Majesty 2 Released + My Majesty Review

Previously on my original blog (now closed) I posted a review on Majesty. Here's what I wrote (slightly edited):

Majesty is an interesting fantasy kingdom game which is similar to Populous or Dungeon Keeper. You manage buildings rather than individual units and collect taxes to fund your kingdom. Heroes are your main units and although you pay to recruit them, you don't have direct control over them. Instead they will do whatever suits their character class. For example, if they are a rogue, they will explore and loot treasure chests. If they are a warrior, they will buy armour and weapons from the blacksmith before going off for monster hunting. To earn money, your tax collector will then collect taxes from your buildings such as the blacksmithwhich you can then spend on upgrading your kingdom or building your buildings. You can motivate your heroes to act by placing bounties onareas you want to explore or monsters you want slain.

It is both frustrating and fun to see your heroes running around doing what they like at first. But as you understand how they 'think' and who they work well with, it becomes easier to manage them. Sometimes they still act completely silly like fighting against overwhelming odd but that's what heroes are like after all. As a sovereign you have spells at your disposal which cost gold and can assist your heroes. When they are in trouble that's when you use a spell or two to save them.

All in all, it's surprisingly addictive despite sounding a little boring at first. Highly recommended but try out a demo first as it may not be your kind of game.

Recently Majesty 2 came out and I'm surprised few reviewers mentioned the original. As far as I can tell, Majesty 2 contains the same hands off gameplay we've come to expect from Majesty with new graphics and some additional bounty types and a couple of gameplay tweaks to make controlling characters easier. Should you buy it? I believe that like the original, there will be a core group of gamers that will absolutely love the game while others will hate the hands off approach. I suspect like the first there will be a niche following but won't make a real impression on the general gaming public. I plan to definitely buy it once the price drops.