All of these things occur in real-time, and with so much to do and so many things going on, it is very easy for first time players to get lost and confused as to what they are supposed to do next. Luckily, the game comes with a detailed Tutorial that will help walk you through things such as buying and maintaining businesses, and managing relationships with other characters. If you find yourself with too much to do and not enough time to do it, you can slow down time in order to plan your next move, or set some of your businesses to AI-controlled so that you have one less thing to worry about. It will be interesting to see if the developers can find a balance between having too much time to do everything and having too little time to do anything.



In addition to multiple maps and mission goals, The Guild 2 will also offer an open-sandbox mode, in which there are no specific goals and the user is free to do whatever they want. The final version will also support up to eight players in different game modes either online or via a LAN, including co-op and team-based gameplay. If the developers manage to pull all of this off without completely overwhelming the user, The Guild 2 could very well be the sleeper hit of the year. The sheer amount of things to do, along with the level of interactivity make this one title to keep an eye on. Look for The Guild 2 sometime in the fall.

Preview by Matt Gallo.