For the most part, Majesty 2 is the same game as Majesty. Which is fine by me. The original game was a near work of genius for how it carved out its own niche. It violated rules, broke genres, and confounded expectations. It sat somewhere between a conventional real time strategy game, a city builder, an RPG, and an ecosystem, but it wasn't any of those things. It was the Will Wright game that Will Wright never made.

Nearly ten years later, a different developer has made a sequel. They've done a few things differently, a couple of them better and a couple of them worse. But what they've mostly done is made me re-appreciate the genius of Majesty.

Read the review after the jump.

The first and biggest difference from the original game is the difference between graphics in 2000 and graphics in 2009. I couldn't care less if Majesty is in full 3D or flat 2D sprites or even ASCII, so long as it gets the personality right. Which Majesty 2 does. I'd have a liked a bit more variety in the heroes so I could pick them out of a crowd. Instead, different classes abruptly change skins as they level up. I suppose that'll do. Mostly, I'm glad to see elves shooting ogres and warriors whacking dragons and minotaurs savaging peasant houses. Once you've played for a while, the graphical flash will convey information. A magic shield here, a plague infection there. Here a character levels up, there an ice arrow flashes across the screen. It's all quite serviceable.

The most disappointing difference is that these new developers couldn't manage a better interface. Since they didn't have a lot of actual design work to do - this is really just a remake of the original design - you'd think they would gussy up the interface. No such luck. They have no idea how to organize the heroes, or what information to present, or what kind of hotkeys are helpful. It's a good thing Majesty's gameplay is mostly hands-off, because this interface would scuttle a more hands-on game.

Unlike the original Majesty, this sequel is poorly documented. How do Wizard's Towers work? What exactly does the Statue of the King do? When were you going to tell me I could change the settings for my tax collectors by clicking on them? Am I supposed to just figure out various unit behaviors by watching them? Or is the flavor text tucked three screens down supposed to be actually helpful? What's the deal with parties? Work with me here, developers. You've re-made a wonderful game. Help me figure out its new idiosyncrasies.

The stupidest mistake is the lack of meaningful context for the scenarios. A little work on the presentation would have gone a long way. A simple high score screen, for instance. Or bronze, then silver, then gold stars upon completion. Or difficulty levels. Or badges for accomplishing goals. Unlockable character skins or customizable buildings. Just copy Dawn of Discovery, which gets all this stuff right. We don't need much. We're gamers leveling up virtual heroes. We're suckers for empty rewards. How could you guys who made Majesty 2 have missed this? If you'd given us incentives to replay the scenarios in different ways, we'd be too busy to notice the lack of a random map generator or the small number of scenarios.

But I gripe about these things mainly because I like this game. If Majesty 2 had addressed these issues, it would have been great instead of merely a very good remake of a great game from ten years ago. If you weren't playing Majesty back then, you're in for a brand new treat.

The idea is that you aren't the kind of god who can reach down and drag select units. Instead, you drop buildings that support different kinds of heroes, that fuel an economy where they spend their money to buy loot, that provide protection for a handful of tax collectors and peasants. You can scatter money around the map as an incentive for the heroes, but you can't move them. You can't even push them. Your money is only a pull. You're a deist clockmaker god, setting up the gears and putting them in motion. In fact, you may not be a god at all. You may just be a Ben Bernanke.

If you're not already a Majesty convert, this might take some getting used to. There are very few games that play at this scale with this limited level of direct interaction. Imagine The Sims on autopilot, but with rats, ogres, and flying serpents trying to eat your sims.

If you are a Majesty convert, you know how all this works. You'll be able to jump in easily. You might be a bit disappointed that there aren't any either/or choices among character types. It used to be that if you chose Temple A, you couldn't build Temple B and therefore you never got the heroes from that particular temple. That was good gameplay. But now the temple system works differently. Instead, temples are based on controlling points on the map. In fact, map control is a major part of the economy considering the trading posts and trade routes. The original Majesty was content to let your city cower in a corner. This Majesty expects you to expand.

But whatever the differences, this is still Majesty. The best thing these new developers have done is capture the genius of the original game. Imitation isn't just the sincerest form of flattery, but it's also a damn fine way to make a sequel. Now let's hope they're hard at work to patch in a better interface, a little replay value, and maybe some new scenarios.