Majesty 2 (PC)
Genre: Real-Time Strategy Publisher: Paradox Interactive Developer: 1C Company Players: 1-4
Almost a decade on, Majesty 2 takes the core concepts of the first title and updates them with all - well, some - of the dazzling graphical advancements that have been made since 2000. There are a few more types of heroes, a few different quests you can send them on, but anybody that has played the original will be able to pick up the basics quite quickly. Even some of the sound effects and character lines are recycled from the earlier game, which I thought was a nice, nostalgic touch. Sadly, a few key design flaws detract from what could have been a great experience.
Starting off with just a palace, the all-important heroes are recruited from guilds built by the player. Each guild is capable of supporting two or three heroes of one type running around the map at any time. The kind of heroes on offer will be immediately familiar to anybody who has played a fantasy game since Ultima on the Apple IIe. Rangers specialise in exploration, clerics in healing and fighting the undead, while wizards start off weak and grow to become the most destructive pieces on the board. Any heroes that find themselves without a guild will eventually move on to greener pastures, although you can always build a replacement to keep them around.
As they grind through monsters, the heroes gain levels and experience, learning new skills which make them capable of taking on ever-more powerful opponents. They also collect loot, either by finishing quests you’ve assigned them, or from the chests dotted around the map. This allows them to purchase upgraded armour and weapons. Later levels add temples and non-human races to the mix, opening up different options depending on which you choose to build. Some of these choices preclude others – dwarves and elves don’t get along, so you can only recruit one of these races for each level.
Majesty 2’s economic model works a little differently to other titles. There’s no Tiberium to be harvested, and any loot acquired from taking down critters goes into the bank account of a hero. Instead, you acquire income through taxes and trading posts. This makes building places for the heroes to spend their cash, and protecting your assets from monster attacks big priorities. It also means investing in abilities and upgrades which will help your heroes kill monsters, giving them more opportunities to earn money which you can then tax.
As the town grows, peasants will build structures like houses and windmills, all of which contribute to your income. Unfortunately, they seem to love placing these buildings outside of areas protected by guardhouses or the presence of a guild, with the result that unless you’re paying very close attention to them they’ll be destroyed by monsters in pretty short order. This kind of micro-management seems to fly in the face of the game’s core concepts.
Indeed, the AI in general really could use a bit of work. Heroes will wander past hordes of those goddamned sewer-rats, shrug as peasants are eaten by werewolves, and pretty much ignore the town burning down around them until they’re directly attacked. This is frustrating to the extreme, particularly on the more difficult levels. If you’re going to remove direct control from the player, wouldn’t you want to make sure that the AI-controlled characters are clever enough to get around and take care of threats on their own?
You can clear an entire map of monsters and lairs, and the critters will still be springing up in your town from one of the indestructible spawn points that appear as your city grows. By the end of a level, often the only place monsters will still be spawning is right next to your palace. I know the point is to keep the heroes gaining experience and income, but I felt this could have been managed in another way, perhaps by moving the indestructible spawn points out into distant corners of the map.
Each map has a unique goal, or perhaps a collection of smaller tasks that have to be accomplished. Most of these boil down to the same thing – protecting a wagon as it rolls toward your settlement, killing a powerful monster or destroying the lair of a beast. Finishing a level will unlock two or three more, and there are a little over a dozen levels in all. While there is an option to carry over high-level heroes from one map to another, I didn’t find myself making use of this all that much. Heroes level-up pretty quickly, and the structure that allows you to recruit the heroes you’ve saved is exorbitantly expensive.
The graphics would have been perfectly acceptable for a title that came out in 2004, but they’re really nothing special in the post-Crysis PC gaming landscape. While it’s nice to play games that don’t require a hydrogen-cooled supercomputer to run, in this case I’m not sure that trading graphics for performance was really worth it. The icons that pop up above heroes do a good job of showing what they’re up to, but better animations could have done the job more believably.
Despite criticisms, Majesty 2 is still fun and addictive, though not to quite the same degree as its predecessor. No matter how many times you quit the game in frustration, you’ll keep you coming back to see if you can beat just one more level. A little more variety in the game world, a more compelling story, and some more attention paid to the AI could have made this something special.
By Lachlan (27th Sep 2009)
Majesty 2 is a fun and addictive fantasy title, combining a familiar setting with some different and innovative game mechanics, but is unfortunately burdened by poor AI and design choices.
The first Majesty was a sleeper hit for the PC. Coming out in 2000, the fantasy game looked a little dated even when compared to titles that preceded it like Homeworld and Deus Ex. However, slightly below-par graphics couldn’t detract from some well-implemented ideas and addictive game mechanics.
On paper, Majesty looks like any other fantasy title. You’ve got your stock-standard magical kingdom, full of trolls, dragons and other mythical creatures. You’ve got a bunch of heroes from a variety of pretty familiar classes wandering the landscape, battling with monsters, searching for treasure, occasionally running for their lives – you know, regular hero stuff.
