About Banished
Banished is a survival-focused city-building strategy game created entirely by Shining Rock Software, a one-person studio that also published it. Released on 18 February 2014, it quickly became a reference for players who prefer careful planning over flashy spectacle. You take control of a small group of exiled travellers who decide to restart their lives in a new land. They arrive with only the clothes on their backs and a cart of supplies from their homeland, and everything that follows depends on your decisions.
The townspeople are your most important resource. They are born, grow older, work, start families and eventually die, so a town only grows if there are enough healthy adults to fill new homes and raise children. Keeping people fed, warm, healthy and happy is a constant balancing act. Harsh winters can wipe out a settlement that did not stockpile firewood and food, while a poor harvest or an outbreak of disease can undo years of progress in a single season.
There are no skill trees and no money. Any structure can be built at any time as long as your people have gathered the required logs, stone and iron. Surplus goods are bartered with trade vessels that arrive at your trading posts, bringing livestock, seeds for new crops and occasionally illness from abroad. Twenty occupations, from farmer, hunter and fisherman to blacksmith, miner, teacher and healer, let you shape the economy, and each map generates different terrain and resource scarcity.
Every choice involves trade-offs. Replanting forests, quarrying rock or mining for iron all take up space you cannot use for fields or houses, and over-specialising leaves the town vulnerable when conditions change. Achievements reward long-term survival goals, and a large modding community has extended the game with new buildings and mechanics. Banished contains no violence or mature content and is rated 0 (Germany 0).
Key Features
- Survival focus – Harsh winters, famine, disease.
- Living citizens – Born, age, work and die.
- No money – Barter with trade vessels.
- 20 occupations – From farmer to healer.
- Free building – No skill trees.
- Random maps – Different resources each time.
- Achievements – Long-term goals.
- Modding – Large community.
PC Version and Compatibility
Banished runs on Windows XP SP3, Vista, 7 or 8 and later versions. The minimum is a 2 GHz Intel dual-core processor, 512 MB of RAM, a 512 MB DirectX 9.0c graphics card with Shader Model 2, any sound card and only 250 MB of storage, so it runs smoothly on almost any PC including older laptops. The game is available in English only.
Global Activation & What You Receive
This Steam key unlocks the full game Banished and can be activated in any country. In the Steam client choose Games → Activate a Product on Steam, enter the code and the game is added to your library.
Why Buy This Game?
Why buy it? It is one of the most rewarding and challenging city builders ever made, where every villager matters and success is truly earned. Low requirements and huge replay value make it great value.
Related Games
Building a society of refugees after the fall of an empire, Patron shares the focus on citizens, happiness and survival. Managing settlers through seasons in a medieval colony, Going Medieval adds detailed construction and hardship. Guiding beavers through droughts in a logging city, Timberborn blends survival with smart resource planning. Rebuilding a colony after a global catastrophe, Surviving the Aftermath brings the same struggle against scarcity.
