If ever the term "gem in the rough" was appropriate, this would have to be it. Granted, the game is plagued by bugs (though patches have helped), and does perhaps not have the highest production values.

But, it is unique, and has a certain charm to it. There is something strangely appealing by assuming the role of a lowly starting merchant and working your way to the top, either by straight business acumen or other less honorable methods. The gameplay does tend to get repetitive, but if you are like me and enjoy games that are highly detailed in their gameplay models (nice mix of RPG, RTS and SIM) here, you might just get a kick out this game.

Not too happy with this expansion. It was worth the buy back when I purchased it, but with the new Renaissance this is made obsolete. Even then

What is good about these expansions packs, is that they are stand alones and incorporate all of the previous games. So that is a big plus. At the same time though it makes previous versions not worth the buy.

Good game. However, it does not run very well on Windows 7, and you may suffer some severe lag. From other things I have read on the official game forums, it's best run on Windows XP.

However, with the short amount I've played, I love it. Fantastic game and I would definitely recommend it to people. The ability to become part of a society and move up the ranks in society is good, and the realistic powers that you gain from doing so are also great.

Overall I would rate this game 7.5/10

Awesome game. Sucked back when it released, but a recent patch fixed almost every bug with Vista. Now runs like dream. Would definitely suggest this to anyone who enjoys business simulators AND The Sims type games. Your families personal lives have a large amount of influence on your success. Your business may thrive at first, but if you worst enemy controls the city politically, you'll find it hard to continue on easily.

This game is really good just as the other were in the series. Now you can pretty much do anything. The game run smooth and the balance of power is good. I can only recommend buying this game its really good ;-)

Bad things.

Wait for the patch.

- When you play for several hours and save and want to play the save game again its impossible to load... very annoying.

- els as said above small bugs, but in general a solid and well done game.

- I cannot find anywere to borrow money... ??

Having bought the previous titles in this series I bought this expecting significant improvement having been made to gameplay, unfortunately I have been left disappointed. In the previous games patience was required as the games did not really develop until they were fully patched. Although the game has been transplanted to Venice it is basically not too different to the previous titles. As a fan of the series I would still have happily parted with my money but the old problems from the original Guild II seem to have crept back in, the regular crashes (particularly when saving making it even more frustrating), graphical glitches and the wrong audio being used in places. As a fan of this series my best recommendation to any new buyers is wait until the necessary patches are made and to any one who has the previous games fully patched there isn't enough new here to justify parting with your money.

Ive got this game and will give it 8/10 there are some bugs that should be patched as soon as possible they dont ditract fully from the gameplay but lead to some random crashes

Graphics are good

Control system is passable to good

Depth is pretty good could use some additional work

Game balance is fair to good

Sound is excellent

Longevity of game is good to very good

Am liking this game more than the previous 2 mostly because there are less bugs its playable from the go there hopefully will be more support from jowood i see that they are now more focused on ongoing support rather than the old jowood that pumped things out and then left them hanging. So that is a good sign new management = better game support similar to 2k games so yes a good effort, good dev support hopefuly for once good patch support into the future and more attention to detail and depth in their games so im happy