Firstly, Majesty 2 is nothing like Majesty 1. So if that's what you're looking for, you can stop. The game is quite tedious, the lore is noncontiguous (like temple restrictions being nonexistant, for instance), and the heroes' behaviors are quite watered down. On its own, the game is not very good. It forces you into creating your heroes/buildings in the order it would like you to, with little freedom to construct your own strategy. The enemies often show up in hordes with little time to prepare and get your heroes ready, which usually doesn't matter because they get scared and flee anyway. The only way I was finally able to get a hang of beating missions was by turning the game speed to the max and scrambling to build and rebuild structures and units to hold off the enemies, and by the time I finally had some semblance of what I wanted in my kingdom, the map was beaten. Every level felt like a sprint. And an obstacle course. And you're a parapalegic mole rat with a half a tail and an allergy to aerobics. The game felt like a chore. You have to set flags for your heroes to do anything, quickly draining your coffers, and you had to spend even more to recruit enough to replace the idiots that were either dead from a chance meeting with a goblin or drunk and passed out in an inn that they ran to when a spider showed up. The only improvement I relished was how the armor/weapon upgrades were finally visible, and some of the designs were pretty cool. The party system could have been fun, if the game didn't force you to create every one of them yourself and let the heroes do it intuitively when you didn't feel like supervising their every move. Overall, the game is an exercise in overmanagement and frustration with little resemblance to the gameplay of the first. The only reason to get it would be if you absolutely needed more of the setting in your life and you found it cheap. Two stars for the graphics and nostalgia, and I guess my wish for what I wanted it to be.
If you are considering getting an RPG game, and you're considering a game that: ...allows a good level of characterization for your player character? ...has a story is very deep and detailed, but not at all tedious? ...has creative lore? ...lets you create your own companions, in addition to having extremely detailed story companions? If so, you should try Pillars of Eternity. It checks off all the boxes. The game has a distinct setting, customizeable characters, and excellent writing. Each response your character has at his disposal may elicit an entirely different outcome in the conversation. What's best about this is that each conversation is not standard. What I mean by this is there is no "Good, Neutral and Cruel" options in every talk. Your tone, knowledge of the topic at hand, background, past decisions, skills, or present company may affect a conversation in different ways. The best part is that there's not a formula as to when this could happen. It just depends on the conversation. Classes are differentiated pretty well, with the old favorites (barbarians, wizards, rangers, etc) making appearances. There are several ways Pillars differentiates them, however. Some are intuitive-the ranger has an animal familiar of your choosing, for instance, and the barbarian specializes in AoE attacks-but others are fairly innovative. The paladin gets to choose from several orders that affect gameplay. One may add to the burn damage of an ability, another may add a healing option. The priest has a similar process with the god the player devotes himself to. These options are selected at character creation and in certain dialogues enable unique options. Each option also affects what kind of reputation your character prefers. In addition, there are original classes like the chanter and the cipher that are entirely of a Pillars flavor. My original review was 3700 words over the limit, so I left the two best parts (thanks GoG) but that should be a testament to the game.
