Majesty 2 Review

Anyone who's ever played an RTS game will know the feeling - you've instructed your units to move or attack, but yet they appear to have other ideas and decide to sit around twiddling their collective thumbs (or whatever comparable appendage the units in question have). When they eventually decide to move, they will invariably take the most long-winded route possible and carefully time their arrival to coincide with whatever large munitions you've had to dispatch to make up for their dilly-dallying, resulting in a messy and often quite expensive reduction in the number of units under your command.

At its worst, it feels like they're doing it on purpose; but why would they? What possible motivation could there be for a normally responsive unit ignoring your commands?

Imagine now that each unit actually was capable of making these decisions. Imagine your units weighing up whether what you've just asked them to do is worth risking their neck for. Imagine that different units had their own preferences over which instructions to follow. If you imagined all that in a medieval fantasy setting, then you have Majesty 2.

Majesty 2 takes the traditional RTS genre, removes the ability to directly control units, mixes in a hint of RPG for good measure and hands you back the resulting concoction, all the while with its tongue lodged firmly in its cheek.

Cast in the role of the last remaining heir of a once great kingdom, the player must prove his worth to claim the crown and defeat the demons inadvertently unleashed on the land by your predecessor. Whilst you retain full control over which structures and combat units (Heroes) are produced; orders however are given via a series of flags (Explore, Attack and Defend), with heroes deciding whether or not to follow those orders based on the amount of gold assigned as a reward to each flag. As mentioned, each class of hero prefers a different flag - for example, Rangers love the chance to explore, whilst Clerics will often rush to assist defending a flagged structure or unit.

As well as your selection of heroes, there are the additional units who you have no control over, indirect or otherwise. Peasants will build and repair the structures you select as well as using their spare time to construct housing and minor economy structures wherever they see fit. These peasants, being the uneducated commoners that they are, have a nasty habit of constructing these additional buildings outside of the reaches of your carefully placed defences making them easier targets for wandering enemies.

As with all good monarchies, you generate a constant stream of income through taxes, although Majesty 2 doesn't concern itself with things such as micro-management and as a result, this tax rate is fixed. Additional income can come from caravans once you have constructed Trade Posts at pre-determined locations and from your heroes themselves. As well as providing a financial incentive to obey your beck and call, heroes can use their rewards to purchase new potions and items. Rather than upgrading individual units, these new items are invented at their corresponding structure and bought by heroes when they can afford them; upgrading units is quite often literally a case of spending money to make money.

Heroes also develop beyond just the contents of their inventory and the number of gold coins in their tunic pocket; throughout the course of a mission units gain experience and level up, each with their own unique stats - comparing 2 otherwise identical units of the same level may reveal that one moves quicker whilst the other deals more damage. At the end of each mission, one hero may be promoted to a Lord, allowing you to call upon them during subsequent missions rather than having to rely on a level 1 character with an empty inventory, albeit at a significantly higher cost.

The majority of the missions beyond the initial tutorial levels revolve around defeating a boss, often having completed a secondary objective to weaken the boss beforehand. Each level is littered with assorted caves and crypts which must be destroyed to stop the regular spawning of enemies, intent on wreaking havoc amongst your settlement. Whilst these roaming enemies are generally a mild nuisance, it's the sewer entrances that start to appear as your village grows and subsequently spew forth rats (and the altogether larger ratmen) that will cause you frustration. If the constant attacks weren't enough, the boss will often decide to make an appearance, deal damage to a building, kill a few peasants and wander off again. Even with a solid build queue in mind, it's advisable not to bother building anything for the first 30 seconds of a mission as the boss invariably turns up at the beginning and destroys them before they can be constructed.

For those players who complete the main campaign, there are a number of standalone mission where the odds are stacked even further against you, including the Trial of Kings which sees the difficulty gradually ramp up as you try to prolong your inevitable defeat. There are also a handful of multiplayer maps for up to 4 players, although I doubt the game will be remembered for this mode.

For all the adventures that your heroes will face, developers 1C have played it safe graphically - the engine performs well and looks all rather splendid but few risks have been taken and the art style is somewhat generic. Heroes regularly display their status and intentions through emoticons above their heads; whilst this is helpfully, the emoticons themselves look like they've been taken from some annoying Flash advert from a website. Despite looking a little unprofessional, the emoticons do highlight the fact that the game doesn't exactly take itself seriously. The pre-mission briefings from the Sean Connery-esque Advisor are an absolute delight, even if this particular "Connery" is prone to the odd Americanism here and there.

Despite a couple of minor complaints, if it wasn't for the sudden increase in difficulty mid way through the campaign, I would seriously struggle to put this game down. That and those incessant rats!