The Banner Saga: Factions beta access available for $15, video shows viking barney

The Banner Saga: Factions is the standalone multiplayer mode for the successfully Kickstarted fantasy RPG, The Banner Saga. It'll be free at launch, but you can pay $15 to gain access to the beta right now. Why the cost? "As our backers have already generously donated we feel that charging a small amount for access to non-backers would be the most fair solution," say Stoic. Those who pay the fee will get a couple of Steam keys and access to future multiplayer updates.

Factions will let you create a team of fantasy viking beefcakes, axemen and archers and level them up in combat against other viking beefcakes. The turn-based formula looks familiar, but there are many classes and an interesting combat system that ties health to power. As a warrior loses health, they grow weaker until they reach the stage where they realise they can no longer lift a tankard of mead and life's light fades from their sorrowful viking souls. See that and more in the latest video.

The single player component will consist of "three full-length campaigns" that exist in the same world as Factions and Stoic say that Factions will chance "as events unfold." Find out more about The Banner Saga: Factions on the Banner Saga site .

Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.