Besides, your rewards for carrying on are twofold: not only do you get a chance to give your less capable fighters some much needed battle experience, potentially earning them a promotion, but you’ll be rewarded with a useful item by defeating the boss of the final wave. With no opportunity to train units this time-given the circumstances, the option simply wouldn’t make sense-it’s often worth persevering unless your very best units are in danger. Choose to continue, and you’ll be given the opportunity to reposition your current units-arrows indicate from which direction new opponents will arrive-or bring on replacements for anyone who’s taken plenty of punishment and will be thus unlikely to last another round. The new wave-based format doesn’t apply to every encounter, but more often than not you’ll be given the choice between fleeing or battling on. There’s no let-up in the game’s strategic combat either, with enemy reinforcements arriving as soon as you’ve finished a fight. As a general rule: trust should only go so far, and though it’s tempting to do the ‘right’ thing, when the world is turning in on itself, that might not necessarily be the wisest course of action.

Amid such confusion and disorder, you can’t be expected to make the right decisions all the time here, more than ever, it’s usually a choice between bad and worse. You’ll face more life-and-death decisions than in both previous entries, and if some of them feel particularly cruel, it all adds to the increasing desperation. Besides, this wouldn’t be The Banner Saga without a few abrupt-and sometimes shocking-farewells. Not everyone gets equal time in the spotlight, but that’s inevitable with a cast of this size. Around all this, Austin Wintory’s score swirls and eddies ominously, with odd atonal stabs that add a disturbing note of hysteria to an already chaotic mix. That’s partly thanks to some typically masterful use of sound: Arberrang is a relentless cacophony of bassy rumbles, cracks and shouts, while echoing howls, eerie whistles and distant screeches are your soundtrack in the world outside. Whichever group you’re currently following, the atmosphere is consistently, oppressively unsettling, the tension so thick you can practically taste it.

The visuals are still arresting, but more abstract: at times you’ll swear the abundance of jagged edges is going to puncture your shimmering bubble, which appears ever more fragile with every step. And you don’t get to gawp at the pretty scenery so much as shudder at the fate of anyone unfortunate enough to be caught in the darkness. But the penny has to drop soon…Īs it turns out, you’re not the only ones out there, but you shouldn’t expect the cast to grow much beyond the small handful of newcomers introduced at the outset. Of course, when the episode begins, they don’t know that yet. Trapped within a bubble of light magic are one-armed Varl giant Iver, spellweavers Eyvind and Juno, and the Ravens, episode two’s mercenaries who aren’t just minus a leader but have effectively been tricked by a mind spell into helping out. It’s a deeply distressing scenario, even before Rugga starts spouting off about “the will of the people”, and making populist speeches riddled with the kind of lies that frightened citizens are only too willing to believe.Īnd if one pressure-cooker environment wasn’t enough, the potential world-savers of the piece have been forced into the uneasiest of alliances. And now here come the dredge-your former enemy suddenly vulnerable and sympathetic-begging to be let in, before they can be consumed by the poisonous fog that has choked the rest of the world. Arberrang was already in a bit of a state upon the caravan’s arrival now, with its king at death’s door and irredeemable bastard Rugga having successfully sown divisions among the populace, the city is a powder keg, waiting for the tiniest spark to make it explode.

“Despite everything that’s going on, it’s still mankind that worries me the most,” says Rook astutely, moments before things go from bad to disastrous.

The banner saga complete pack