Recent reviews by Shemone

perfect mix of combat and stealth

And enjoyable game, similar to Rimworld, though it's very hard to get started and can easily become and early game over.

The game and gameplay, I didn't know I wanted, I never played the first but seeing the trailer had me intrigued, what a worthwhile purchase. Gameplay is fun, fast and satisfying. The gameplay keeps you wanting more. Some of the loot boxes that you find as you play through have to be acquired before your run reaches a certain timer, otherwise they're locked and you miss out on the shiny loot this really encourages you to push yourself.

I'm a huge fan of The Guild series and whole-heartedly expect this game to be better than it's predecessor, eventually.

RIght now, it's a buggy mess, there's lot of placeholder art, performance issues and flaky interface input BUT the game oozes potential, I bought this game on early access to get a taste of what's to come and to support the devs. I didn't expect perfect and I didn't get perfect, this game has alot of content and has nearly a year to iron out the bugs and performance issues before release, so I'll wait, patiently, like an adult knowing full what what i've bought into. Right now I'm excited for the future. Although multiplayer isn't implemented yet this game could/should be a beaut when it's done.

As for my recommendation, Yes I recommend you buy this game now, if A) You want a slight discount. B) You want this game super early and C) If you can handle all of the above peaves. If you can't handle C) then move along and come back later when it's finished.

There's alot to be said about The Guild 2 Renaissance, this is such a good mix of games types that I can sit down with my wife and play, I'll play the dirty, cheap rogue class, who makes his money by praying on the weak, robbing their trade carts, collecing "protection money" from businesses or just down right beating people senseless, robbing them, breaking their bones and lastly murdering them so they don't accuse you at yor local government building -

There is a lot of micro-management involved, you can't simply rely on your people to do the sensible thing, minor things like ensuring non of your hired thugs get caught up battling an endless stream of town guards or that your main character doesn't run off to court to be prosecuted, full well knowning that the a**hole who accused you has enough evidence to have you and your whole family executed.

All the while I'm doing this my wife will be playing a nice patient class of "Patron", farming her fields, sowing her crops and selling the goods down the local market, she'll then proceed to court a craftsman so she can get to work on manufacturing goods for sale (Some useful, some not-so much). Eventually she'll start making weapons, armours and other such goodies, I try to "encourage" her to sell to me and my rag-tag band of ruffians so that I can get a nice discount and then ensure that she doesn't get pestered by robbers, hoodlems and those damn Tax collectors.

One of the main things i love about this game is the attention to detail, the little things that you can do, taking your courted partner for a dance, or a shared bath at the local Tavern (Which is usually run by a player/NPC who profits from your actions), having a bevvy in the pub - drinking too much and becoming a beligerent fool! Ailments! Ailments that are really well done, sprained ankles, colds that develop into pneumonia which becomes deadly if left untreated, there goes your long lasting dynasty!

Character Progression: There are 4 main classes Patron/Rogue/Craftsman/Scholar, who all progress in their chosen professions unlocking better buildings, more staff to beat and better products to manufacture/sell/steal. Behind all this is your character, whom you create through a fairly decent character creator, who then acquires XP by performing tasks, this XP can then be spent on upgrading his attributes which all have an affect on how well a character can perform certain tasks. Stealth for instance, decreases the chance you'll be spotted by guards when burgarling and scouting buildings. Dexterity, another useful stat, increase your characters speed and ability to dodge attacks. Constitution , the most important, increases your characters raw HP pool and allows you to carry more items per trip, why steal 1 sword when you can steal4 eh?

Policitcal System: there is a very deep and intricate political system, I haven't dabbled too much in it but once your character has title of certain quality he can run for certain positions, most of which come with their own perks.

Dungeon Master: Control the torturers.
General: Control town Guards.
Mayor: Embezzle money and set building tax.

There are many, many more but don't forgot you will always have to battle for these positions, by using either pure brutality and murdering anyone who dare run for your position, or political espionage, accuse them of crimes or put up stupid posters in the town square that accuses them of the most ludicrous things and watch as passers by read and laugh.

The Cons:

Bugs, seriously just those damn bugs. Some are game breaking like going out of sync in Multiplayer (Save frequently to avoid) and others are just daft, like hand carts being pulled by nothing... nothing at all.... it just rolls... by itself... weird as hell, even the unit portrait loses it's person.

Actions stop working: Sometimes buildings can become bugged and stop you performing certain actions on them, a little annoying when that very lucrative gem mine is right next door :(

In summary, I entirely recommend this game, whether you want a fast paced game or you want a slow sim game.

Gameplay 9/10
Graphics 8/10
Replayability 10/0
Audio 7/10

TLDR: Good game, can murder innocent tax collectors!