The Guild Gold Edition

Let me first make a bold statement: this is one of the best turn based strategy games released in the last decade that no one played (in the US, at least). What do I mean by that? Well, this is a sandbox economic/political simulation with RPG and real-time combat elements where the goal is essentially to destroy all rival dynasties and become the most powerful person in your town. Despite an unpolished implementation, it gets quite a bit right. The good: Most of the items you can craft or buy in the game actually serve some purpose other than income generation. They can give you a bump in reputation, more action points per turn, the ability to annoy or hurt your enemies, avoid bad events, or even increase your children's talents (you will eventually take over as one of your children when your character dies). The sheer amount of items later in the game can become problematic since there are only 6 slots in your player's inventory. You will have to make some tough game-play decisions. Politics pays off, but in the long run. All the higher offices have quite a few perks that go along with the nice income bonus. You can be immune to crimes, threaten rivals if they get out of hand, build stuff cheaper, and train skills for less AP (action points per turn). It can be annoying and overly expensive to move up the ranks in the early game, however. All buildings are unique and upgradable. Your own house will help you live longer and gain reputation, plus you can build rooms which allow you to sabotage your enemies and hold banquets to make new friends. When your businesses reach higher levels, you can craft more lucrative/powerful items, and build additions that can generate income on their own. If you tire of being a crafter, you can try your luck at being a thief. I frankly view it as the most unbalanced class, but it's quite fun to play. You can rob people's houses and shops, physically attack (and take over) all of the rival thief/robber baron/city guard buildings (but not normal shops/houses), and even avoid prosecution by kidnapping the people foolish enough to charge you with crimes (you can even get a ransom for them afterwards). Finally, the castle keeps the end-game pretty interesting. You can hire a wizard to research random potions (which allow for all kinds of interesting bonuses), assassinate rivals, and even shoot the castle's cannon at buildings in town. The Bad: To put it simply: the balance can suck. For example...You can marry very rich old women, toad slime their house, and wait for them to die so you can inherit their money. Every few turns. Also, some professions are easy-mode due to the items you can produce, the easily predicted market forces the game simulates, and the passive income buildings you can build (I'm looking at you entertainer's). In fact, the game's fairly primitive AI can be pretty disappointingly easy (multi-player exists, but can be buggy...and good luck finding English speaking players if that's a requirement). Even on the most difficult levels, it's easy to take advantage of the predictable marketplace and keep enough people happy/threatened to remain in office. The Ugly: The real-time combat in this game is horrible. It's unintuitive and obnoxious to the point that it makes classes like the city guard and robber baron unplayable. If you're sucked into combat constantly, it will drive you absolutely crazy. In conclusion, this game is quite complex and can be played in any number of ways...so don't let any of the short-comings I mentioned deter you from an addictive and truly underated game. It is quite a bargain at this price, and not something any turn based strategy game lover should pass up.

