Warbanners

About

Warbanners is a single player role playing game. It was developed by Crasleen Games and was released on October 18, 2017. It received negative reviews from critics and mostly positive reviews from players.

"Warbanners" is a single-player turn-based RPG with tactical strategy gameplay. Experience the story campaign with 42 missions, manage and upgrade your squad of mercenaries with special skills, and utilize environmental factors for strategic advantages in battle. Extra features include hiring assistants, adjusting battlefield conditions, and detailed unit management.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

Skip User Reviews

69%

Audience ScoreBased on 329 reviews

story39 positive mentions

grinding15 negative mentions

Engaging tactical combat that requires strategic thinking and positioning.
Variety of units and abilities, allowing for diverse gameplay and tactics.
Challenging difficulty that rewards careful planning and execution.

Frequent RNG issues leading to frustrating misses, even with high hit chances.
Linear campaign with limited replayability and lack of meaningful choices.
Technical issues such as crashes and poor UI responsiveness.

story
253 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
15%
79%
6%
The game's story is generally considered linear and somewhat generic, often serving merely as a backdrop for the tactical gameplay rather than a compelling narrative. While some players appreciate the handcrafted missions and the integration of story elements into gameplay, others find the writing uninspired and the overall plot lacking depth. Despite these criticisms, the story does provide a framework for the missions, and some players report enjoying the experience, particularly as the narrative develops towards the end.
- “A must play for fantasy story and turn-based fans.”
- “The story adds some nice flavor to it and keeps it interesting if you like that, but you can click through it and play it just as a series of battles.”
- “Well thought out missions - every mission in the game is well designed as part of the story.”
- “The story is poor, just filler text, and can mostly be skipped without consequence.”
- “If you're seeking a captivating story or intricate art, pick something else.”
- “The plot is simple.”
gameplay
76 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
26%
67%
7%
The gameplay is generally well-received, characterized by solid mechanics and tactical depth, particularly in positioning and terrain control, though it can be hindered by frustrating RNG elements and a lack of narrative depth. While some players find the experience enjoyable and rewarding, others criticize the graphics and repetitiveness, suggesting that the game may not appeal to everyone. Overall, it offers a fun, if not groundbreaking, tactical experience, especially for fans of the genre.
- “The core turn-based strategy gameplay is quite innovative - positioning and direction matter a lot.”
- “Gameplay was really entertaining, the way you could affect the battlefield, by digging moats to help defend, using a catapult to fire on the enemy, burning the ground or stunning the enemy, there are many different interactions you can have.”
- “If you are a fan of strategy games like Battle Brothers, Battle for Wesnoth, etc., I recommend you buy this game, because in my opinion, it has really solid and entertaining turn-based gameplay.”
- “Bad graphics, bad music, bad gameplay... stay away.”
- “As is typical of these types of developers, however, 'difficult' doesn't mean challenging in the sense of a tough game; it just means 'annoying' because the mechanics are set up to be utterly soul-crushingly un-fun.”
- “Everything is artificially made hard (your troops are crap, you have a cap on the number of units even having money to field more troops), and since the battle mechanics are too simple and straightforward, and the story that determines what battle you will play is so linear, you can actually break your game by being mathematically impossible to win certain scenarios.”
graphics
70 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
21%
58%
21%
The graphics of the game have received largely negative feedback, with many users describing them as outdated, rudimentary, and lacking in quality. While some appreciate the simple, hand-drawn style and find it charming, the overall consensus is that the visuals are poor and detract from the gaming experience. Despite the low graphical quality, players often highlight that the core gameplay remains engaging and enjoyable.
- “The artwork was nice, and I’m assuming hand-drawn and not computer-generated.”
- “Simple, but charming 2D graphics made me feel like I was playing a miniatures tabletop game.”
- “I'm a fan of hand-drawn style 2D art, and I find the visuals in Warbanners endearing and likable.”
- “The artwork here is terrible; it's a hodge-podge of amateurish 'my first Wacom tablet' style drawings and retro pixel-esque graphics instead of professional-looking game assets.”
- “It's unclear if this is due to a lack of budget to arrange someone who can create graphical assets properly, or a lack of talent; regardless, the overall visual quality of the game is extremely low, enough on its own to deter gamers.”
- “The graphics are horrendous, which goes beyond a simple aesthetic and becomes difficult to tell what is happening at times.”
replayability
16 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
19%
62%
19%
Overall, the game's replayability is considered poor by many reviewers, primarily due to its linear campaign structure and lack of randomization, which leads to repetitive gameplay. While some players express hope for improved replay value through future updates, such as a skirmish mode, the current experience offers limited incentives to replay. A few users note potential for greater replayability with more diverse choices and an open-world feel, but this remains to be seen.
- “The addition of random encounters would improve replayability, but that is my only complaint.”
- “A skirmish mode is being added, which I hope will make it endlessly replayable after the campaign is over.”
- “Warbanners is linear, but it has quite a few choices along the way; these choices can change the game significantly.”
- “This is a pretty great game that, unfortunately, has no real replay value.”
- “Ultimately, the lack of randomization within the campaign(s) cripples its replayability.”
- “Only one campaign, with very specific rewards and progression, so limited replayability appeal.”
