Matthew Boulden

An arduous nine years have passed for fans of the cult classic Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim. Five hundred years later and the world of Ardania is once again besieged by monsters on all sides as the daemon lord that slew his majesty, King Leonard, sits upon the royal throne. Luckily cunning and brave heroes still wonder the realm willing to fight the good fight.But before the daemon lord can be defeated the people of Ardania need a new king, someone to lead them to victory time after time.

The principle of indirect control over your subjects remains the focal point of the game, and the addition of the Fear and Protection reward flag only helps to improve the gameplay. The Protection flag is used to help protect vital buildings and units from enemy heroes and monsters. The Fear flag is used to warn friendly heroes of grave danger, usually causing them to stop and turn back. In combination with the Attack and Explore Flag his or her majesty can indirectly influence the actions of their heroes even further.

Whereas the other reward flags have straighter forward uses, the Fear flag can be more abstract in its uses. So why exactly is the Fear flag abstract? The Fear flag can be used in synergy with other reward flags to achieve a wealth of different desired effects never truly possibly before. The amount of gold set as a reward determines what level of hero it will affect. Should your kingdom come under attack from a fearsome dragon you can place a Fear flag with a low reward while using an Attack flag with a high reward to attract high level heroes to fight the beast while keeping more vulnerable low level heroes out of the fight.

During the beginning of a new mission your primary objective will be to establish a basic economy and build some guilds from which to recruit heroes. To motivate heroes to do your biding you must have gold with which to reward them. Without sufficient gold rewards heroes are unlikely to interested in going after any reward flags set by his or her majesty. While your Castle, Houses and Mills will pay a small amount of gold in taxes your largest source of gold will come from the Marketplace, and any caravans travelling to it from your Outposts.

Money Makes The Kingdom Run!

A new feature of the Majesty franchise is the ability to form parties of heroes at the Tavern. Before his or her majesty can do so the Tavern must be upgraded and the ability to form parties researched. Anywhere between two and four heroes, and a countless combination of heroes, can beformed into a party at a cost of 500 gold coins. The designated party leader determines how the party acts; a party of heroes lead by a Ranger is more likely pursue Explore flags.

While heroes in the original Majesty had set attribute development paths each hero in Majesty 2 is unique with each hero's attributes developing differently. While it is a small change it helps improves the simulation aspects of the Majesty franchise. Not once have I seen two heroes that have developed the same way in the vast amount of time I have played the beta preview build. Heroes can develop in a number of ways, with some seeming to specialise in certain attributes while others are more rounded and a jack-of-all-trades.

Heroes, as in the original Majesty, have different personalities and quirks which influence what actions they take in Majesty 2. Rogues, for example, are greedy and mischievous heroes who are usually the first to flee from battle to save their life and precious gold. Whereas Rangers are fond of exploring the map, are great at fighting beasts and are likely to pursue Explore flags. So to be a successful monarch you often have to exploit the personalities and quirks of each hero class to further your goals.

There are various ways that heroes can acquire new abilities for use in combat and exploration. Heroes recruited from temples in Majesty 2 usually learn new abilities via gaining experience and levelling up. Whereas heroes recruited via guilds usually gain new abilities by his or her majesty researching them at each hero's guild. After each new skill is researched heroes recruited from that guild can return home to learn that new ability. Some hero classes also share abilities, such as the Warrior and Paladin who share the Taunt ability.