Majesty 2 Collection

I was feeling nostalgic recently and reloaded the original majesty and, after finishing the campaign missions, took a look at majesty 2. From reading the reviews I found myself quite worried, but eventually bought the complete edition anyway. After finishing Majesty 2's original campaign and three expansions, I can safely say that this game does not deserve anywhere near the flak it has received from its predecessor's fan-base. The complete edition is cheap, and has a TON of content; there are four campaigns, plenty of stand-alone missions, co-op/versus multiplay, and even a second playable race. Even so, I tend to see these complaints: - The game is unbalanced, and as a result is too difficult. It is too flag-dependent because the heroes are not as autonomous as in the first game. - The economy is static. Firstly, yes, it is difficult--at times it is very difficult--but it is not impossible. Majesty 1 was also very difficult, but usually only in the beginning of any scenario; it tended to be enough to build a guild full of paladins, at which point you would stabilize and could lie back as they won the game without any input from you. Majesty 2 has this same difficulty, but it will require much more activity from you to stabilize from the beginning of a scenario. You will need to build quickly, and intelligently--different scenarios will call for different build-orders. You will need to explore and clear dens as quickly as possible, because, unlike in Majesty 1, the dens in Majesty 2 get progressively stronger as time passes. And yes, in order to do this, you will need to use a lot of flags, because the heroes will not attack dens on their own. In my opinion, it is not a flaw of the game that you need to interact with the world more than was necessary in Majesty 1 to achieve victory. The only legitimate gripe is that hunters do not explore quite far enough on their own, and that the economy is static. These two flaws, however, are easy to change with modding.

Majesty Gold HD is a Fantasy Kingdom Sim in which you build an economy that your fully autonomous heroes wander around and interact with and then go off on their own fully autonomous adventures. They sleep and play music in Inns, they spend time browsing shops, they meditate in gardens, and gamble in Casinos. There is a random map generator In Majesty 2 all of the simulation elements are gutted or thrown away, the heroes essentially just rapidly pace around automated patrol paths around your Keep with autoattack on, when upgrading equipment they just run up and touch a building they don't even enter it, and the only time heroes stray away from your castle is when you plant a reward flag with no real sim like behavior. They don't have autonomous adventures on their own. In Majesty 2 the monsters also all just run straight towards your keep the instant they spawn following an auto attack path, unless they're just pre-placed on the map, at which point they just hold ground and auto attack what comes near. It's transparent shallow RTS mechanics, with no sim like behavior at all. There's not even random map generator. If all you want is a survival game where monsters rush your castle and have to be beaten off with non-sim units you recruit that just automatic patrol path unless flags are down, this is your game. If you want a FANTASY KINGDOM SIM, don't buy this, just skip it, get Majesty Gold HD and don't even buy the bundle.

I love the original Majesty. I play it over and over again even though I've beaten it so many times. I was so excited for this sequel. It does have some good. The new graphics look good, although I think some units look less inspired than the previous game. The voice and comedy are still around. But the heroes never seem to do anything but run away. You never seem to have enough money for all the flags. And one of the things that frustrated me the most was that the game seems to have hidden trigger points in its levels, like when you build a certain building or have a certain number of heroes, that when this trigger is hit the game sends a horde of enemies at you. So many hordes all the time. Eventually I just got tired of this.

Personally I found this game quite enjoyable. It wasn't going to set the world alight, but is a nice way to spend a day or two going through it. Then I decided to buy the monster kingdon expansion (I'm reviewing the steam version), and also liked it, though by then I was getting a little tired of it. It looks at first like you're not really able to do much to affect things, but it's only when you start the mission with the dragon (fafnir?) that you realise how hard it can be to find the balance between getting enough heros, and getting them leveled up, while keeping your own defences strong, while taking down the nests that are spewing out creatures that *will* overwhelm you if you don't keep that under control. All the time with a dragon occassionally mixing it up, took me hours to beat that one. It's not that you can't affect things, it's that you have to understand the incentive system. It's a new idea, and doesn't always work. Basically you don't direct people, you incentivise actions (with monetary rewards). This is quite novel, and means you have to plan ahead quite well to anticipate where you want your heroes to be, as if you send them all off exploring, they aren't around when you get attacked. Short verdict - fun, diverting, quite interesting, at times quite frustrating, but not at all bad, and worth a few quid. It will take up some of your time.