Majesty 2: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim Previews

Both TotalPCGaming and The Wargamer have cranked out new hands-on previews of Paradox Interactive’s Majesty sequel.

An excerpt from TotalPCGaming’s article:

There are limits to the number of recruits each of your guilds can sustain at one time, but each one can gain experience by killing baddies and eventually level up, gaining power and randomly generated titles to their name. Construct a tavern and heroes will meet up within and form parties (presumably over a beverage or two), ideal for taking on tough assignments and monstrous foes like dragons. You can also kit them out with better armour and weapons by building a smithy, and give them healing and mana potions with the appropriate marketplace upgrade. Heroes will quaff these automatically when required and will flee battle if seriously threatened, but even if a hero perishes, the Cleric’s guild can provide resurrection spells at a cost so you can recall a high-level warrior if you’re quick enough and there’s still room for them in the guild.

And an excerpt from The Wargamer’s article:

Players can establish guilds for different classes of heroes (mages, clerics, warriors, rogues, and rangers), sell potions at the market and weapons at the armory, and drop flags which offer rewards for exploration, destruction, protection, etc. The elves and dwarves of Majesty are here too, but their buildings were buggy; whenever I tried to hire anyone the game would crash. Such is to be expected from a game still in development, I’m just sorry I couldn’t play test these features. It’s also possible to worship the gods by constructing temples, which grant the player bonuses from one deity but enrage others. The enemies your heroes square off against run the gamut from harmless rats that spawn from sewer grates (another carry-over from the original game) to giant fire-breathing dragons who, when the die, convulse wildly and collapse in a gout of flame.