The announcement of Majesty 2: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim by Paradox Interactive, after acquiring the rights to the franchise sometime in 2007, was greeted by great optimism and skepticism from the community. For obvious reasons the community had doubts whether another developer besides Cyberlore could improve, let alone equal the greatness of the original Majesty, the formula of the original game.
The current preview build was surprisingly stable for something which had been described to myself as an alpha preview build. Baring the odd graphical glitch I can gladly recall having no stability issues with the current preview build, such as crashing to the desktop. The preview build operated remarkably smooth on Windows Vista™ using hardware that would be considered high performance over a year ago.
The graphics are not groundbreaking compared to the likes of Empire: Total War, Dawn of War 2 and a plethora of other recently released titles but they do suitably move Majesty 2 into the realm of the 3rd dimension. One nice touch that Majesty 2 includes is that heroes visually change appearance when they gain new levels and purchase upgrades from the blacksmith, so you will visually be able to tell approximately what level a hero happens to be and what equipment upgrades, if any, they are using.
The unique and memorable gameplay of the original Majesty has been somewhat improved in Majesty 2 with the inclusion of some helpful new features, such as the protection flag. With countless monsters roaming an expansive map, which even the quickest heroes can take a while to traverse, you want to be sure that vital buildings and supplies are protected. Several occasions arose where effective use of the protection flag saved several of my vital trade caravans.
Protecting Outposts Is Vital To Earning More Gold
The fear flag saw rather limited usage during my hands-on experience with Majesty 2. However, I would not discount it as a worthy addition to the franchise. Whereas the other reward flags have more straight forward uses, the fear flag appears to be more abstract in its uses. So why exactly is the fear flag abstract? Surprisingly, the fear flag can be used in synergy with other reward flags to achieve a wealth of different desired effects never truly possibly in either game.
Sometimes my town would come under attack from a fearsome dragon that only high level heroes could defeat. Due to the monetary reward required to attract capable heroes to defeat the dragon there were several money hungry low level heroes (which would ultimately perish in such a fight) interested in the reward. The solution however was to place a fear flag to cease low level heroes from fighting the dragon for hope of gaining the reward.
Throughout the hands-on preview I was generally pleased with the Hero AI and how heroes interacted with the world and those around them. When starting a new mission my tendency was to construct a Warriors and Cleric guild, since both classes complimented each quite well and often lent each other a helping hand either through “tanking” or healing. There are some niggling problems with the Hero AI (such as when heroes choose to retreat), but those problems could be solved by the time of the next preview build.
Be wary of Dragons, They Can Pack Quite A Punch!
A welcome addition to Majesty 2 which was lacking in the original is the ability to open a menu which allows you establish quickly what each hero in your Kingdom is doing. Since often your kingdom has several guilds and heroes at once you can filter the display criteria in the menu, while open. For example, if you are curious to see which heroes are currently in local economic buildings purchasing goods then you can filter out heroes that do not match this criteria.
Sovereign spells have undergone some changes in Majesty 2 since the original game. Whereas before in the original Majesty sovereign spells were gained through just upgrading various buildings (such as Temples), in Majesty 2 to acquire different sovereign spells you must now research them for a price. While some sovereign spells are able to be researched after constructing the prerequisite building some more powerful spells require you to upgrade a certain building before you can research them.
While unfortunately the alpha preview build was lacking any unit responses the sounds that were present worked well within the context of the game. There are quite a few sounds that will be familiar to fans of the original Majesty, such as when you click on the Rogues Guild. The music currently works well within the context of Majesty 2 as well offering a variation of sounds tracks suited towards the Medieval Fantasy theme. Each different climate (Temperate, Desert and Jungle) present in Majesty 2 even possibly of had a distinctive and unique soundtrack.
It remains to be seen whether Majesty 2: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim will live up to the benchmark set by the original when released sometime in Q2 2009. However, even though the alpha preview build was rough around the edges with several game assets and features missing it truly felt like it had the potential to become as enjoyable and great as the original Majesty. Having over the past two days experienced the alpha preview build for Majesty 2, I cannot recall ever doubting this as a true sequel to the original Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim.
The Malkael Project 