As the sequel to 2002’s Europa: The Guild, The Guild 2 has some pretty big
shoes to fill. The original offered deep gameplay elements and robust features,
while coupling it with an intrinsic interface that any gamer would be able to
get used to quickly. Now the sequel is gearing up for a release, offering up the
same brand of strategy and role-playing, albeit with some great new additions.
The Guild 2 has you building a dynasty to span several generations of your
family’s lineage. You must establish a medieval empire that will keep your
family in the money for many years, and it is up to you to decide the best way
to go about it. Beginning with not much more to your name than a house, you have
to build your empire from the ground up, starting in a trade business, dealing
with your rivals accordingly (through whatever means you can), and otherwise
making a sellable product to the public and building up your family.
Aside from the strategy elements of building up your status in the social and
political realms, you can actually build up your individual character as well.
You can build up levels that will give you different attributes, which can help
you out on the strategy side of things (boosts in running your business, your
employees’ ability to learn quickly and so on) or you can gain skills when it
comes to being a rogue and running your business underhandedly, as in carrying
out killings and scoring critical hits against your rivals and enemies.
Aside from the deep business elements, you must also work on building your
character’s personal life. This includes getting married and establishing good
relationships with those around you. Marrying well will assist you in verifying
that your bloodline will be able to achieve the best as your family progresses.
Graphically, The Guild 2 is showing a lot of promise, offering a very
detailed world with tons of unique elements thrown in the mix. While there were
a couple of things that needed to be cleaned up, like a few animation issues.
However, the overall look was very clean, and was a noticeably marked
improvement over the original.
The Guild 2 is gearing up to be a very deep strategy game with some
interesting elements and some unique role-playing elements. However, even
considering the amount of complexity and sheer amount of stuff to be done, the
interface is easy to pick up, making for a complex, yet approachable
strategy/role-playing game. Look for it later this month.
