Game: Majesty 2
Publisher/Developer: Paradox Interactive / Ino-Co
Genre: Real Time Strategy
Verdict: A slightly too passive RTS that is very nearly great
Pros: It’s the most different RTS that we’ve seen in ages.
Cons: The lack of more active gameplay and dodgy voice acting puts a dampener on things.
Being Scottish I have a certain amount of love for Sean Connery, also known as Edinburgh’s favorite milkman. He defined James Bond, fathered Indiana Jones, and has very few equals as far as well-known Scots go. There is, however, someone who loves Sean a little more than is healthy and that is the person who directed the voice-acting on Majestic 2.
We will get into that properly in a minute, but first I’d like to take a look at the main features of the game . The RTS genre is almost as well-populated as the FPS genre, especially on the PC, and it takes something exceptional to really make an RTS stand out from the pack. Majesty 2 spends most of its time teetering on the edge of greatness.
The game lives in a fantasy world ruled by a succession of increasingly pompous monarchs that have systematically removed all evil from the land, purely for the sake of their own pride. The most recent king, who has grown bored of the peace and longs for the glory of his ancestors, decides that it would be a good idea to get the royal sorcerers to conjure up the most evil demon they can think of so that he can defeat it and feel like the big man. This tragically and obviously backfires when the demon consumes the whole realm with its own brand of evil.
Here is where you come in. As the last surviving heir to the throne, only you (surprise!) have the power to vanquish the demon and save the realm from utter destruction. There is only one way to accomplish this task: round up a band of heroes and systematically rid the land of the demon’s evil minions. After all, every demon has to have minions, right?
Majesty 2 uses a fairly simple, yet elegant, method of battlefield control. Try to wrap your brain around this: there is no real battle. The game follows more of a Settlers-style approach to establishing a settlement and protecting it. This is actually a very passive game, as all you really do is build structures and find the most efficient ways to manage your resources. The gameplay is supplemented by building a marketplace that manages your income which can be augmented by building more trading posts.
Your fighting force is made up of four types of heroes who can be accessed once you build their individual guilds. Each hero adds special abilities to your team and each is best used to tackle different types of problems. Warriors are your standard fighters, proving very useful for destroying enemy structures and monsters. Rangers are exceptional at killing beasts and exploring the map. Thieves allow you to extort money when you’re running low and have access to poisoned weapons. Clerics heal your other heroes and smite down the undead with their righteous fury. Righteous fury rocks, apparently, when you’re a man of faith.
Having built your economy, guilds, and recruited some heroes, the next task is to assign them duties. You do this by flagging targets as something to either explore, attack, defend, or fear. You place a monetary value on said flag and then wait for your heroes to get around to doing it. Essentially, it’s like eBay for the medieval set. This is both an interesting and unique concept, but in practice it tends to be a bit tedious. The system relies on your heroes being smart and taking the jobs that are assigned; sadly, they they are pretty damned lethargic about it. Many of the levels are spent waiting for your troops to destroy a building. Instead of focusing on the the target, your men are busy getting distracted by any skeletons or bear that crosses their path. Simply put, it is like watching the Knights of the ADHD Table.
Not to complain too much, but Majesty 2 doesn’t require a huge amount of actual playing. Once you’ve built your settlement and placed your flags, you just sit back and watch you little guys do their thing. This can be entertaining, but may not meet the needs you might have for hyper-control and micromanagement. When you think on it, is why many folks get an RTS game to begin with, so your mileage my vary. Perhaps a setting that would allow you to get more detail oriented approach would have been called for here.
Now, let’s get back to that Sean Connery impersonator. Majesty 2 has a decent sense of humor, sprinkling the laughter liberally throughout the game. Much of this is done within the adviser narrations, with every word spoken like a slightly soused Sean Connery. As funny as it is to begin with, it does begin to grate on the nerves. When you couple that irritation with the fairly passive gameplay, it kind of spoils all the nice ideas that the game displays. Drunken Sean Connery isn’t helping Majesty 2 make its mark.
I became addicted to the Settlers, which shows that passive gameplay can really entertain. Unfortunately, Majesty 2 is just a little TOO passive for my taste. The attempts at having a bit of a laugh just feel too forced to really save it from being more than average. Majesty 2 is more like the bad court jester than the kingly experience it wants to be. My recommendation? Buy if you don’t mind watching the game play itself. Otherwise, maybe something a bit more active will serve your needs.
Popularity: unranked [?]
