Majesty 2: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim
In the world of Majesty, you are the ruler of the kingdom Ardania. At your service are your loyal and somewhat obnoxious subordinates, who have their own minds about how things should be done. In fact, Majesty is the only game where your heroes decide on their own what should be done and when, leaving you to try to control them through monetary incentives.
Majesty 2: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim
Recruit the finest group of Heroes to rise up and take on thetreacherous Villains of Majesty 2: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim. In thehighly-anticipated sequel to the original Majesty, humor and charmmerges with a fantasy landscape to offer a gameplay experience likenever before. But beware! Grabbing control of your Heroes is notthe easiest task, for they are just as likely to stop in for a beerat the local tavern as they are to fight monsters and undertakeheroic quests. Return to the throne in Majesty 2: The FantasyKingdom Sim.
Many of those who remember the original Majesty from almost ten years ago recall the game being one that reversed the roles of your typical fantasy kingdom. The mantle of the hero was switched to the king's scepter, and the newly crowned ruler got to handle the multitude of problems plaguing the land, be it giant rats pestering the tax collectors or minotaurs going amok amongst the peons. Majesty 2: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim keeps the basic concept almost to the tee, hosted by the best Sean Connery voice impersonator in a long, long time.
The fairy tale kingdom of Ardania is, once again, in danger, as the previous king's illusions of grandeur have driven the country to chaos. As the last remaining vestige of the royal family, it befalls upon the player to restore the kingdom to its former glory, one mission at a time. The mechanics differ quite a lot from a normal RTS, for nobody in Ardania obeys the authority of the mighty mouse click. Nay. Not one hero in any of the guilds moves an inch unless there's fame and fortune on the table.
Audiovisually Majesty 2: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim is looking rather old, and that's putting it nicely. The graphics don't strike out as being clumsy or crappy, but they're nothing to write home about, either. The strengths of the game begin and end with the innovations of the gameplay, and not on the colour saturation of particle effects or crispyness of textures. The soundscape is your basic fantasy background noise, with occasional comments by the characters in play.
In Majesty 2, you play as the last heir to the throne in the kingdom of Ardania. Like many real-time strategy games, in Majesty 2 players must set up their own kingdom complete with stone palace, tiny peasant dwellings, and bustling marketplace. But Majesty 2 differs from many strategy games in that unit production and organization is tackled very differently.
On my 2.4GHz iMac Intel Core 2 Duo, Majesty 2 ran well, without any hiccups or noticeable frame-rate drops even when my kingdom had grown to imperial sizes. Virtual Programming seems to have created another strong port of an unheralded but worthy title.
Paradox Interactive have released a batch of new screens from the upcoming Majesty 2. After a bit of a delay the game is now scheduled for release in September. I must admit that I never got the E3 preview version of the game to work, but Majesty brings a rather unique taste to the fantasy RTS genre with its in direct control and hopefully the extra development time is put to good use.
Actually, an RTS is kind of a bad genre signifier. I mean, a more appropriate genre, as anyone who played the original Majesty from 2000 would agree, is that this is more of a tycoon type game. This game is all about working the comings and goings in a medieval fantasy world to ultimately rock out with the most cash in the end.
Your kingdom is lubricated by the free flow of gold and it is absolutely essential to your success. You make money by collecting tax which your tax collectors will automatically do for you. They collect money from all the buildings in your kingdom. The first building you should build in every level is the Market. Once you research some goods to sell in it your heroes will buy things in the market and your taxmen will collect big bags of gold as taxes. Not only does this make you more money but it also makes your heroes tougher. 041b061a72