E3 2017 Preview: The Guild 3

Great news for fans of the popular simulation series The Guild, The Guild 3 is currently in development for PC and should be available for purchase within the next six months. This time around, Canadian developer GolemLabs has taken the reigns and it will be published by THQ Nordic. For those unfamiliar with the franchise, allow me to sum it up as best I can (but keep in mind, a summary will hardly do this game justice, because there is just a ton to do in this game).

The Guild 3 begins with you choosing one of twelve scenarios and creating a character. I didn’t get a chance to really see much of the character creation options, but you can pick your gender, name and change some of your body/face features. You start off with a little bit of money and some basic skills, and from there you can pretty much do whatever you want. There will be some objectives and Story Quests to help provide some direction, but most are optional. You’ll need to find work or you can earn funds in nefarious ways. However, there is one key objective that you must accomplish, and that’s to create an heir. As long as you have a son or daughter to carry on the family legacy, the game will continue. However, if you are killed without an heir, then the game is over.

The developers are very proud with how historically accurate the game will be. The game takes place in middle Europe starting at the year 1400. The towns are all based on original historic locations. In fact, the developers said there were only three key areas where they deviated from historical accuracy: the age limit for marriage (historically it was 12, in The Guild 3 it will be 16), the roles available for female characters (they’ll be able to fill any role a male characters can, which wasn’t the case during that era), and the distance between cities (shortened for the sake of time… we wouldn’t want to have to wait a couple days for our character to travel between towns!).

The Guild 3 utilizes the same engine that Darksiders’ uses, which gives the game a substantial visual overhaul from the previous Guild game. The entire town is much more lively and characters have far more animations. The game is primarily played from a birds-eye view, but you can zoom in, and even change to first person perspective – all of which is a seamless transition and looks great.

The Guild 3 will be available in a standard edition and an “Aristocrat” edition (which includes a collectible figure) when it launches later this year on PC.