lot of choice. Herbs or hunting or fish for food early on or all three - you've also got resource options that vary. The game also doesn't hobble you building wise with a tech-tree - you can build what you want right from the start - building a church first though is unlikely to be as smart a venture as food structures though ;)

I saw the TotalBiscuit WTF video, and to be honest it didn't seem like he "got" the game, and he was quite critical. I really wouldn't take his word as gospel.

I've only put in maybe two hours and played one year, but so far it's been fun. There will probably develop some good strategies over time, that work well, but you have a lot of options. In such games, though, some things work better than others, like Settlers 2 and such. There is a chain of goods flowing, and you need the basics first.

Otherwise there are a lot of ways you can design the town. One big-ish metropolis, lots of smaller interconnected villages, a big living quarters and a more industrial area, a mix, and so forth. Much will also depend on the landscape. The map I got for example had lots of rivers, making fishing good I imagine, but a bit harder to create a big city area.

I love games like this though, and found myself just following workers around at times, watching what they did, just like I do in Settlers 2 from time to time.

Yeah, I watched and saw that too.

He said his wife liked it, and then after all the criticism he said he keeps going back to it . . . so that there tells me it's an interesting game.

Back on topic, I'd say the Terrain, disasters, and resources are probably going to cause a change in strategies, so I'm not sure there's one set solution/strategy.