I saw this game was in early access and being a fan of the previous "The Guild" titles, I decided to get it. First off, I'm glad this is an early access game, a really early access game at that. There's a lot of features that haven't been implemented yet and those that have been implemented aren't implemented all that well. It just makes me want to go back and play The Guild 2.
For those of you who have never heard of these games, The Guild is a medieval life simulator, that's also a business sim, also an RPG, and also political sim. You start out as a lowly peasant in a medieval town, but you have a trade that you set at the beginning. There's so many different routes you can take from being a farmer, fisher, tavern keeper, deacon, doctor, herbalist, blacksmith, etc. Most trades play similarly. Both bakers and blacksmiths operate the same way. You acquire raw materials, use those raw materials to create something, then sell at a profit. Doctors have a completely different play style. They make things from raw materials, but instead of selling those things at market, you use them to stock your clinic and wait for sick people to show up. You can also make "miracle cures" which is just snake oil and have your employees hawk it at the market.
But running a successful business isn't the only part of this game, you also get to control the social life of your character and his/her family. So you need to find someone to marry and start pumping out those babies. When the children come of age, hopefully you'll have enough money to send them to school so they can start adult life off better skilled than you. You can choose what kind of education they get. As your dynasty expands, you can train your children in different skills, so while you may have started off as a baker, you can train one child to continue baking, while steering another child toward the clergy and another child to become a banker.
So you've built your family up by becoming a big name in multiple industries. What's left? Oh yeah, politics. There are several elected offices you can run for, but unlike modern democracy, those elections are decided by people that hold public office rather than the people so it's a good idea to butter up and bribe some influential people. I've eliminated rivals by holding influential positions. I'd privately investigate a rival for wrongdoing. As soon as I find some dirt, I'd raise the punishment for the crime to the death penalty, then put the person on trial, then bribe anyone deciding the case that wasn't a family member.
If you've ever fantasized about what it would be like to be a Medici, The Guild is the game for you. I'd recommend getting The Guild 2: Renaissance on Steam right now since it's on sale for only $2.49. The Guild 2: Renaissance is a stand-alone expansion, but it includes all of the features of The Guild 2 and it's expansions so I'm not sure why it's considered an expansion when it's really the game with all the extra shit plus more.
As for The Guild 3, so far I'm not sure why there's a new addition to the series since the graphics aren't all that great. If you're going to offer a pared down version of the previous game, then the graphics better be amazing, but these games always had shitty graphics compared to everything else available at the time. It's the gameplay that sells it. I am, however, excited by what they do with "societies." This was not a feature of the previous games. In The Guild 3, you can become a Freemason. What that means gameplay-wise is yet to be seen.