When comparing The Banner Saga 2 vs The Order: 1886, 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 The Order: 1886 is ranked 151st. 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 Great visual and audio design
The environments in The Order have a very steampunk, Victorian era feel. The graphics are dark and gritty, which serves the game perfectly well. Not only do they fit well, but they're also brilliantly done. They're very realistic; everything from the buildings and terrain, right down to a character's facial features are simply staggering.
The soundtrack is nearly as good. The music has a dark, creepy feeling to it which fits the game's occult-centric nature perfectly. More than that is the voice acting, which is beautifully done. The characters look and sound real, which has been exceedingly difficult to pull off.
When you tie the two different aspects together, it creates an environmental effect that's captivating and intoxicating, leaving you wanting more.
Pro The combat is fast, varied, and very fun
Fighting in The Order: 1886 is pretty great. You have access to a large array of weapons, technology, and even magic to blast your enemies away with.
It plays like a third-person shooter, so expect to have to do a lot of aiming - unless your gun is big enough. You get thrown into combat against humans, werewolves, and other nasty creatures. You've got to change up your tactics depending on what you're facing, and that variety really enhances the enjoyment you get out of the game.
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 Really short
Despite being padded with unskippable cutscenes, The Order: 1886 can be finished in a very short time. A first time playthrough can last you up to 8 hours, but you won't getting much more out of it.
Con No multiplayer at all
The developers went for a cinematic single-player experience, meaning there's no local or online co-op/multiplayer. The only way you can enjoy this game with your friends is by taking turns playing.