Game:

BANNERMEN (2019)

Category:

Review

Duration: 26:36

10,430 views

52

I'm playing Bannermen, a real-time strategy game by Pathos Interactive and 2tainment. The campaign is typical for a strategy game (defend against waves of enemies, attack enemy bases, use only hero units against a lot of foes, stealth) with nothing innovative. The skirmish mode only has a handful of maps and only one faction, though online play is available. The interface needs the ability to repeat build queues, and building descriptions would be useful. Workers collect the two resources (wood and gold) automatically once assigned; there is a unit limit per building and a resource quantity limit, so expanding out to a second or third base is a necessity. Numerous houses must be constructed to increase the population cap, though there is a hard cap of 200; after this point, researched upgrades will improve units. Spells can be cast by heroes or on the map by building a temple on an appropriate location. Creep locations can be raided by your hero to level up, but these are ultimately unnecessary since combat happens so quickly that spells can only be used once or twice. The AI is extremely inert and rarely attacks your position in skirmish games. Defenses are strong (and cheap) enough that any army that is below the 200-unit threshold will be repelled, and since everything takes so long to build, you really need to ensure that your first assault is your last. Bannermen has interesting streamlined resource collection, but shortcomings in the AI, campaign, skirmish mode, and repetitive gameplay mechanics lose the battle overall.