The Banished Vault

Interesting concept hobbled by punishing design, bad UI, and a lack of undo button. Also not very deep, which makes the nonexistent learning curve very frustrating once you break through the complexity and realize that you essentially solve the entire game system at the exact moment you fully understand it.

I want to like this game. I really do. And I don't even mind the whole "math calculation 15 turns in advance" problem. But I can never remember the recipes for some things (and can't even reference them until you build the structure that produces that resource), you can't see what a planet/moon/asteroid surface looks like until you go there (even if you restart the map and have prior knowledge...), and what that surface looks like (and even just how big it is!) is very important. Finding out that a spot is too small, or has hazards on it, or you can't extract BOTH of the resources you wanted is kind of killer, due to the fuel costs of having to fix mistakes, and fuel is time, and time is your critical resource. Speaking of mistakes, the game isn't... super up front and obvious about it, but if you don't have enough fuel when you finish a system and leave, you can absolutely arrive at the next system with no way to get more fuel. You don't even get a game over screen, either. As for the "win" condition, it's... lackluster. You just have to build a particular building on a particular type of planet four times and voila, you win. There's no ending. You get to choose if you want to call the game done or travel to another system, but "doing the thing" a fifth time just presents you with the choice to end the game or continue once more. There's no additional story or anything. I don't even know what the point of these buildings are. You build them on a planet so you can write some journal text... and... then leave the system to get destroyed. Its not like you're leaving a document of your journey [i]behind[/i] you. The system is gone, the planets have been wiped from existence. You can't go back, no one will ever go there again. And the journal entries are just four super generic paragraphs of text that are the same every game.

Oh this game is so cool. I wish I knew someone else who would like it. If you love starting up a spreadsheet and copying a screenshot of the map to Paint and drawing all over it with your outpost plans you'll really like this one. I just finished the first system--I sent one ship back to pick a few items up and he made it out one turn ahead of the gloom as the system fell. Epic. I'm planning out my moves for the second map now. Your crew has more actions on inner planets but it takes a lot more energy and time to get there. Your ships only carry so much and there isn't a lot of time to ferry material. I think I can afford a larger ship but that costs more fuel which requires more, more, more. I have some production goals this map but ferrying resources from planet to planet also takes fuel and time. And individual planets only hold so many buildings. It also pays to explore all the planets in the system because the artifacts can help you and there are a few random resources. It's going to be awesome. If you love resource management and optimizing logistics this is the game for you. I didn't even think to mention the gothic SF atmosphere. The ships are like flying cathedrals and the tone is dire. This is a beautiful, lovingly crafted game.

I have enjoyed this game and do recommend it, but I would avoid it if you hate games where you need to manage logistics with limited inventory space, or having to do math like adding up how much fuel you need to get there and back. They do have an absolutely horrible achievement (hidden) that requires rolling 6 ones on 6 dice which is only a 1 in 46,656 chance, that would mean spending real world days doing nothing but triggering rolls. I hate it when developers fail to do the math on their own achievements.

There genuinely isn't anything quite like The Banished Vault. The vibes and art direction are immaculately communicated and underscore a doomed, gothic universe. The biggest triumph of the game is that, on its face, you can look at a given map and go "okay, this looks like it can easily be min-maxed if I just sit down and plan every move out in advance." And sometimes that's true. It feels like the game projects a world that is deeply ordered and predictable. One that can be solved. However (and I think this tension is what causes some folks to struggle with the game) The Banished Vault is deeply interested in complicating the idea of a completely orderly universe. Rather than posit that the universe is predictable, I think The Banished Vault makes the argument that the universe is ambivalent to its occupants. Not only do you need to grapple with the frailty of your crew but the fact that even with all of the ability, time, and tools to calculate your trajectory, you're going to make mistakes, you're going to play suboptimally, the maps you get are resistant to being min/maxed. Therefore, to succeed, you really need to lean into the idea that you are a cold and indifferent administrator, sending your charges into inhospitable conditions. It's certainly a bleak headspace to occupy, but there's something all-consuming about it. It's not a chill game to play at first, but as you start internalizing its harsh rules, there's a hyperfocus (if not exactly calm) I've found in finding a path forward.

