I'm probably one of the only people who loves to waste time micro-manage crap, this game is near literal heaven for me...though that one time when playing a patron and just getting curb stomped by the guy's own wifes' father first making my patron fued and then proceeds to sick his entire family's rogue possy onto him for whatever reason...hours of money, climbing the title ladder and such wasted for the stupid father who probably had family issue...

At least my experience didn't include having any of my characters break a "bone" during consumating. That didn't happen, yet :P

this game is hard get into but fun i like i would total recommend game and you should get it

I am mixed about this game. Bought it to get a feel for when Guild 3 came out.

...I bought a farm for grain, then a windmill to turn grain into flour, then a Weaver for cloth from the wool from the farm, then a bakery to turn flour to biscuits, then a mine for iron, then a foundary to turn iron into tools and then spent my time getting stuff to where was needing and selling the surplus. The chain grow.

Married, had 2 kids, married the son. Started a rogue thingie... then realised.. was this it? Would I just be doing this same process slowly taking over each and every building?

I started a scholar to try... will this be same thing? Rogue? I Feel a LOT less flare for it now. Was great at first though.. now.. not so sure.

I though the RPG element would add something that city builders lacked (I played Skylines and it was just this process non stop), but its not enough to keep me hooked, even though I love the initial idea behind it.

This game explains modern day politics very well. Bribe everyone, then bribe everyone some more to get into your desired point of office.

If someone else in office is too expensive to bribe, either have them killed or fabricate fake evidence to the point they get the death sentence.

10/10 Real World Knowledge

Dont buy. Game is bugged. One of your characters may randomly attack without reason then get aggro from gaurds every time you regain concious instantly putting you back on the ground for some long ♥♥♥ sleep time. Dont know why this studo made a game that doesnt even work properly.

Ignore the bad reviews if you think this game will interest you. Its not everyone's cup of tea. And on top of that, its severely buggy and largely unpolished. But if you look past all that roughness, there is a true gem in here. Not many games deliver so well on so much. It may be one of the best PC games I've ever played. Consider the following story as a testament to what kind of game this is:

I started out an innkeeper in a large city in a large region. I was doing okay. I kept selling cheap food and drink in order to open a bakery nearby. The bakery was also not much, mostly baking rolls for the masses. But in time I was doing well financially and took some time off to pursue a love interest.

The same year she was pregnant and gave birth to my first born son. I was busy working and she spent less time at the bakery. Soon all her time was spent between the house and the church. Neither of us minded though. My son was of school age and we couldn't afford much. So we sent him to a guild school to study to join the family business. The same year, my wife was pregnant again, but this time with a little girl.

During this time I was able to afford to be a citizen and was granted the ability to expand my business. I quickly set up an orchard and a farm outside the gates. It was hopeful, as the supplies for both the Inn and Bakery were now completely controlled by me.

By the time my daughter was of school age, we had the assets to send her to the best school possible. My first born son, was not the most amitious child and my first born daughter had a brighter future due to our new financial situation.

I had another daughter, and another son. More of the same, I suppose, as I was too busy working at the largely successful Inn and expanding my business to fisheries and livestock.

My first born son was a disappointment. He was born when we were poor and didn't amount to much. He mostly went to church with his mother and didn't have the skills to follow in the family business. My first born daughter on the other hand, had the right schooling and was perfectly set up to join the family business. My second daughter, while successful on her own terms, didn't match the success of the first daughter. And lastly, my last born child, a boy, was quiet and simply enjoyed school.

When my first born daughter came of age to help out, she did with much ambition. While I worked the Inn, she helped with apple picking and livestock. She was maybe a bit too ambitious as she managed the workers with the attitude of a tyrant. But I was happy with the success of my business and I was running out of room to expand, so I turned to politics.

I managed to win a low level office for a very short time before getting replaced by a man who had leprosy. However, my daughter almost entirely transitioned my business empire away from me and was doing quite well. So I kept at it. I had money to spend, so I intended to use it. I began bribing people for votes, and I managed to bribe the king himself. But, I lost again.

While my daughter ran my business, and I was unsuccessful at politics, I had little to do. So for the most part, I rekindled my relationship with my aging wife. Also, my character strangely had alcohol in his inventory often, and was no stranger to drinking it on the spot or offering it to others. On a strange night, I also tried sabotaging a rival bakery by tossing an explosive in the front door. It was a mistake and didn't do much.

While I declined from power and my daughter took over, I failed to notice my last born son. He graduated from university with a doctorate. He was a scholar and was a full grown man ready to open his own line of business. Upon his graduation, he quickly started a bank and hospital in town. He worked hard, but being the business man in the family, I saw issues. Two doors down from his bank was a rival bank. Around the corner from his hospital, was a rival hospital.

He was happy working and keeping to himself, so I took it upon myself. We bombed them and ran. I went home to my wife and all was fine. Except, it wasn't.

While I was at home with my wife, my son was working late at the hospital, and my daughter was working late night at the Inn, my daughter, unfortunately lead by her father's poor example, carried out a constant barrage of attacks across the entire city for hours. Many people died, including many of my loyal bodyguards, and several buildings were so heavily damaged they couldn't be entered for fear of collapse.

The tooltip read for me - Corrupt. My entire life I was a righteous man and in a single day I ruined a lifetime of good. My daughter however, was labeled a walking nightmare. A title she wore proudly as she was a violent and cruel woman.

A day later I was summoned to trial for my crimes. And shortly after, so was my daughter. Fortunately for me, the persecuter was bad at her job and couldn't articulate my crimes well enough. With experience, I was able to convince the judges that I was not guilty. My daughter - the judge didn't even show and she walked free.

