That's how I'd summarize The Guild II. It's part social/life simulator, part business simulator, RPG and strategy all mixed together to create one of the most unique games I've played. You create your family's first member, then from there, you must choose a career path. You then must go about managing your business, obtaining wealth, climbing the social ladder of your town, ensuring your bloodline continues after your inevitable death, and trying to become the most powerful family through whatever means you wish. One thing worth noting is that while I fully recommend controlling your own business 100%, if this isn't something that interests you, you can choose which aspects of your business you want the AI to manage (can be nice for those who hate micromanagement of inventory, production, employees, etc.) or have the AI manage it fully.

To expand on a few things mentioned, we'll begin with the jobs, which vary enough that certain careers can make the game play entirely differently from others. You can produce raw resources, such as wood/paper, metals, and ingredients to sell to the blacksmiths, alchemists, and priests. Or you can be the ones making armors, weapons, potions, and scrolls that sell quite well in the markets, but have the overhead cost of raw resources. Or you can be the ones using the weapons and armors to beat up opposing families who are either competing with you, or sending their cronies to attack your buildings simply because you looked at them wrong in the market yesterday. Or you can just go to the highways, and rob trading carts that are transferring valuable supplies between towns and businesses. Likewise, if you are a businessman, your own cart is subject to the risk of thievery, especially when travelling outside your city. Or you can be like me, and become a church priest, who can make documents that give social bonuses, and sell for quite a bit, in addition to being able to give sermons. With a high amount of speech, you can get a lot of money for just talking to your attendees about a magical man in the sky. Stupid blacksmith, having to buy metal and make items of value out of them, while I just prophet and profit. This is also one of the easiest ways to butt-kiss your way through the political ladder of your town.

Speaking of the political and social aspects, they are quite entertaining as well. If you're good at speaking, and have some charisma, you can try your luck at earning one of the town positions by manipulating votes and your fellow townspeople. Each town has a certain amount of positions available, each offering little perks and abilities to the holder, and the amount of positions is based on the size of the town. There is also a justice system in place, giving a legal alternative to murdering the thieves that keep robbing your carts, or that one family that keeps sending henchmen to attack your buildings. If you visually witness any crimes, you obtain evidence, which is all listed and can be viewed at any time. Evidence is rated on severity of crime, believability, and time elapsed since crime was committed. Believability is typically dependent on how you obtain the evidence. If you saw it with your own eyes, it's 100%. If you sent your henchman to town to investigate rumors, it's typically 50% or lower. Once you have a few severe crimes, or a lot of little ones on someone, you can probably get them the death penalty. But if you accuse someone, you are the prosecutor, so make sure you show up to the trial. If you're a criminal, or the thieves guild, it's in your best interest to make sure your prosecutors are unable to arrive to the trial by whatever means necessary.

Overall, this game's unique gameplay and combination of genres makes it worth a purchase. From what others have said, I'd advise looking into The Guild II: Renaissance over this particular version though. Each of the Guild II titles are stand-alone games, so you are not required to own this to play Renaissance. This game does have it's share of bugs, and I will list the ones I found below in the pros/cons:

Pros

• In addition to political and business aspects, this game is an RPG. Your family members have levels, stats, and perks that they can acquire every couple of levels.
  
  
• Various career paths give the game replayability. Some careers are unique in how you will play.
  
  
• Robust social system - each person is unique, and most are born instead of generated. The game keeps track of 100+ individual characters throughout multiple towns. Each person must marry and reproduce to continue their bloodlines, or become a footnote in the history books.
  
  
• This game is truly unique. Not only is it highly enjoyable, but there is no game that really comes close to this style. Sims Medieval attempted, but failed.

Cons

• Bugs/Glitches - While I have read other reviews with worse issues than I've had, I encountered one problematic issue. Rarely, when my rival families would send their cronies to attack my church, they would somehow spawn in the walls of my building. Guards would stack outside my church, along with my own henchmen I sent to defend it, unable to go into the walls to reach my aggressors. I almost lost a level 3 church, which costs a lot of gold, because the attackers were invincible. Luckily for me, they disappeared somehow before fully destroying it. But because the guards and myself were unable to stop them, I had a hefty repair bill that should have never happened.
  
  
• AI Pathing - While this is technically a bug too, it warrants it's own bullet-point. Several times I have accused an opponent of crimes, and set a court date. When the game informed me the trial was soon, I would click the accuser, right-click the town hall picture, and send him on his way. However a few times, he didn't make it, due to wandering around aimlessly trying to figure out a path to the same town hall he's been to before. This would result in not only my opponent being found innocent by default, but me getting a fine for wasting the court's time. I have also noticed that when anyone approaches the town hall from the side that has a tavern neighboring it, everyone will walk into the tavern first, then walk out and go into the town hall. Just make sure if you have somewhere important to be, you follow your character so he doesn't get lost. It's fairly rare, but annoying. Also, my children would sometimes be unable to attend school. After I paid for their schooling, they would cancel it because they are idiots who are unable to leave the house for some reason.

