Archeo: Shinar vs Banished
Archeo: Shinar
Archeo: Shinar is a fun, archeological-themed, business management-style game where you get to assemble a team of archeologists and send them on expeditions to excavate for valuable ancient items that you can then sell at the black market.Although the gameplay is pretty much casual-like, there are so many little details that you can scrutinize and optimize in this game just so you can run a more profitable business. Of course, as the leader of the team, you'll also be asked to make difficult decisions, some of which may not be well-received by the archeologists you hire.
So, if you love playing games where you'll need to manage a team and resources, you'll want to check out Archeo Shinar. The game is in-depth enough to be fun but is casual enough to be relaxing to play.
Banished
Banished is a medieval-themed city-building simulation that can be pretty difficult to get into at first mainly due to its many nuances and lack of a comprehensive tutorial. But once you get the general idea of how things work (we'd recommend starting with easy mode), you'll start to truly appreciate the game as the challenge that it is. In some way, this game is quite similar to SimCity in many ways with the obvious difference being the themes and the lack of piping, waste management or electricity. Different maps will pose a different challenge and of course, the bigger your village is, the more stuff you'll need to manage. Although it does have some strategy elements to it - mainly in the form of village management, the game is not a war game. There is no fighting involved but your villagers will die from natural causes or disasters like illnesses or famine.However, once you've gotten the hang of the game, Banished becomes less of a punishing game and a bit more boring due to the same-y looking buildings and the soundtrack. When it comes to replayability, we'd say that the game has maybe tens of hours in it before you'll get bored and move on to the next game... and this play duration may be drastically reduced if you happen to be a pro SimCity player.
So, in short, Banished will appear to be a somewhat frustrating game at first, but once you've gotten the hang of it, the game might gradually becomes boring mainly because there is nothing else to do except to expand, expand and expand! However, we can't say that we didn't enjoy playing the game, and even for the shorter play duration it has to offer, as opposed to triple A city-building titles, the game is worth the money it costs.