I was done, however. And now my entire business was in the hand's of my daughter and son.

A few short years later my daughter married and had a series of daughters. My son married and had sons. She spent most of her time in the Inn, acting as an innocent server as she masterminded violence. Her first born daughter stayed at home with her father, picking up the skills for crafting.

My son on the other hand built up impressive charismatic skills and began spending most of his time preaching. He opened his own Catholic church and was busy speaking to the masses. He wasn't as interested in the hospital anymore due to issues obtaining supplies needed for medicine. That was, however, one of the catalysts for what happened next.

Illness spread across the city. It struck the elderly for the most part. And the political stage was swept clean.

My son saw this as an opportunity to win an easy election and do some good for the city. So he applied for a entry level political office.

My first born daughter's daughter was also of age and opened up a tailoring shop. She worked in it night and day and was militant, like her evil mother. However, she just enjoyed working hard. She committed no crimes and often gave bonuses to her employees to reward them for putting up with her management style.

My son had only one opponent to beat for political office. But to help seal the deal, his sister showed up and gave some bribe money to the king. He won the vote and was now holding political office. First it was the Leasing Officer. Then it was the Guild Master. Then Bishop. Then he used his political power to help his sister and neice also win politcal offices.

He had charisma and the power of the people behind him. His sister was a brute with deep pockets. She kept helping him win and in return, he would give her his vote when she applied. Together, they made it to the top - Cardinal, Soverign, and my grandaughter was Consul. Together, they took down bandits, banished rivals, carried out crime and government authority hand in hand. All while I watched from my estate. My children took over the city both economically and politcally. All while in my lifetime. Not sure if I'm proud or scared.

If you made it this far, kudos for reading.

Okay, if you're interested in this game BUY THIS VERSION

DO NOT BUY the base game, DO NOT BUY Pirates of the "Yer a pee'in seas",( LOL ) it won't matter this version works with out the "base game" because THEY ARE NOT EXPANSIONS they are all "base games" of the same game only this one is the BEST.

I made the mistake of first buying the first guild 2 THE "base game". And then later buying Pirates, because i thought it was an expansion :l NOW i have 3 versions of the same game in my library }:[ Don't make the same mistake, just buy this version and be done with it.

UPDATED ON APRIL 2, 2016: I promised to come back to this review after playing the latest official patch more, and I can report that bugs still persist. Having said that, it is still a big improvement over the last vanilla version, and I can also recommend either Fajeth or McCoy's mods to make the game even more playable. Both do different things, but both are fantastic. It is my recommendation that you try both (separately - mods generally can't work together in TG2) and definitely use one of them, especially once you've played vanilla for 50 hours or so to get a grasp for the basics of the game.

Onto the review: I will not belabor the point: The Guild is my favorite game. In this review I’ll try to explain why this is, and where I’m coming from in terms of my interest in the game, and probably games generally speaking. Hopefully this will help introduce like-minded gamers to The Guild and perhaps also steer some people, if they have different tastes, from the game.

I have always enjoyed simulation games, particularly economic and life sims. I grew up playing what now seem like fairly simplistic sims (e.g., Theme Park, The Settlers, and The Sims) and was fascinated by the seemingly living world of the AI inhabitants in these games. As I began to enjoy role playing games more, and in particularly Ultima Online, I longed for a simulation game in which I wasn’t in complete control, but instead could actually be one of those small inhabitants in the simulated world. Nothing like this existed until I played the first Guild game (Europa 1400) and I was immediately won over, realizing that it was as close to a perfect game as I would ever find, short of developing one myself.

The Guild is indeed a simulated world. It doesn’t attempt to be huge like Skyrim. You are controlling a small family in a single town or on some maps a single town out of up to four. There are up to eleven other “dynasties” (i.e. families) living in these towns, and they all go about their business without your intervention. You are not god in this game – you are just a family existing and striving in the middle ages, and it is amazing fun. It seems there is not one area that The Guild has left out of its gameplay. You can get involved in politics, your character has a religiosity meter, favor (or disfavor) with every single sim in the game, a disposition based on their criminality or lack thereof, skills, perks (think fallout), marriage, children, trials, duals, and the list goes on.

The world in The Guild feels more alive than any game I have played. NPCs go about their business with a real purpose, and it is all simulated. They will do everything from sit around town and chat, go to the pub, hire a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, to run for office and command the city guard (who, by the way, are also governed by some degree of AI logic). In short, the game feels a lot like living in a real, functioning medieval town.

In summary, if you’ve always enjoyed god games, economic sims, and life sims, but wanted to be part of the world rather than the controller of the world – wanted to have to work within the confines of human ability to influence the world (e.g., become mayor and change the law instead of using a hand in the sky to smite someone) then this is the game for you. If you want complete control over the world and all of its inhabitants then you might not enjoy this as much, but I still say it’s worth a try.

In 1400 A.D. I was no one
In 1401 A.D. I was a low office holder
In 1402 A.D. I got married
In 1403 A.D. I got a child (thank god a boy)
In 1404 A.D. Life was good
In 1405 A.D. I build a mine
In 1406 A.D. I was rich
In 1407 A.D. My wife got kidnapped
In 1408 A.D. I killed the kidnapper
in 1409 A.D. My wife bore a girl, so I killed her
In 1410 A.D. I got sued for killing my wife
In 1411 A.D. In court everyone started talking German
In 1412 A.D. I got frustrated and killed those who spoke German
In 1413 A.D. I was no more

Best 7 hours of my life.

Brilliant that Nordic Games have started patching this games wound! Rarely do devolpers come back to a game to fix after 4 years, The Guild 3 is also in the works which is incredible.