
Its difficulty doesn't come from struggling to figure out what's happening or how to understand it, nor from arbitrary events like time limits or invasions (although there are a few random disasters like fires and disease), but instead from the rhythms of play-expanding too quickly to feed everyone, or running short of firewood in winter. The lack of external interruption makes it easy to turn on Banished and lose several hours to the passing of the seasons.Ī late autumn snow threatens the harvest.

You can (and probably should) add information windows and a mini-map, but even with that it's a far cry from other series like SimCity or Tropico whose interfaces and pop-ups can dominate the screen. Banished uses a clean, minimalist, and customizable interface where by default, 95% of what appears on the screen is the city itself.
