Free stuff is always great, especially when said freebie is an entirely new game mode for an excellent title like Banner Saga 2. From today, owners of the tactical RPG can download Survival Mode for free, which tasks players with putting a combat team together from the existing range of heroes.
The twist here, however, is that any hero deaths sustained while in survival mode will result in perma-death. If they’re dead, they’re gone forever. Developer Stoic’s technical director John Watson said (via VideoGamer) of the update that:
Survival Mode is something we’ve been working on behind the scenes for a while now. This is an entirely new experience within Banner Saga 2. Our goal was to create a fun, tactical game mode where fans can play from a different perspective which focuses on strategy and the hard cost of death in combat.
If you wish to complete survival and emerge victorious, you’ll have to keep your crew alive for 40 combat stages that become increasingly more difficult. Currently only available for PC and OS X, Banner Saga 2 will be waging war on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 starting July 26. A release on mobile platforms is planned for later this year, but in the meantime, you can read our original review right here.