The Guild 2

The Guild 2 is an ambitious strategy game that melds elements of micro-management with kingdom building. The long-awaited sequel to Europa: The Guild, The Guild 2 drops the Europa moniker and creates a deep and complex game that not only requires you to establish an empire, but also a household and a family legacy. While the game does succeed at being an extremely deep experience, there are several debilitating bugs that plague the game and show a glaring and unfortunate lack of polish. However, fans that can look past these flaws will find a lot to love here.

In The Guild 2, you have to build your family name from the ground up, gaining prestige amongst the nobility, courting brides and bearing progeny to keep your name going. You can attain this through a number of ways, through diplomatic ties with your business associates, or through contract killings to clear out the competition. In The Guild 2, you can honestly play with an open palm or a closed fist.

However, aside from your family’s personal prestige and name in the political realm, you must also level up your personal avatar. Your pater (or mater) familias can level up in certain key areas that will assist you in your personal method of playing the game, be it through clean business or dirty methods.

On the gameplay front, The Guild 2 has you controlling your avatar much like you would in an RPG title or RTS game. You guide him across the screen interacting with people via special macros that enable you to due anything from embrace them to break their bones. This is only the tip of diplomatic iceberg within the game, as you try to establish your personal empire.

However, the game is not without issue. The game falls prey to some nasty bugs and technical issues, from slow load times to frequent crashes. This makes the game feel unpolished, and you can’t help but think that with a bit more time this game could’ve really shined.

Graphically, The Guild 2 is pretty clean. The environments and character models look pretty good. However, it would’ve been nice to have a few more customization options when creating your character, as they all pretty much look the same unless they’re wearing a helmet. However, that’s a relatively minor gripe, and the game looks solid overall.

The sound effects also fare pretty nicely. The score is good and works with the overall mood of the game, and the voice effects are nice sounding, if a little limited.

The Guild 2 is a pretty good strategy game, with plenty of ambition in terms of overall scope and some surprisingly deep features. However, the experience is marred by technical issues that cause much undue frustration. 

Gameplay: 7.5
Tons of micro and macro-management options, truly enabling you to play the game however you see fit. Unfortunately, the game feels unfinished at times due to some pretty nasty bugs.

Graphics: 8.0
The Guild 2 looks great, with very detailed backgrounds and character models. While it won’t push your graphics card to the max, it stands a very good-looking game.

Sound: 7.0
The score is good and sets the mood for the game, and the voice acting is pretty decent, albeit limited.

Difficulty: Medium

Concept: 8.5
The Guild 2 is a very ambitious game, keeping the scope open for gamers. However, the game has some trouble pulling it off due to some technical issues and bugs.

Overall: 7.5
The Guild 2 is an open-ended game that has a great concept and carries it almost to full fruition. Unfortunately, some frustrating bugs mar the package.