Try as I might, I can't recall any other significant medieval life simulation except, perhaps, The Guild 2. That alone makes this game interesting, but believe me, there's much more to it than just being a complex and fun medieval strategy game. It's a highly ambitious, challenging, unique, sometimes even frustrating but ultimately rewarding game. The amount of gameplay options available are sure to leave even seasoned gamers' heads spinning. You start out as a young free man or woman in one of the major cities of Europe in 1400 AD, ... from here it's all up to you! Every aspect of your social life can be explored somehow. If you never played this, imagine a game where you can: - Marry, have children and a family dinasty; - Work as a merchant, craftsman, entertainer, priest, politician, crimelord, robber baron... or all of the above; - Manage a business and all its possible variables (hiring, training and keeping workers, buying raw materials and turning into products, selling in the marketplace, expading, building new branches, handling taxes, crime activity...) or just leaving it in the hands of a trade master who'll work for you; - Having a network of spies on your enemies tails; - Holding fesitivities at your home, perhaps inviting the local sovereign for dinner; - Achieving nobility titles and the suitable privileges; - Building bigger, better places to live, up to a royal palace; - Having romantic affairs with members of the local nobility; - Having a politic career, fiddling with the laws of the land; - Sending your enemies on trial for their crimes (and standing trial, even spending some years in the dungeon if you're caught!); - Employing a number of measures against your enemies (threatening, insulting, duelling, starting rumors, writing funny rhymes); - I could go on for a while but I'll stop because the list is already too long. I think, because this game is so greatly ambitious, it must have been extremely hard to develop, thus leaving space to flaws. Controls are sometimes awkward, sometimes unresponsive, or rather just feel "not right", leaving you wondering what you did wrong. It is sometimes unclear what you need to do to accomplish certain things. The tutorial is lengthy because there's a lot to know, but alas, it won't cover everything. Finally, the automated help of trade routes and masters soon become mandatory, but neither work so well. Many times you'll prefer to spend the time to do it yourself, simply because you can't afford to waste the time lost from a cart stuck in the marketplace for years, or a master that won't send the (paid) apprentices on proper training or work, instead leaving them standing for several hours for no apparent reason. These flaws however only exist because the game is so incredibly grand, nearly limitless. If there wasn't so much to see and do, I wouldn't need automated help. If there wasn't a challenging (but arguably fair) time limit each round, I wouldn't need lightning-paced controls and shortcuts. If there wasn't a wide plethora of options to ascend in life and vex your opponents, I wouldn't need any assistance after the game starts, I'd probably have it figured before starting. And fortunately after you're past the learning curve, you'll ignore any flaws, as most are a matter of familiarity with the controls and timing of the game. A word about the expansion pack: it adds a large city, new politics offices, new occupations, new careers, in other words, it greatly expands an already features-heavy game. Nice move bringing the expanded version GOG! And a word about multiplayer: I think this completes the most games nowadays, so for an early 2000's game, it's a really desirable feature. Send your friends and relatives to jail, ask for their removal from their public offices, spy on them, marry their children! :) I can tell many will find this game too overwhelming. That's okay, I think that's the point of The Guild. This game is for everyone who digs unique and challenging experiences, micro-management, a real-life-like amount of options and a solid replay value.

This is a strange game. Basically - you're taxed with the assignment of creating a name and fortune in the 1400 and onwards. So this game is primarily an economical game - simulator if you will (although simulation might be taking it too far in my book). However then there is the combat aspect, thieving aspect, political aspect, family aspect etc which provides additional challenges. The game is fun, but frustrating at times. It takes some time to get into, so don't expect to jump into the game and just play. That in my book is refreshing though, so it is a plus that the game actually expects you to play and decide. The game can quickly seem tedious, but at the same time it does contain this "just one more turn, then I'll go to bed/work/do the dishes, just one more trip to the market, just one more building improved". The game is not for everybody, but if you like economical simulators, dashed with inspiration of many other elements - then I'd say try it out. This game can keep you busy for weeks, if not months. Something rare with games that comes out in this day and age. The only reason this game is a 4 and not a 5 is that there are (were) room for improvement. The navigation is difficult to master which provides a frustrating element which needed be there, the interface suffers a bit and making trade routes (so far) is not intuitive and at times it seems the carts forget what they were supposed to do. But the game is definitely worth the price - definitely. Now excuse me while, I'm off to start another game.

On the GOG community forums, you will hear a lot about this game. And how addictive and brilliant it is. Happy to say, it's pretty much true! The Guild is a strategy game, where you start a buisness in the 1400s based on your family ancestry of choosing. There is a decent number of business types to experiment with, many have their own qwirks and uniqueness as well. At first, you can only trade and make small cheap goods, over time, more expensive products can be made, until your business is doing well enough and has become complicated enough for you to automate (at the hands of a 'master', which will do so under set parameters). As your cash builds, you can build more buildings, venture into new types of businesses and slowly own much of the town. Each year, you receive a few action points, these can be put to use for the other part of the game. Aside from the business aspect, you can also rise in rank with in the town, taking on various political offices, with various benefits. Sabotage competitors, engage in blackmail, train your own abilities and more. To ensure that your legacy lives on, you'll need a wife/husband & have children who will inherit and eventually take over everything. While their stats are low, and need retraining, and they don't gain your political spot, they do carry your reputation and title, and all resources/buildings. After several generations, they may even own their own castle outside the town. It's all kind of a mixed simulation, with a good level of depth and planning involved. So much more than can be given in a simple review. But the game is highly addictive, free play or mission based, it sucks up free hours, but rarely, if ever, gets dull.