Majesty 2: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim

This Game Would be happier playing itself, rather than having to endure human input. The concept of giving the inhabitants of this fantasy RTS minds of their own is admirable. It reduces the amount of management and instead allows you to focus on the bigger picture: the master plan.

In reality, playing Majesty 2 is like trying to herd ants. Your heroes have an insatiable urge to roam the landscape but are never around when you need them. The first Ranger to emerge from a rustic spawning hut didn't stroll into the centre of town to dispatch the two skeletons hammering away at the pub with sticks. He ran off into the woods to slaughter an innocent bear.

The whole game is full of annoying, clumsy mistakes. Since when can a rat nibble a house to the point of combustion? Idiotic stuff like that seriously affects your enthusiasm.

The missions are repetitive and involve creating the same buildings every time to set up your heroic armies and defences. Sure, you can create five types of hero: Wizard, Warrior, Rogue, Ranger and Cleric, but it's just a case of using a different tool for the same problem over and over again.

Dumb Citizens

There's no subtlety or variety in the mission structures. A sneaky stealth mission through hills or something encouraging the player to think laterally is sorely needed. The world is not an unpleasant place to look at but there's no lustre. A desert should have sand storms skimming across its surface and a forest should be full of giant, sweating trees with unknown critters bouncing and warbling through the thick foliage.

Majesty 2 is not the worst game ever, and certainly The Settlers and The Sims aspects of it are good attempts to breathe life into the weary 3D strategy genre. But while there is some curiosity value here, Majesty 2 doesn't have anywhere near enough depth or variety to inspire any kind of extended interest in playing it.