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| | Genre: Strategy & War | | | Min OS X: 10.6 |
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Requirements: Mac OS X: 10.6.3 | CPU: Intel 2.16GHz Processor | RAM: 1 GB | Hard Disk: 1.5 GB | Graphics: GeForce 8600, Radeon X1600 or newer 128 MBReview: There have been dozens of real-time-strategy games over the years. Some went the classic route of harvesters and armies and others went more towards an army-only experience, but there has never been an experience quite like Majesty. With its focus on creating buildings and units and lack of any direct control of units in the world, it felt much more like a kingdom than the usual empire of mindless drones. It didn't catch on at the time, due to limited multiplayer options and thoroughly imbalanced selection of heroes to hire, and many believed its days were passed. However, Virtual Programming has brought the sequel to Mac owners. The main question is, what has changed?Nothing. The adviser still gives you a synopsis of each mission, you still start with a practically empty kingdom at the beginning of each level, you still hire heroes that act on their own, and your only option for control is still placing reward flags. The only real changes are in the content. The hero list has been expanded a bit, temples now have to be placed on specific pieces of the map, there are more potions for your heroes to buy, and there's a little more variety in boss monsters. Still, Majesty 2 looks and acts like a slightly-upgraded Majesty with new levels. Not to say that's a bad thing, though! The core experience of Majesty 2, constructing buildings and placing flags, is still just as entertaining now as it was with Majesty. There's just something rewarding about giving your heroes a semi-safe leveling environment and watching them lay waste to the hordes of monsters on the countryside. In some cases, like the wizards, a single hero can take on dozens of monsters alone and destroy them all in seconds. It never ceases to be satisfying. When you're ready to finish the level, you just have to assign an attack flag to the current level objective and give it a reasonable reward. Your heroes will then stream over, destroy everything in their path, and complete the mission. When the level is done, you pick a hero to make available for hire on future missions, and move on. Certain heroes like the temple heroes are way too expensive to hire at the start of a mission, but you can always save up and bring them in for an easy win. Of course, that's just on the levels with reasonable bosses. As the game gets closer to the end, even a powerful band of adventurers will get utterly annihilated by the bosses you encounter. This even goes way too far when you meet the final boss. The entire level is essentially spent spamming a spell to summon a spirit to keep him busy and far away from your kingdom. Whenever he gets close, he tends to spam an area-of-effect attack that destroys buildings in three hits, kills heroes outright, and just makes a mess of everything in sight. Should you manage to complete the requirement to weaken him, you may even beat him in the end.
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