When comparing The Banner Saga Trilogy vs Overcooked 2, the Slant community recommends Overcooked 2 for most people. In the question“What are the best games for the Nintendo Switch?” Overcooked 2 is ranked 36th while The Banner Saga Trilogy is ranked 74th. The most important reason people chose Overcooked 2 is:
Whether you played the first Overcooked or not, Overcooked 2 is easy to figure out right from the get-go. The recipes for each dish are familiar even if you're not much of a chef, so you can remember which raw ingredients you need as you make your way around the kitchen and work with your co-op partner(s). Once you play a few rounds, you should have a good handle on things, helping you focus on getting everything done as quickly as possible from there on out.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Your choices have true consequences throughout the stories
The Banner Saga trilogy has an involved story over the course of three games where your decisions matter in the long-run. You're part of a group of soldiers traveling to eventually save the world from an encroaching darkness taking over the planet. The first two games do a great job of investing you in the plot, while leading up to the dramatic events of the third game. All three games tell a compelling story where you have to decide how all of the battles unfold, along with who lives and who dies. Certain choices you make can have some unintended consequences as well, so you always want to choose carefully before deciding. It's an overall gripping tale, showing how war can really affect people.
Pro You can carry over your save files across all three games
There's a good incentive to play through the whole Banner Saga tale through carrying your save files over from the first and second games. Plenty of the choices you make have an impact across the trilogy. Characters who survived across games also acknowledge how far they've come, with enough character development to keep them relevant for the most part. Getting to see how your choices affect the entire trilogy adds a lot of replay to all three games, giving you the chance to tweak certain outcomes here and there whenever you decide to go back and play from the beginning.
Pro Engaging turn-based tactical combat that plays in an isometric view
The Banner Saga games have a great combat system that's familiar to anyone who enjoys strategy RPGs. You have all of your units with the enemies on square grids, taking turns to attack, defend, and use special skills. The battles are tough enough to keep your attention, meaning you have to do your best to make the right decisions during each of your turns. And the stakes are pretty high, where deaths can result in permanently losing your party members, including missing out on any story bits that they're a part of. The isometric view keeps things classic and traditional as well, which is great for fans of the genre or players looking to get into this style of games for the first time.
Pro Beautiful hand-drawn art style
The games have such a gorgeous, effortless art style that really shines during cutscenes. Even though the graphics are cartoon-like, the characters and environments look mature and full of vibrant details. It's such a distinct style that drives home how unique it is to the Banner Saga and is immediately recognizable.
Pro Simple to pick up and learn
Whether you played the first Overcooked or not, Overcooked 2 is easy to figure out right from the get-go. The recipes for each dish are familiar even if you're not much of a chef, so you can remember which raw ingredients you need as you make your way around the kitchen and work with your co-op partner(s). Once you play a few rounds, you should have a good handle on things, helping you focus on getting everything done as quickly as possible from there on out.
Pro Hilariously fun couch and online co-op for up to four players
Playing Overcooked 2 with friends is the best. There's so much going on at once in the kitchen, with barriers moving in your way, hazards popping up like cars in the middle of the road separating the two halves of your area, and ingredients, dishes, and half-prepared dishes to move from one place to another. Working together and communicating with your friends through couch co-op or online play is a constant stream of laughter and excited shouting as you mess up, learn, and hopefully get things done. If you don't have anyone to play with, then you can hop online for matchmaking instead.
Pro Fast and frantic cooking action
Overcooked 2 is really fast-paced and keeps you on your toes. You play as a chef in a crazy kitchen with a ton of things going on all at once, with you mixing, preparing, and cooking in between the chaos of moving platforms and environmental obstacles. There's a time limit constantly ticking down at the bottom of the screen; finishing your tasks on time or ahead of schedule earns you a better score in the end. Tossing ingredients to your teammates across the kitchen, or across the moving platforms or obstacles like bodies of water, is a fresh new addition in this game that wasn't in the first Overcooked, making things even faster this time around. It's such a manic yet well-done mix of many different genres and ideas that all come together in the best ways.
Cons
Con If a party member dies in battle, it's permanent
Permadeath in battle is the main way that combat stays tense and engaging, forcing you to make the best decisions at every opportunity. But this can get draining over time. When things spiral out of your control, you can end up losing a valued party member, who's then completely axed from the main story. Depending on how important they are, this may or may not be a big deal, but it's still a significant mechanic that you need to keep an eye on as you play.
Con The story in the third game is short
Even though you get to carry over save files from the previous games, the story is incredibly short as a finale to the entire trilogy, lasting about ten hours or so. It's underwhelming to spend so little time piecing together all of the threads across the games. Going for a completionist run can take you about twenty hours, which is a bit better, but it's still disappointing that this third installment doesn't have more to offer.
Con Combat can get overwhelming at times (The Banner Saga 3)
Much of the difficulty in this game's combat revolves around the constant wave of enemies that come after your units, one after another. You have to pace yourself when deciding to take on these waves of foes, or else you may lose too many party members and have to pay a heavy price throughout the story. You can also choose to run away, but this also has negative plot-related consequences. It can get pretty frustrating having to deal with these waves so often, especially when you end up losing valuable party members by trying to push onward.
Con Can be incredibly frustrating
Trying to work at such a fast pace with so many obstacles and general mayhem going on at once can wear on you after a while. There's a lot to keep track of at once, and it's easy for things to spiral out of control as your mistakes pile up. If your group isn't doing well and you're running out of time, you might find yourself losing your patience with your team and yelling at them. This might not be the game for you if you don't have a team that's willing to be patient and cooperative with each other, even when you're not doing so well during a particular round.
Con Single-player isn't as fun as co-op
If you only want to play alone, then Overcooked 2 might not be the best game to pick. All the fast-paced fun from co-op mostly comes from communicating with your team and trying to pull off your task together before the time runs out. You control two characters at once while playing alone, but this still lacks the team-based chaos that makes the game so addicting. You could instead go online for matchmaking, though you might get paired with people who don't want to talk or work as an actual team.
Con The controls are a bit sluggish
There's something about the controls that feels heavy and deliberate, and not necessarily in a good way. The feeling goes against the fast-paced nature of the gameplay that demands you in one place and then the next. If you played the first Overcooked, you may notice the difference right away. This change shouldn't be too much of a hassle, though it's still noticeable.