MENA Gamer - Where Game Begins

Introduction

Majesty 2 launches you into the world of Ardania. Typical of most RTS style games, in which you must build, fight and construct your way through a multitude of missions. In Majesty 2 your primary goal is to rid the evil ruler and do this by buying your way through the world, conquering any foes that stand in your way and trading between people. The game is a Real-Time-Strategy game similar to that of Age Of Empires, Civilisation and Strong-Hold alike. However some of the things that make it similar to other RTS type games also make it seem less and less like the others. In most RTS games of this type you must micro manage and as such you spend most of your time building up walls and not expanding your view of the world. In Majesty 2 you are more of a Director who sit’s and tells units and characters what to do and they will do it. Although there are elements of other RTS games, to stand out more the game seems to have more of a back story and some good cinematic scenes explaining background information and why and what you need to do.

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As you progress through the game you will establish heroes who will fight for you in battle (seen as you are too important to). The more missions you do the more heroes you will have the option to acquire. You get the option to build, upgrade buildings and also to direct units to them to repair or put our fires when they are under attack. Unlike normal RTS type games where you can select a character point him to a certain place to explore, in Majesty 2 it is much more focussed on the characters ability to choose whether to explore, attack or defend a particular object or area. To make a let’s say a Rogue who is a unit suited to exploration go somewhere, you must pay them. By setting a ‘flag’ in the place you wish that character to go and choosing how much you will pay them to go there that character will go and explorer and claim their reward. Sometimes you may need many places exploring or attacking so it is well worth training many of each type of unit to do different things. In a way this reminds me of classics like Dungeon Keeper in which creatures will do your bidding as it was to a certain degree of success.

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Most of the time whilst exploring or fighting foes such as rats, demons and the un-dead with your small army, you will find that your buildings will often come under attack from sewer rats and other nasties which pray on your civilians. You can train more but I have found before venturing out into the unknown it is best to prepare and defend your town/village/camp etc. with turrets and units. Once you have done that depending on what your objective is you can set flags to explore, clear paths by setting an attack flag or if you need to get that special cargo through the wilds then ask your units to defend that caravan. The lack of control sometimes can be a bit frustrating as you sometimes feel the need to control each individual unit and tell it exactly what you want it to do. Be careful with flags though because once you have placed one and set its value, if a unit gets to it they get the money and you lose it. I have lost a lot of money that way.

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Sometimes if you are struggling in some of the later missions, which I did, you need more money to buy, build and train, waiting for enough to do what you want to do can seem like an eternity. Luckily there is a game speed control on the interface which can be used to make the game faster/slower. One of the main features in this game is the use of spells in which you have one of the only direct tools to control and influence how you control units. Spells can be used to heal, protect or to attack their target. So for example, your heroes are in an all out battle with a bunch of un-dead you get the option to heal them giving them the advantage.

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How it looks

With a standard look of any major RTS game, your UI is full of controls and buttons, in which you can control, manage units and change events etc. The actual world in which you play is again similar to that of many online RTS games and a few MMO style ones. Textures in the game being very ‘cartoony’ in areas and with some ‘realistic’ looking objects and buildings it is a bit of a hodgepodge of styles. This though does fit together quite well and is easy to see and manage units.

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AI

I feel like the AI lacks some intelligence in many aspects, fighting is sometimes a chore as you have to select each unit or a group and tell them what you want them to do. Although that doesn’t sound too tasking, I can assure you that even when you have done all that in most cases, especially when starting out your units will die. I have had it also when you are in the middle of an attack and some of your units will stand there oblivious to any attacks until they get attacked themselves. This reminds me of games of old, again like the original AOE games which had very basic AI. Also sometimes when placing flags near items or objects which you wish to acquire, the heroes don’t always collect or approach them meaning you have to place more and thus waste money.

How it plays

Starting with a few units and a main building you get the option to expand your town/civilisation more as you progress through missions and tasks. You will find out though on your way that you will get attacked by annoying creatures like the sewer rats amongst others. These can be very annoying and time consuming when you are trying to accomplish things.

If one of your heroes dies, you get the option to revive them and make them do your bidding once more; you can select which one if more than one has fallen. This like most other things in game is done on price rather than skills.

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Controls and ease of use

Moving around is easy enough with the keyboard or by using the mouse to either scroll to the edge of the screen or by pressing the mouse buttons to either rotate or zoom in/out etc. Selecting units is quite easy and the menu system is fast and not a bug in sight. It can be a little annoying sometimes when it comes to selecting certain menu items and as such the game could have done with either more shortcuts.

Multiplayer

Similar if not the same as single player it offers little more and gives nothing more either to be honest. Playing against another 3 people, it gives you a chance to see what you are made of, however finding and actually playing is another question as the server base seems a little sparse and unpredictable.

The Good

The game style and theme of the game is unique, I especially enjoyed the voiceovers and cut scenes. I found them to be one of the best I have seen in many RTS’s.

The Bad

The lack of anything outstanding in the game, nothing which makes it either completely different or stand out against some of the bigger titles out there.

The Just plain Ugly

I couldn’t find anything ugly within the game, there were some things which could have been better such as control of units.

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Summary

Overall Majesty 2 is a fun and entertaining game which gives you an insight into a world which has seen nothing but strife and violence for many years. If you are looking at the game as a must get RTS then look no further. I found some of the gameplay enjoyable and some of it fun, although sometimes a bit repetitive. Leaving the bad points behind I would recommend this as a game if you had played every other game of this type.