It’s far from perfect, but if you have a little forgiveness and a lot of patience, The Guild 2 certainly delivers...
The Guild 2 is a unique blend of economic and political strategy, with a dash of Sims thrown in for fun. Having never played the original Guild, I was pleasantly surprised at what the game had to offer. Starting on the standard RPG screen of designing your character, including meager physical characteristics, you decide what type of gaming experience you wish to have. You can focus on sales, scholar, industry, or the “rogue” class, which robs and engages in political intrigue. You also decide which of the many character traits you want to boost to give you an edge in fighting, selling, speaking, or other function you may need later on. In the end, you use a little bit of everything (rogues spend a lot of time in court, patrons may have to fight off assassins, etc.), so a well rounded education is certainly called for.
On top of running a career, you can vie for a political position. Some positions offer diplomatic immunity, so even if you have no desire to run the town politically, it may behoove you to have one or two family members grab these slots. Political power is obtained through bribing the voting officials, being a positive member of the society, or killing your rivals. It’s all in good fun. The same works for being accused and standing trial, or accusing others, and balancing money between your business and court fees (read: bribing people) is a constant stressor to the game. Court and political proceedings can be a real nail-biter, with you making bribes and threats right to the end.
All of this is for naught if you have no family to pick up after you’ve died (whether by age or by sword). Much of the beginning hours of your character are spent finding a mate, and, much like real life, some will marry you simply by asking while others have their own agenda. You may end up going through two or three potential partners before finding someone that will finally give them your hand. I’ve heard complaints that this is far too complicated; it’s not. It’s challenging and a very well-placed aspect of the game as you have to run your character back and forth trying to boost your new business while attempting to court someone to your bed. All the while, the clock is ticking on your age, your dues, and the latest criminal charges that are being filed against you. For a “slow-real-time” game (similar to Tropico or Sims in time management), the pace of this game rises and falls from sluggish to frantic in a blink. Once you do find someone to share your home with, you can start cranking out children to expand your empire even further. You can populate a town’s entire political hierarchy with your own blood, if you play your cards right.
Running the businesses, with the exception of rogue class, is beyond frustrating at times. I micromanaged my tavern as much as I could, making sure someone was always working, running carts back and forth, and neglected the AI option because, heaven forbid, I can’t do it better than the AI. I almost went broke. I let the AI manage my building and my profits were doubled before the next turn. I still can’t figure out what the difference is. Regardless, once you find a pattern, whether AI assisted or you just have better luck than I, there are many ways to upgrade your single business or expand your franchise. Eventually, you can run a monopoly throughout the land. The rogues, by contrast, just hang out on the road and steal from carts passing by. So long as your men are far enough away from city guards, you have a constant income to rival other businesses. It’s easy money, until the entire town tries to kill you or have you arrested.
I can honestly say this is one of the most difficult games I’ve ever played, but it’s not necessarily all due to legitimate challenge. Much of the trifle of this game is the lack of detail in the manual. You’re told you can ask around to gain evidence on other people, but it doesn’t tell you that you have to be a certain class or certain level to be able to do this (one of my henchmen of the rogue class could, but none of the others could). A suggestion for courting a specific type of person calls for taking a bath with them, but there are no instructions on how to do so (I think you install a tub in your own house and lure them back, but I’m still not sure). Other things like why my character can’t hire certain unemployed citizens or court certain single people are never discussed.
Graphically, the game is very pretty and runs quite well on my AMD 3400+ with GeForce 6600 and 2gig RAM. I have almost all the options turned up with some minor things here and there shut down. When I do a jump across the map, the game slows while graphics reload, but it’s a minor issue. Slowing the game down actually causes a memory issue and the cursor all but ceases to work unless you’re in normal time. Despite that, the graphics depict a very pretty image of life in medieval times without being like a cartoon or drenched in fantasy imagery. If you zoom low into the game, you are often rewarded with surprises like fish in the water or cautious deer sneaking through the woods. The character animations, however, are jerky and repetitive, something 4Head should have spent just a few more weeks working on.
That said, the game is not without bugs, on top of the manual’s shortcomings. I tried three times to select an unemployed person, and it wouldn’t click. I clicked on my business to hire someone random automatically, and the person I had been trying to select was the one hired by my business. You can tell your troops repeatedly to follow one of your carts or family members, then, when there is a time or event change, your troops will stop and stand there for the rest of the game until you intervene. You get notified of the goings on in another town, but frequently receive no notices of what is happening to your own buildings or people unless you are looking right at them. These sound minor, but they are a constant in the game and slow your progress significantly.
It’s far from perfect, but if you have a little forgiveness and a lot of patience, The Guild 2 certainly delivers an entertaining experience. Speedy RTS gamers will balk at the pace, but people who want to stroll through medieval Europe and pretend for a few hours will find their wishes fulfilled. It has all the depth that other games miss for intrigue and monopolies, and it lets you set your own pace of gameplay. You can sit at the game for short periods of time, or you can spend all night trying to be the dominant political family in one town. The choice is yours, and The Guild 2 gives you all the options.