Majesty 2: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim
Review
Greedy heroes and monsterous foes
by Marjolein Verheij
reviewed on PC
Economy
While doing their heroic work, your heroes earn experience and level up, acquiring new abilities or improving those they already have. While the process is automatic, you do have to supply them with whatever they need: armor, weapons, spells, potions for restoring life, mana potions and more. And this is where you get back at them for their greed. You see, these items are sold at the local market, smithy and alchemists where heroes spend their hard earned cash. When they do, your tax collectors come and tax the crap out of the local merchants, giving you the cash to set some new flags. It's like taking candy from a baby! Commercial buildings can be upgraded to sell even better products, generating even more cash for the treasury.
It is crucial to have a steady flow of money coming in. Building and developing markets, as well as trading posts are an important part of your strategy. Trading posts can only be built in certain locations called "places of trade". They are usually located at the intersection of major roads. They sell heroes the same potions and elixirs that are sold at the kingdom's market and generate nice sums of cash even in pacified areas. A caravan carries the money earned to the market place every once in a while. Both caravans and trading posts are easy targets for whatever creatures inhabit the area. Building defensive towers and issuing defense flags will keep them alive, even when they are far away from your palace.
When a hero is killed, a grave is left on the spot they laid down their life. The grave exists for some time during which the hero can be resurrected by a special but not terribly expensive spell. If you don't have this spell in your possession yet, you have to wait until the grave is moved to the graveyard. From there you can resurrect them as well, but at considerably greater expense. You don't have to build the graveyard – it will appear near the town by itself after the death of the first hero. One downside: the graveyard will occasionally spawn a number of skeletons which will start attacking nearby buildings. A good reason to keep your heroes alive.
After each mission, one hero can be rewarded with the title "Lord". Lords are available throughout the rest of your game and will retain their level and items, making them invaluable additions to the army of your budding community, even if they require a hefty fee to fight for you.
Not for everyone
Majesty 2's unique heroes system certainly offers some refreshing gameplay during the earlier missions of the game. Later on, however, the gameplay grows a bit repetitive. While each mission has slightly different goals, they play out pretty much the same. You build and defend against incoming foes until you are strong enough and then you go after your main objective. The difficulty is increased by the speed at which enemies increase their numbers, and that's it. There are no further special challenges to be found here. That by no means suggests that Majesty 2 is a boring game, but if you are looking for something that challenges you to your limits, this game is not for you. If you are looking for something that you can play at a leisurely pace that doesn't wreck your nerves or your brain, then Majesty 2 is sure to please.
7.8
fun score
Pros
A lovingly crafted magical world with unique strategic gameplay.
Cons
Missions will start feeling repetative after a while.
