14 Days of Humble Bundles #3: The Banner Saga

The next update to Humble’s 14 Days of Bundles brings us RPG mixed with tactical combat, all wrapped up in a crunchy Viking shell. This is a bit of an interesting bundle as the core bundle – The Banner Saga: Factions – is actually Free to Play, which of course means it’s supported by micro transactions or other forms of monetization. It’s a “name your price” offer, so for as little as one penny you can add the Starter Pack (normally $1.99) to the F2P game, and you also get a collection of artwork. Beating the average price will get you the Variations Pack (normally $9.99), while a donation of $15 or more will get you the full Banner Saga game (normally $24.99). Here’s the summary of the bundle contents:

• The Banner Saga: Factions (67%, 02/2013): A Free to Play multiplayer game pitting you against other humans in 1-on-1 tactical battles, with weekly tournaments
• The Banner Saga: Factions Starter Pack (N/A): Four level one starter characters to get you going (so you don’t have to play several battles to level up)
• The Banner Saga: Factions Variations Pack (N/A): Twelve alternatives for advances classes are unlocked; requires beating the current average ($10.98 at the time of writing)
• The Banner Saga (80%, 01/2014): A single-player RPG campaign with tactical combat; requires $15 or higher donation
• The Banner Saga Artwork (N/A): Digital copies of the hand-drawn art that’s part of The Banner Saga, useful as desktop backgrounds I suppose

Just to clarify things, the Banner Saga: Factions game is multi-player only and involves you fighting against other humans in tactical battles. I tried it briefly – it’s free, after all – and depending on your feelings for PvP battles it could be a nice way to pass the time. Me, I’m a bit of a gaming recluse these days and like my games to be single-player affairs, so it’s not really my thing. That means the core bundle doesn’t do me much good, as the Starter Pack just unlocks four rank 1 units. The Variations Pack isn’t any use either, as that’s 12 variations on each advanced class that you can use when you promote them, again for the Factions portion of the game. So the real draw here is the Banner Saga single-player game, which means you have to donate at least $15. At least the game has received decent reviews from the gaming critics, with many comparing it to a Norse variant of Game of Thrones.

The story of how the Banner Saga came to be is also somewhat interesting, as it came to life as part of a Kickstarter project back in April, 2012. With an initial goal of $100,000, indie developer Stoic more than reached that target with $723,000+ raised during the funding period. Stoic consists for just three people, with a background in game design that includes credits like The Old Republic. There’s one developer and two artists, and with their combined talents they were able to crank out the single-player game in just under two years, with the Factions portion being sort of an early preview of the combat system. The graphics largely consist of comic-style art with some rather nice backgrounds, as you can see from the screen shots.

Short summary: today’s Banner Saga bundle is a good way to get into the single-player game for $15 instead of the usual $25, which means you’re only paying $5 more than the early Kickstarter backers for the game. And if you’re like me and didn’t hear about the initial Kickstarter, that means you can jump straight to playing the game without waiting 18 months, so an extra $5 seems like a good deal. The Factions aspect doesn’t seem to be well populated from what I’ve seen, though this Kickstarter might add some new players to the mix, and personally I didn’t find much there to keep me playing. Most people seem to feel the same, given that the current average price is nearing $11 with over 3000 copies sold, so it looks like buyers are mostly going for the $15+ donation.