Banished

New city-builder Banished is the most fun you'll have simulating famine all year.

Banished is a clever network of interlocking systems and mechanics that accomplish a lot with very little.

I liked playing Banished. It was complex, but never fiddly, difficult, but rarely cruel, though it would benefit from a little more transparency. But as soon as I had a handle on it, as soon as I'd started to see through some of the fog of its complexity, I wanted to grasp for something bigger, something greater. Banished is satisfying, but never spectacular. That's not quite enough for me.

A nice change of pace for city-builders, but it loses momentum once the immediate urgency of survival goes away.

Banished is a deep, difficult exercise in survival

If you're into city building games, this is one to check out.

Aside from interface complaints, I would not really call Banished a bad game. I would also not call it a pleasant game.

Was worth the ~$10 I paid for it, but I'm a big resource management nerd. You have to like the genre, like challenge, and even then, you'll only get so many hours out of this thing.

Watching over your town in Banished can make you feel like a God, but you had better read the Wiki first.

Overall, the game will keep you captivated for hours with trying to figure out the proper way of approaching your town. The heavy involvement of the seasons and weather in the game in the initial part of the game was challenging and sometimes frustrating. Understanding the AI of your citizens was over complex and without out the help of the people in the Banished forums I would have not figured things out. The game is beautifully crafted, and the rewarding gameplay makes you know the citizens of your town without the need to micromanage them.