10. The Banner Saga

The Banner Saga Let’s Play featuring the first hour of the campaign

The Banner Saga is, at its heart, a choose your own adventure game with a healthy splattering of turn based tactical combat mixed in for good measure.

You play as group of warriors traveling with a caravan across the frozen wastes and dense forests of Viking Scandinavia. Make game-changing decisions, recruit more followers to your caravan, manage resources, and fight rival Vikings, monsters and giants.

The tactical combat will feel immediately familiar to players of other turn based tactical games, and while it doesn’t revolutionize the formula, the amazing animation and hand drawn art does a good job at keeping it engaging.

But it’s the decisions made in the campaign and the micromanagement of your caravan that’s the true strength of The Banner Saga.

Decide to turn away a group of beggars at the begging of the campaign only to have them return hours later as enemies with a grudge. You know a game is good when it inspired two equally great sequels.

The tactical combat plays similarly to games like Heroes 3 of Might and Magic and Final Fantasy Tactics. You have attacks against armor, and against health, and some units specialize in large sweeping attacks while others focus on single targets or supportive roles.

As you traverse the frigid wastes you spend resources per turn, once you run out of resources followers of your caravan start dying of attrition and morale is lowered. Keeping everyone well fed and happy is crucial if you want to keep caravan moving.