Game Reviews

Kingdoms aren't built in a day, which perhaps explains why Paradox Interactive's expansion to Majesty 2: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim arrived a little later than originally planned. Not that releasing an expansion six months of the release of the full game is too late. Not at all even. If you consider that fans of the first Majesty had to wait ten years before the sequel was made, six months is very respectable indeed. More importantly, the now ten-year-old concept of delegating warfare, rather than conducting it yourself is still a uniquely refreshing experience.

You may have beaten Majesty 2, but that is hardly a reason to rest on your laurels. In Majesty 2: Kingmaker, a new threat has risen to challenge your divine rights to rule the lands. The nefarious goblin-lord Grum-Gog has mobilized his green hordes and vowed to separate your head from your body. Oh, and did I tell you that you will have to keep the gods appeased as well? That's right, you have your work cut out for you.Kingmaker adds a new campaign comprised of seven missions that are certain to keep the average strategist busy for more than a few hours. In fact, I doubt many players will be able to complete every mission on the first attempt. As with the full game, many of the missions are tough as leather and there is no shame in spending several hours on a single mission. The challenges that players will face are not to be underestimated. Majesty 2 wasn't for the faint of heart and the game is exempt of any form of difficulty settings.

Where in the original game the difficulty ramped up quite gradually and became frustratingly difficult later on, Kingmaker kicks off at a fairly challenging level and continues to make things harder on the player. Like many of you, I love a good challenge so this is hardly a complaint. Quite the contrary even, because to make things more interesting you can opt to randomize the location of the monster dens, trading posts and temple spots. So even if you do need to restart a mission to get your revenge, the map will never quite be the same and the mission won't end up feeling stale. If, after finishing the campaign, you are still left with the desire to delegate your minions, then the game has an additional nine separate missions that can also be randomized.