While this probably sounds very familiar, Majesty’s stroke of genius comes in the form of removing direct control from the player. Aside from town planning and choosing which heroes to recruit, the extent of the player’s involvement is in providing the financial incentive for heroes to accomplish various quests. After attaching a price tag to a task like exploring or killing a particularly nasty opponent, heroes decide for themselves whether it’s worth it or not. Of course, if you want them to keep questing and protecting the town, you have to offer ever-growing financial incentives just to get them out of bed.
Almost a decade on, Majesty 2 takes the core concepts of the first title and updates them with all - well, some - of the dazzling graphical advancements that have been made since 2000. There are a few more types of heroes, a few different quests you can send them on, but anybody that has played the original will be able to pick up the basics quite quickly. Even some of the sound effects and character lines are recycled from the earlier game, which I thought was a nice, nostalgic touch. Sadly, a few key design flaws detract from what could have been a great experience.
Starting off with just a palace, the all-important heroes are recruited from guilds built by the player. Each guild is capable of supporting two or three heroes of one type running around the map at any time. The kind of heroes on offer will be immediately familiar to anybody who has played a fantasy game since Ultima on the Apple IIe. Rangers specialise in exploration, clerics in healing and fighting the undead, while wizards start off weak and grow to become the most destructive pieces on the board. Any heroes that find themselves without a guild will eventually move on to greener pastures, although you can always build a replacement to keep them around.
As they grind through monsters, the heroes gain levels and experience, learning new skills which make them capable of taking on ever-more powerful opponents. They also collect loot, either by finishing quests you’ve assigned them, or from the chests dotted around the map. This allows them to purchase upgraded armour and weapons. Later levels add temples and non-human races to the mix, opening up different options depending on which you choose to build. Some of these choices preclude others – dwarves and elves don’t get along, so you can only recruit one of these races for each level.
Majesty 2’s economic model works a little differently to other titles. There’s no Tiberium to be harvested, and any loot acquired from taking down critters goes into the bank account of a hero. Instead, you acquire income through taxes and trading posts. This makes building places for the heroes to spend their cash, and protecting your assets from monster attacks big priorities. It also means investing in abilities and upgrades which will help your heroes kill monsters, giving them more opportunities to earn money which you can then tax.
As the town grows, peasants will build structures like houses and windmills, all of which contribute to your income. Unfortunately, they seem to love placing these buildings outside of areas protected by guardhouses or the presence of a guild, with the result that unless you’re paying very close attention to them they’ll be destroyed by monsters in pretty short order. This kind of micro-management seems to fly in the face of the game’s core concepts.
Indeed, the AI in general really could use a bit of work. Heroes will wander past hordes of those goddamned sewer-rats, shrug as peasants are eaten by werewolves, and pretty much ignore the town burning down around them until they’re directly attacked. This is frustrating to the extreme, particularly on the more difficult levels. If you’re going to remove direct control from the player, wouldn’t you want to make sure that the AI-controlled characters are clever enough to get around and take care of threats on their own?
You can clear an entire map of monsters and lairs, and the critters will still be springing up in your town from one of the indestructible spawn points that appear as your city grows. By the end of a level, often the only place monsters will still be spawning is right next to your palace. I know the point is to keep the heroes gaining experience and income, but I felt this could have been managed in another way, perhaps by moving the indestructible spawn points out into distant corners of the map.
Each map has a unique goal, or perhaps a collection of smaller tasks that have to be accomplished. Most of these boil down to the same thing – protecting a wagon as it rolls toward your settlement, killing a powerful monster or destroying the lair of a beast. Finishing a level will unlock two or three more, and there are a little over a dozen levels in all. While there is an option to carry over high-level heroes from one map to another, I didn’t find myself making use of this all that much. Heroes level-up pretty quickly, and the structure that allows you to recruit the heroes you’ve saved is exorbitantly expensive.
The graphics would have been perfectly acceptable for a title that came out in 2004, but they’re really nothing special in the post-Crysis PC gaming landscape. While it’s nice to play games that don’t require a hydrogen-cooled supercomputer to run, in this case I’m not sure that trading graphics for performance was really worth it. The icons that pop up above heroes do a good job of showing what they’re up to, but better animations could have done the job more believably.
Despite criticisms, Majesty 2 is still fun and addictive, though not to quite the same degree as its predecessor. No matter how many times you quit the game in frustration, you’ll keep you coming back to see if you can beat just one more level. A little more variety in the game world, a more compelling story, and some more attention paid to the AI could have made this something special.
7.6
Single Play
7.5
Friend Play
7.0
Multi Play
7.7
Graphics
7.0
Sound
7.6
Challenge
7.3
Entertainment
7.8
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Majesty 2 (PC)
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