When comparing The Banner Saga 2 vs Metro Redux, the Slant community recommends The Banner Saga 2 for most people. In the question“What are the best PS4 (PlayStation 4) games?” The Banner Saga 2 is ranked 121st while Metro Redux is ranked 145th. The most important reason people chose The Banner Saga 2 is:
Tactical RPGs can be really intimidating, especially if you're just starting out. The tutorials often blaze forward, causing you to miss important mechanics. Luckily, Banner Saga 2 tries to alleviate this by adding a trainer NPC who will give you challenges. These involve performing various combat exercises, helping you to solidify your understanding of the game and even learn something new.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Helps you to learn the gameplay thoroughly
Tactical RPGs can be really intimidating, especially if you're just starting out. The tutorials often blaze forward, causing you to miss important mechanics. Luckily, Banner Saga 2 tries to alleviate this by adding a trainer NPC who will give you challenges. These involve performing various combat exercises, helping you to solidify your understanding of the game and even learn something new.
Pro Solid tactical combat
Even though Banner Saga 2’s turn-based combat system is fairly straightforward. You and your opponent take turns in moving and attacking with units on a tactical grid. Each unit has its strengths, weaknesses, and set of unique abilities that you need to consider.
For example, archers can attack from far away but they have low armor, so you can’t leave them out in the open. Another example are the Varl, very durable and strong melee units that occupy 4 tiles as opposed to 1. This makes it trickier to position them since more enemies can stand next to them and attack them.
This creates combat that is not too simple but still has enough variety and strategy involved to feel rewarding.
Pro Great hand drawn graphics
Banner Saga 2 environments, characters, and animations are all hand-drawn. This includes your caravan as it marches over a snowy hill, passing trees and houses in the distance. The various viking-esque soldiers, centaurs and other mythological creatures, swinging axes and thrusting spears on a worn out bridge. Even the very detailed character sprites as they discuss matters with extremely serious expressions. Everything just feels like you’re watching an animated movie, which is something almost never encountered in a game.
Pro Intense underground combat
The combat in Metro mostly comes down to shooting mutants, bandits or other survivors. Mutants will simply rush you and try to overwhelm you with their claws and teeth. Human enemies like the bandits will use tactics and try to surround you. All of this is made a lot more intense thanks to the low lighting and narrow passages. If you don't plan your movements carefully, you just might get backed into a corner.
You can also use the lighting to your advantage and hide in the shadows. While most locations populated by bandits have very bright lights, you can turn off their light sources. This allows you to backstab them from the dark without raising an alarm. The same tactics won't work on mutants because they can see in the dark.
Pro Immersive exploration
Even though the levels are linear, the exploration aspect is done very well. You'll spend a lot of time walking through the old metro tunnels, which are filled with radiation hazards, bandits, and mutants. Sometimes you'll even have companions with you, making the trip easier with lighthearted banter.
The dangerous encounters might leave you low on resources, so to survive you have to be a scavenger. Exploring even the narrowest spaces such as air vents will yield you air filters, med kits, ammunition, and other useful items. It's quite exciting to find a hidden stash of valuable goodies when you're the least expecting it.
Additionally, at the end of each tunnel there is a station, which is a settlement of survivors. These stations have their own unique culture and interesting sights, giving you a moment of respite.
Pro Contains two Metro games
Metro Redux is the re-release of both Metro 2033 Redux and Metro Last Light. Both have improved gunplay, stealth mechanics and textures over their original counterparts.
Cons
Con HP damage based attacks cause one-dimensional tactics
A unit's current number of hit points equals the damage it will deal to an enemy. Because of this, the best strategy is always to hit all enemy units in a sequence, so they inflict as little damage as possible. Any other strategy is too risky and can backfire way too easily, limiting your creativity.
Con Incomplete story
To get a full and satisfying story, you’ll have to play the entire Banner Saga trilogy. Banner Saga 2 on its own feels like you’ve suddenly started reading a book from the middle. There are a lot of characters you know very little about, making it hard to understand their motivations. The on-going events are not explained fully. Even the ending is not a satisfying conclusion but just a setup for the next arc.
Con Bleak and depressing world
The Metro series is set in a very dark and cruel post-apocalyptic world. The living conditions are rapidly deteriorating and humanity is slowly dying out. Even despite that there are still factions that continue to wage war. This may not appeal to everyone because the bleak outlook will wear you down mentally.