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Majesty 2: Worth Buying?

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Claudius

Claudius

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Well, seeing the great sale on Majesty Gold I figured I'd see what all the fuss was about this "Majesty" stuff which has had such big announcements on the main P'dox site in the past. Turns out I love the indirect style for various reasons which for your sake I won't go into. :)

With the sale on Majesty 2 I'm thinking of buying it as well, but since it costs a bit more I thought I'd poke around here first. Is the game worth buying in its current iteration? Since I already like the style of the series and this sounds similar, the main issue to me is replayability. How do you find the game after beating all the campaigns? Is there anything left to do in single-player?

Not sure what I'd consider deal-breaking yet, but the possibility of a sandbox mode in the next expansion would mean an instant sale. :D

As an afterthought, since I'd like this thread to be useful to more than just me I'd appreciate it if posters would say how they think about the game in other categories than just my main concern.

Gameplay
Replayability
AI Quality
Difficulty
u.s.w.
 
I found Majesty 2 to be a fun game.

In terms of gameplay, the heroes are a bit more passive than in the first game, which makes use of flags much more important. This means that your heroes will mostly refrain from exploration and battle until you are ready. You have the option of building up your town and heroes before venturing forth. However, if you do not proactively clear monster lairs, the waves of assaults will get increasingly overwhelming.

One of the most interesting new things is the Hall of Lords. This allows you to recruit high-level heroes from previous missions. On some levels, it is almost necessary to make use of it.

I find Majesty 2 to be much more difficult than the first game. Kingmaker was especially brutal. The first half of Battles of Ardania was a struggle, but I found the last few maps relatively easy. Many times, I have had to start over and try a completely different strategy.

I have not had a chance to replay any of the levels yet. Honestly, I am not in a rush to do so, either. I am sure it would be fun, but it just seems that I have already solved that puzzle. There is an option to randomize the locations of the monster lairs. However, that has the potential to make the level impossibly hard. I have never played multiplayer, so I cannot tell you about that.

Overall, I have no regrets about buying the game and the expansions. It is certainly a fun way to spend 2-3 hours at a stretch. If you are really on the fence about a purchase, then you could wait for it to go on sale. Odds are high that the base game will go on sale when Monster Kingdom comes out next month. GamersGate can send you email alerts when there is a sale or price drop.

What is U.S.W.?
 
Many posts to go fish in to perceive the opinions of other players. Mostly, people in here will want you to buy it.
If you didnt like the sim dimension in Majesty, then Majesty 2 is likely to suit you. If you like Majesty for its eery charm, the sim part, then purchasing the game should come after reflection on your own as you might end disappointed as Majesty 2 does not work in continuity of Majesty.

Replayability: I usually transfer games I like to play to a PC collector so I can play them anytime. Majesty 2 did not make it to this PC. I replayed the game mostly for check certain gameplay points. This was the only replayability value in my case. Once done, I never replayed the game. Been months now.

Difficulty: imo, this game is a recipes game. The game can be rather easy if you use the right angle, nightmarish if you try inadequate recipes. So very hard to answer to your questions. You might run through it or slug through it.

The other points like AI are rather difficult to address as they would require lengthy explanations.
 
The question about if it is worth investing your time & money in can only be answered by you, but it is worth noting that majesty 2 is a very different game compared to majesty 1. While majesty 1 would let you play in a very relaxed way, building up a functional city and then leisurely setting out reward flags, majesty 2 requires a more direct approach. Attacks will come much sooner, and force you to react, and your heroes are not very good at doing things on their own (they might kill monsters that wanders into your village, but they won't go out and raid lairs on their own, or explore the map), so you need to use your reward flags in a far more active way.
u.s.w=und so weiter?

Replayability: Relatively low. Certain maps can be fun to play through again though.
AI Quality=Poor :(
Difficulty= medium/high if you try to figure out everything on your own, although once you know what to do, the game becomes really easy.
 
I agree with everything said here. I enjoyed both games, but for different reasons. There is no 'random map' feature like with Majesty 1. With a lack of modding and map making (likely due to a high learning curve on the map maker), don't expect much other than what a few, much loved, loyal fans are releasing. I've gone back and replayed most maps at least once, but after that, the fun wears off.

I thought the game has been worth what I've paid for it, so hopefully you will too.
 
Thanks for all the replies. :)

Sounds a lot more proactive with the player taking a more central role and that's a big minus to me in any game, but it still sounds good enough to buy so long as they're still making expansions, hence at least allowing for the possibility of improvement. I think I'll do as Weijun suggested and wait until it goes on a bigger sale than the current 33%.

What is U.S.W.?
Click to expand...

Sorry, force of habit there. "und so weiter" in German, means the same as Latin et cetera. That raises a good question, though: I wonder if languages other than English are supported?
 
DorthLous said:
The very last expansion to Majesty 2 has been announced and stated as such. There won't be any new expansions after.
Click to expand...

