I’m not a huge Crowdfunding/Early Access fan, but I have participated in both gaming ideas. I’ve purchased somewhere in the ballpark of a dozen Early Access games, and have seen most of those actually make it to a released state (whether or not I actually kept playing it that long). In that sort of light, Early Access sounds pretty great despite the fact that you can find plenty of terrible tales about money hungry devs that don’t finish their work. On the other side of the coin, I’ve only participated in Crowdfunding twice, using Kickstarter to back the upcoming MMO Crowfall, along with the title we’re talking about today, The Banner Saga 3.
The first two games in this series, created by indie devs Stoic Games, were also Crowdfunded, and though I bought and played through both of them, I missed out on being able to back them, so I rectified that this time around. I backed the game back in 2016 I believe it was, and it has finally released!
I started up the final chapter of the journey the other day, and I’ve already enjoyed it thoroughly. Your mileage may vary. I said it best on Twitter:
Early impressions: If you enjoyed the first two Banner Saga games, you’ll enjoy the third. If you didn’t care for them, this one is more of the same and probably won’t change your mind. I’m digging it though.
— Izlain (@mevsmyselfandi) July 28, 2018
That’s really all that can be said. The game still has amazing hand drawn art, it still plays like The Oregon Trail. There are still choices, there’s still tactical combat in between the lulls in action. And the story is still intriguing and I’m looking forward to seeing how it ends. But if you didn’t care for the original nothing has really changed so you should probably skip it. Here’s some screens of my initial session, which could contain some spoilers.
If you are a fan of the series, The Banner Saga 3 is on sale now on PC and Console. It’s totally worth the asking price!
Me Vs. Myself and I 