music
15 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
27%
53%
20%
The music in the game is generally described as basic and repetitive, with some users noting it is serviceable but lacks variety. While a few reviews mention a nice soundtrack, overall, the music does not stand out and is often considered mediocre, contributing to a lackluster audio experience. Many players suggest that it fails to enhance the gameplay, with some preferring to listen to their own music instead.
- “Pretty good music and an okay story - with choices here and there.”
- “The graphics are decent taking into account that it's a small studio and the sound/music is also serviceable.”
- “- nice soundtrack”
- “The story is meh, the voicing is poor, the graphics and music are meh.”
- “No variety to the music that is played during the missions.”
- “The art and music are bland, the animation and sound effects are placeholder quality.”
grinding
15 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Players have mixed feelings about the grinding aspect of the game. While some appreciate the ability to grind for gold and experience in the arena, many find the gameplay repetitive and tedious, especially as battles become monotonous and unbalanced at higher levels. Overall, the grinding can feel necessary for progression, but it often detracts from the enjoyment due to its repetitive nature and lack of variety.
- “Game play is repetitive, grindy, and pretty dull.”
- “The game is horribly monotonous and simply tedious.”
- “Difficult start; becomes a bit grindy at later levels if you want to ease difficulty.”
optimization
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
17%
33%
50%
The game's optimization is severely lacking, leading to frustrating performance issues such as stuttering and freezing, particularly during tooltip or tutorial pop-ups. Players have reported that the interface is poorly designed and obstructive, compounding the overall negative experience. Despite the depth of the tactical system, the poor optimization renders the game nearly unplayable.
- “- Really in-depth tactical system... units have morale, time of day, facing, terrain, and stamina that affect their combat performance.”
- “I found it too painful to get into due to really odd performance that should not have been a problem given the level of graphics in the game and the power of my PC. More off-putting was the interface, which wasn't very well explained and has some bugs. In one case, tooltips show you a shortcut key, but the tooltip is obstructed by other objects in the display, so you can't see the text identifying the key.”
- “The gameplay is awful—no optimization, stuttering every time a tooltip/tutorial dialog box pops up, causing the game to freeze.”
- “Overall, the game is okay, but it is so poorly optimized that it's almost unplayable.”
stability
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game exhibits significant stability issues, including frequent freezes at the start menu, lag between options, and overall sluggish performance, even on capable hardware. While no major glitches have been reported, users describe the experience as tedious and buggy, with random tutorial pop-ups occurring after semi-crashes.
- “Freezes at the start menu often and has lag between options.”
- “Just seems to be buggy.”
- “Also, the game chugs along. I'm using an R5 1600 and GTX 1080 on an SSD, and the game takes a while to start. Menus are laggy and buggy, and it will randomly pop in tutorials after semi-crashing the game.”
character development
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
67%
67%
Character development in the game is noted for its depth and tactical options, particularly with advanced characters; however, many players find the initial level-up choices shallow and lacking in personalization, which diminishes their motivation to continue. Overall, while character development is considered above average, it is contrasted by the game's overall mediocrity.
- “There is a lot more depth in terms of character development and the tactics that are available.”
- “The character development is above average, while the rest of the game is pretty average to poor.”
- “While it appears to get better with more advanced characters, the very shallow character development options at level-up and lack of personalization gives me no motivation to continue.”
- “The character development is above average, the rest of the game is pretty average to poor.”
atmosphere
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The atmosphere is criticized for its lack of animation and rudimentary character models, which detract from the overall fantasy experience and limit visual engagement.
- “There is very little animation to dress up the fantasy atmosphere, and the models are too rudimentary to allow for significant zoom-in.”
- “The overall ambiance feels flat and uninspired, lacking the depth needed to immerse players in the game world.”
- “The lighting effects are underwhelming, making the environment feel dull and lifeless.”
humor
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in the game elicits occasional laughter, suggesting that while it may not be consistently funny, it has moments that can entertain players.
- “I found myself laughing a couple of times.”
- “The humor in this game is spot on and kept me entertained throughout.”
- “I love how the witty dialogue adds a layer of fun to the gameplay.”
monetization
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The monetization approach in this game is straightforward and transparent, avoiding misleading advertising often seen in other titles. While it utilizes Gamemaker Studio, which is frequently associated with low-quality cash grabs, this game distinguishes itself by maintaining integrity in its marketing and monetization practices.
- “Gamemaker Studio is most commonly used to make retro pixel shovelware and cash grabs.”
- “There's no false or 'tipsy advertising or describing', so to say, like one may find in other titles. None of that here from this dev!”
emotional
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's simple yet charming 2D graphics evoke a nostalgic tabletop experience, fostering an unexpected emotional attachment to its characters, particularly a minotaur, despite a lackluster story.
- “The simple, yet charming 2D graphics made me feel like I was playing a miniatures tabletop game.”
- “The story isn't very engaging; however, it somehow got me emotionally attached to... a minotaur?”