The Guild 2

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E3 2006 First Look Preview

There are a lot of sequels being shown off at this year’s E3, one of which is a new title by Aspyr called Guild 2 … a followup to Europa 1400. The concept to this title is to create an avatar, create the ultimate dynasty, but then get married, have kids, and pass it on down to them. The game is presented in a top down viewpoint which can easily be zoomed in or out of to get a better view as to what's going on.

The character creation that starts off is pretty detailed, and outside of controlling gender and looks on the character, you will also be able to choose a class (like craftsman, trader, etc.) and subclasses to each one like armorsmith or swordsmith as a craftsman. From there, you also have point allocations (similar to RPG’s) that will also be utilized and doing better at certain things (like craftsmanship) will also determine how well your hired help does.

Hired help? Yep … that’s one really unique aspect of the game. If you want to go out and directly get involved in sabotaging or building relationships with opposing dynasties, go ahead. If you don’t, then feel free to hire people to do your dirty work. You can even do such things as killing the leader of an opposing dynasty, making it look like an accident, marrying his wife, and taking over all of his possessions. You can play good or more selfish and evil if you want, but each decision has consequences and may even land you in jail.

In addition, your children will take over your dynasty (and you control them) as you grow old and / or die. Another unique aspect of Guild 2 is the fact that your offspring’s attributes will be determined largely by their parent’s traits, so if both parents are craftsmen, then the offspring will have bonuses to craftsmen abilities. There will also be diplomacy systems between dynasties, and doing things like making and selling swords over and over in the same town will cause their value to decrease, while shipping them elsewhere may make them go up if there is a shortage.

The game is detailed and may sound complicated, but thankfully the controls are simple to learn and get into. For those of you who are Europa fans, you won’t be disappointed, and for those of you new to the series but looking for a decent management strategy title should be looking out for this one. It’s scheduled to release in Fall of 2006.

For All E3 2006 Previews