Majesty 2 – the fantasy Kingdom Sim Review (PC)

Majesty 2 – the fantasy Kingdom Sim – Pc Review

Majesty 2 is yes, well, you guessed it. It’s a fantasy simulator in which you play the ruler of a magical kingdom. Some of you may be thinking, “Aren’t there enough RTS games involving magic and kingdoms already on the market?” You’d be right, except that Majesty 2 is a different kind of RTS. Forget micromanaging resources and controlling all your units separately, this is a RTS with a twist, but is it a good one?

You play the king of a magical kingdom. In the campaign you have a choice of scenarios to select from. These are laid out in a tactical map giving you the choice of when you want to do each mission. The missions are shown by type and difficulty, ranging from intermediate to advanced. However, despite the large amount of missions that are available, they all follow a simple and repetitive formula with only a few changes. Usually, at the start of each mission your are given some gold, the only resource available in the game. You use the gold to buy everything, e.g. guilds, defences and market places. Excluding the first few tutorial missions, you are always available to build any of the buildings straight away with only a minimal amount of research. This leads to a boring and repetitive formula where in each mission you constantly place the same buildings in the same places, giving you the best possible defences in each map. All these scenarios offer the player no real to story; instead they offer the repetitive, although with slightly different objectives, and game play that is likely to become boring quickly.

The game also offers the player the option to play through skirmishes on a number of different maps. The maps vary in size and location and are altogether well thought out and designed. The scenario’s also have different objectives. For example, one of the scenario’s available is to survive for one hundred days against a never ending wave of enemy units. The aim is to stop them overrunning the area around your castle, once they have done this; it becomes increasingly difficult to expel them from the area surrounding you. They start off slowly, with only minor creatures attacking you, however, these small creatures quickly turn into large fire breathing dragons that will destroy your surrounding defences letting in the rabble of goblins and rats around you. After this, it’s pretty safe to say you’re doomed. Like the campaign the skirmishes allow you to select any building straight away, whilst this is useful in the survival skirmishes it can make others levels too easy as there’s nothing to research. The game gives the player a good choice of buildings to choose from, which are separated into different area’s to keep the interface clean and easy to navigate. Buildings range from Guilds, your main source of warriors, Defences, the turrets that will protect the castle, economic buildings that help your income and boost your gold reserves and then temples which offer unique units to the battle. Each building has a unique look that helps you distinguish them from each other. Each of the buildings can be upgraded numerous times to increase defences and provide new things within them.

Will keep you entertained in small bursts and is a must have for any RTS fan

As previously mentioned Majesty 2 doesn’t involve resource gathering and unit selection. You can select units to view there level and the equipment they have, but that’s all. Units, or heroes, are trained up from guilds and come in a variety of forms, e.g. Mages, Rogues and warriors just to name a few. You control your heroes by placing ‘Flags’. Flags come in a number of different forms, some tell heroes to explore, whilst others tell them to attack or protect. When you place a flag however, you must also place a bounty on that flag. This encourages your heroes to go to the flags and do as that flag commands; therefore, the more money offered per flag the quicker the heroes arrive. This system works well and helps to create a good economy in your village; however at the beginning of games it can be difficult to do anything if you’re low on money. Despite this unique idea, it can sometimes be difficult to get anything done. Let me give you example, my castle was under heavy attack from enemy units. I knew where the units were coming from, therefore I placed a protect flag on the castle, and an attack flag over the enemies base. As I was quite far into the game and has accumulated a hefty amount of gold, I could afford to place a bounty of two thousand gold on each flag. I expected my heroes to split into two, each half going to a different flag. Unfortunately, this did not happen. Roughly one third of my heroes attacked the enemy base, whilst only two heroes went to protect the struggling castle. The remainder of my heroes simple wandered around as if everything was fine. The result of this was that my castle was destroyed, and I wasn’t happy.

Between each scenario the games gives the player a small cut scene to set the background for the mission. These are voiced over by what sounds like a Sean Connery impersonator, none the less, they work well and give a smooth and informing video to tell the player what’s happening. Sean Connery also gives the players their mission objectives, and offers general advice and tips as well as any urgent actions that are happening in the game. The games graphics are well thought out and display the game in a colourful and imaginative way.

In conclusion, Majesty 2 – The Fantasy Kingdom Sim offers the player an interesting, if not sometimes boring and frustrating, experience. The game runs smoothly with good graphics and sound. The flag system works well most of the time and helps manage the heroes under your control. The game could be improved upon with the addition of more research options and a larger variety of game play objectives but despite this and the lack of story Majesty 2 will keep you entertained in small bursts and is a must have for any RTS fan.