[h1]One of a kind.[/h1] That's how I'd summarize The Guild II. It's part social/life simulator, part business simulator, RPG and strategy all mixed together to create one of the most unique games I've played. You create your family's first member, then from there, you must choose a career path. You then must go about managing your business, obtaining wealth, climbing the social ladder of your town, ensuring your bloodline continues after your inevitable death, and trying to become the most powerful family through whatever means you wish. One thing worth noting is that while I fully recommend controlling your own business 100%, if this isn't something that interests you, you can choose which aspects of your business you want the AI to manage (can be nice for those who hate micromanagement of inventory, production, employees, etc.) or have the AI manage it fully. To expand on a few things mentioned, we'll begin with the jobs, which vary enough that certain careers can make the game play entirely differently from others. You can produce raw resources, such as wood/paper, metals, and ingredients to sell to the blacksmiths, alchemists, and priests. Or you can be the ones making armors, weapons, potions, and scrolls that sell quite well in the markets, but have the overhead cost of raw resources. Or you can be the ones using the weapons and armors to beat up opposing families who are either competing with you, or sending their cronies to attack your buildings simply because you looked at them wrong in the market yesterday. Or you can just go to the highways, and rob trading carts that are transferring valuable supplies between towns and businesses. Likewise, if you are a businessman, your own cart is subject to the risk of thievery, especially when travelling outside your city. Or you can be like me, and become a church priest, who can make documents that give social bonuses, and sell for quite a bit, in addition to being able to give sermons. With a high amount of speech, you can get a lot of money for just talking to your attendees about a magical man in the sky. Stupid blacksmith, having to buy metal and make items of value out of them, while I just prophet and profit. This is also one of the easiest ways to butt-kiss your way through the political ladder of your town. Speaking of the political and social aspects, they are quite entertaining as well. If you're good at speaking, and have some charisma, you can try your luck at earning one of the town positions by manipulating votes and your fellow townspeople. Each town has a certain amount of positions available, each offering little perks and abilities to the holder, and the amount of positions is based on the size of the town. There is also a justice system in place, giving a legal alternative to murdering the thieves that keep robbing your carts, or that one family that keeps sending henchmen to attack your buildings. If you visually witness any crimes, you obtain evidence, which is all listed and can be viewed at any time. Evidence is rated on severity of crime, believability, and time elapsed since crime was committed. Believability is typically dependent on how you obtain the evidence. If you saw it with your own eyes, it's 100%. If you sent your henchman to town to investigate rumors, it's typically 50% or lower. Once you have a few severe crimes, or a lot of little ones on someone, you can probably get them the death penalty. But if you accuse someone, you are the prosecutor, so make sure you show up to the trial. If you're a criminal, or the thieves guild, it's in your best interest to make sure your prosecutors are unable to arrive to the trial by whatever means necessary. Overall, this game's unique gameplay and combination of genres makes it worth a purchase. From what others have said, I'd advise looking into The Guild II: Renaissance over this particular version though. Each of the Guild II titles are stand-alone games, so you are not required to own this to play Renaissance. This game does have it's share of bugs, and I will list the ones I found below in the pros/cons: [b][u]Pros[/u][/b] [list] [*]In addition to political and business aspects, this game is an RPG. Your family members have levels, stats, and perks that they can acquire every couple of levels. [*]Various career paths give the game replayability. Some careers are unique in how you will play. [*]Robust social system - each person is unique, and most are born instead of generated. The game keeps track of 100+ individual characters throughout multiple towns. Each person must marry and reproduce to continue their bloodlines, or become a footnote in the history books. [*]This game is truly unique. Not only is it highly enjoyable, but there is no game that really comes close to this style. Sims Medieval attempted, but failed. [/list] [b][u]Cons[/u][/b] [list] [*]Bugs/Glitches - While I have read other reviews with worse issues than I've had, I encountered one problematic issue. Rarely, when my rival families would send their cronies to attack my church, they would somehow spawn in the walls of my building. Guards would stack outside my church, along with my own henchmen I sent to defend it, unable to go into the walls to reach my aggressors. I almost lost a level 3 church, which costs a lot of gold, because the attackers were invincible. Luckily for me, they disappeared somehow before fully destroying it. But because the guards and myself were unable to stop them, I had a hefty repair bill that should have never happened. [*]AI Pathing - While this is technically a bug too, it warrants it's own bullet-point. Several times I have accused an opponent of crimes, and set a court date. When the game informed me the trial was soon, I would click the accuser, right-click the town hall picture, and send him on his way. However a few times, he didn't make it, due to wandering around aimlessly trying to figure out a path to the same town hall he's been to before. This would result in not only my opponent being found innocent by default, but me getting a fine for wasting the court's time. I have also noticed that when anyone approaches the town hall from the side that has a tavern neighboring it, everyone will walk into the tavern first, then walk out and go into the town hall. Just make sure if you have somewhere important to be, you follow your character so he doesn't get lost. It's fairly rare, but annoying. Also, my children would sometimes be unable to attend school. After I paid for their schooling, they would cancel it because they are idiots who are unable to leave the house for some reason. [/list]