Stranded everyone on planets and lost. Ran out of Stasis and lost. Ran out of iron and lost. Got consumed by the Gloom and lost. Ran out of Elixir and lost. Ran out of iron and lost again. Finally, figured out how to balance everything, and completed a journey with 50 Stasis, 18 Elixir, and shiploads of Fuel and resources to spare. I probably won't revisit this game much, but it felt good to finally figure that out. A lovely exercise in optimizing bleak numbers. Godspeed, Roch, Salaun, Vrynatha, Attilio, and their wacky robot pal Iatvolu. We will never hear the end of your story but we know you will live out your lives among the maddening dimming stars one way or another. (Also that first loss was during the tutorial, which is the sort of game this is.)

I've just finished getting all the trophies 5 minutes ago and hit just about 60 hours in total playtime and i'll sort of simply explain how my experience went from start to finish. I honestly don't even remember how I came across this game on the steam store but i wishlisted it moment i saw the art and nabbed it soon as it went on discount. At first i was at a complete loss as the game doesn't exactly misadvertise itself but i expected something completely different, with something more along the lines of a light colonisation/base building game but got very delightfully suprised with it being a sort of planning/survival/strategy/micromanagement game where you're against the clock. Which reminded me of Frostpunk/Ixion which also are some of my favorite games. Where it's different however is how the game actually plays which is much more reminiscent of a board game (Infact i'd say this format is the perfect way to adapt a singleplayer board game) with what i can only call a very steep learning cliff, thankfully it also comes with a amazing manual within the game that does a very good job of explaining how everything works with lore and art strewn everywhere beautifully. As well as an in game handy calculator of sorts which is useful here and then. Once i got a good hang of the mechanics (and a good few restarts) I started to really enjoy the game! Beyond everything it does such a good job with getting you into the situation with all the music, sound, the A R T, and effects that things like the manual and calculator don't really take you out of the experience at all and you really get hooked once you planned out your objectives and start executing it. I should say that although I find the first run and completion of the game basically perfect and a magical experience, there are a few thing's I really don't like after the fact. Sometimes RNG will really screw you over and when you're trying to get trophies it is a PAAAIIIINNNN as it will cost you an hour and sometimes more of playtime over something you have zero control over. There's really not an incredible amount of NEW things to find and do as well after your first completion, I'd say after about my 3rd or so run i had basically seen everything. There are some diffuculty modifiers but they're somewhat artificial in the sense that they mostly just extend how long it would possibly take for you to finish. Lastly, the stupid 0.001% (Lose a 2 check rolling 6 dice) trophy is RIDICULOUS. I only go for completions if they're convenient or if I really like the game, and in this case not only was it both and also (as far as I can see) not a soul had 100%! The problem with this trophy is that however, It isn't 0.001% or 1 in 1000 (unless there is an in game check for it) BUT actually the chances of rolling 6 consecutive 1's in one roll is 1 in 46,656!!!! If i rolled the dice every 10 seconds it would take me 5 and a half days straight of rolling dice! To get the trophy however I found an extremely lucky system where i could send ships back and forth with 0 energy cost and reloaded the game over and over until i got it, i have no idea how else anyone is realistically meant to get this trophy and although highly unlikely i hope they change the trophy to simply rolling 6 of the same number or something of the sort at the least. At the end of the day it's a really immersive and well thought out game for its scale and definitely worth trying out, I was charmed by it all throughout and will hope for some form of spiritual successor to come.

Art, music, and vibes are 10/10. Gameplay is pretty fun if you like strategy board games and have a high frustration tolerance. I appreciate this game a lot, but there are some caveats on the enjoyability. Particularly, it feels bad when your ship arrives at your destination, and you forgot to bring some important item with you. Which at least for me happens CONSTANTLY. I really think that the game itself is quite a lot of fun, and frustrations could be reduced a lot with the addition of more usability and convenience features. If you know the board game Leaving Earth, the gameplay feels a lot like that. You have to PLAN your ship's expedition, and that means taking notes if you want to do really well.

At the end of a day, this is a math game, but damn does it make math beautiful. Incredible design and aesthetic. Fun and challenging game-play.

its probably not that hard in all honesty but I dread every turn