Review: Majesty 2: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim (PC)

Version Tested: PC
Review Code: Download, supplied by Paradox Interactive

When old franchises are resurrected and taken on by new developers you never know what to expect. People who remember Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim generally have nice things to say about it. It offered up a new real-time strategy experience with elements of RPG liberally stirred in. It was released back in 2000 and the enduring memory is of a fresh blend of genres with a warmly comical tone. Majesty 2: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim strikes the right tone and offers a few updates to the original without losing the essence of what made it so enjoyable.

The game is set in the mystical world of Ardania and as the new king you have to restore order to a land beset by all manner of supernatural nasties. The campaign offers a challenging range of missions which ramp up in difficulty quite quickly. For newcomers to the series it will take some getting used to. The key difference between Majesty 2 and other real-time strategy games is the fact you do not control your subjects directly. Instead of ordering them around, the population automatically perform tasks, and so peasants construct the buildings you place out, taxmen collect money and trade caravans carry goods.

Heroes

The most important group in your kingdom is the heroes. The heroes include warriors, rangers, rogues, wizards, clerics, elves and dwarves. You persuade them to undertake tasks by offering rewards. The higher the reward, the more heroes become interested. The mechanic is quite a clever one and it uses a flag system which lets you denote the intended action whether it be explore, attack or defend. You place the flag on the location or creature you want to target and select a reward. The bottom of the HUD shows you how many heroes have been tempted by your offer and you can adjust the reward accordingly.

In terms of enemies the game has all manner of horrible creatures from ogres and evil wizards to undead skeletons and rats. There are vampires, minotaurs and ghosts in the mix too and this wide range of foes makes the game more interesting. You can also build various structures for economy, for defence and for producing and training up heroes. Each structure has a number of upgrade or research options which improve your chances of victory.

Shurely Shome Mishtake

The mission structure starts out with a gentle tutorial and you select quests from a Tolkein style map screen. You can sometimes choose to do missions in a specific order but for all intents and purposes it is a linear game. The gameplay is easy to grasp but the difficulty ramps up quickly and if you don’t build in the right order and recruit the heroes you need for each task then you’ll find yourself in trouble.

The production values for Majesty 2 are mixed and the concept art and text intros for each mission are only really brought to life by the excellent voice acting. Your adviser and constant companion throughout the game is a Merlin style kingmaker wizard. He introduces each mission and pops up periodically during quests to give you advice and news. The voice acting is well scripted and brilliantly delivered. This is the best Sean Connery impression I have ever heard and it really draws you into the world. The text on the other hand is often dodgy and I spotted several mistakes. It was developed by a Russian company that really should have hired someone to do a proper translation.

Jump to 3D

Visually the game makes the jump to 3D and you can zoom in and out and watch your heroes in combat. The environments look inviting, the characters are well modelled and animated and the visual effects are pretty. It is not cutting edge in the graphics department and some of the cut scene camera swoops are awkward but on the whole it looks good. The HUD design is intuitive and usable and apart from occasional overlay pile ups if you trigger mini-missions within quest maps it works well.

There is a multiplayer option in Majesty 2 and you can play against up to four opponents on various maps. It isn’t necessarily easy to find a game though and joining can take a while. I’d suggest you don’t want to bother with the multiplayer unless you are playing a friend. Luckily there is plenty of content in the single player to keep you occupied.

Refreshing

There are a couple of odd irritations about the game. The fact you don’t control your heroes directly and so can’t always respond to threats very fast will definitely frustrate some people. The enemy creatures generally spawn from structures on the map which can be destroyed but for some reason sewers are an exception to this rule along with your graveyard (which incidentally allows you to resurrect dead heroes). This means you have to protect your town or face constant rat and skeleton attack. Once you reach the stage where you can build dwarven defence towers you should be safe.

For me Majesty 2 is a refreshing strategy experience. The comical voiceover work and the unusual mechanics make it great fun to play. It is also satisfying to face a real challenge and you certainly get a sense of achievement from beating some of the tougher quests. The lack of direct control is strangely liberating and it works a lot better than you might imagine.