Aww. :(

So they'll never be adding a randomized sandbox mode? That would be unfortunate. All the expansions they've released only seem to offer some new campaign and new heroes or items - nothing truly fundamental like we see in every EU3 expansion (and is the reason we buy those). Guess that's why this game has been so criticized around here.

Oh well, I'll still grab it when it's on sale as it sounds fun enough, just not worth more than half price with so little replayability.
 
I've never had Majesty 2 crash on me, but Majesty 1 has crashed on me a few times. From a technical point of view, I've not had any problems at all with majesty 2, it runs very well on my 4 years old computer.
 
Aulus said:
With the sale on Majesty 2 I'm thinking of buying it as well, but since it costs a bit more I thought I'd poke around here first. Is the game worth buying in its current iteration? Since I already like the style of the series and this sounds similar, the main issue to me is replayability. How do you find the game after beating all the campaigns? Is there anything left to do in single-player?
Click to expand...
Maj2 isn't a *terrible* game, at least by the general standards of other RTS titles. It's a C+ or B- from that perspective. It's just godawful from the perspective of a Sim. Replayability is very limited, multiplayer's a bust (few players, significant bugs,) and I wasn't especially fond of the art style (as distinct from the graphics engine,) as well as rough handling of the setting/tone.

On the plus side, you can get it for cheap, so I dunno, maybe it'll keep you busy for a while.
 
The lack of replayability is a bummer but the fun and addicting gameplay makes up for it, at least for me. The gameplay itself is also a bit repetitive because you basically do the same thing in every mission: defend your base from hordes of monsters then slowly creep out, destroy some lairs, and finish the main objective when the time is right. Despite being repetitive, the missions will challenge you in different ways. For example, the same strategy or hero setup probably won't work for every mission, especially in the expansions.

Majesty 2 gets a lot of flack for the brutal difficulty but thats part of what makes it so much fun. Beating a difficult mission feels rewarding. You will probably get destroyed plenty of times but eventually you will get the hang of it.
 
Nope they never implemented a random map generator of the calibre of the one in the original game. I heard it said that it was to do with engine limitations but I'm not sure if that's true or not. What they did do was patch in the optional randomisation of non-quest lairs. As for stability, I never had a single crash while playing Majesty 2 or Kingmaker but I had several while playing Battles of Ardania, I'm not sure why that is.
I'm in the minority who prefers Majesty 2 over the original and for the reasons others, especially Weijun, have already stated. It's not a classic or anything, but it is a lot of fun. I often liken it to a casual game in the sense that it can be very addictive but ultimately you're going through the same routine every single time and so it can also get repetitive quickly. Best played a mission a day.
You'll often find people saying the game is either too easy or too hard and the reason for that is that surviving the harder missions initially depends on the manner in which you build your town. do it right and you'll survive long enough to flag down all the major threats, do it wrong and you're overwhelmed and think to yourself "this is impossible".
 
For anyone interested, there is now a 50% sale on Majesty 2 and all its expansions.

BroodingMonarch: So that's it, good to know. If that's why they failed to add in a randomizer, that's a pretty big error on their part. An engine for a game like this needs to be practically built around the randomizer; it's the most important feature if all their hard work isn't to go to waste after some "ending."

Anyway, posting this to ask two more questions of the kind folks here:

How does the language support for this game work? I can buy a German version of the base game on GG, but the expansions only have one version each? :confused:

Also, for those of us here who like the indirect Majesty I gameplay, does anyone know of other game franchises that give the same 'ruling an MMO city' feel? I mean, M1 is admittedly rather dated and I'd love a somewhat newer game that doesn't make me some kind of Stalinist megalomaniac in total control. I'll buy M2, but it's sounding like the latter variety.
 
does anyone know of other game franchises that give the same 'ruling an MMO city' feel?
Click to expand...

The only one I'm slightly familiar with is Stronghold, although I haven't played Stronghold 2 and later with any significant gametime. Mostly Stronghold 1 and Crusader.
 
The Settlers is the only series I can think of remotely like Majesty but I assume by the collection of games under your avatar alone that you'd at least have heard of it before. I really can't think of anything else similar. The Dungeon Keeper games maybe. There's the Impressions City Building games, Caesar 1-4, Pharoah, Zeus and Emperor. I'd recommend Zeus: Master of Olympus and Poseidon Master of Atlantis. You can get Zeus Gold on amazon brand new for a good price. But really, Majesty is actually pretty unique when I think about it.
 
Dwarf fortress! It is ugly, but there are several graphics mods out there. Dwarf fortress is similar to Majesty in the regard that you have no direct control over your people (you can tell your dwarves what they may/may not do by giving them jobs and removing jobs from their lists, but you can't tell them to say kill a certain creature), and you also have that whole city building aspect (although it is far deeper & more complex than that in majesty).
Dwarf fortress is a bit like a mix between majesty, dungeon keeper, sim city, the sims, minecraft, victoria an empire under the sun and advanced squad leader (but far more complex in every way), with near infinite replayability. And it is free.
http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/
http://df.magmawiki.com/ (you will love this site if you decide to play DF)
 
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