Releasing expansion packs at a frequency that challenges a machine gun's rate-of-fire is an old practice, and despite the (disputed) push toward DLC, has not been entirely forgotten. Majesty 2 establishes the player as King of numerous outposts and towns, and through a supremacy-styled campaign, he must conquer monsters and overlords of each map. By using indirect control of heroes - such as beacons with gold coin rewards - our player acts somewhat equivalent to a Dungeon Master / Game Master for tabletop RPGs. That is, you put rewards on BBEGs (big bad evil guys), pray that an adventurous group of wizards and warriors will compete for the rewards, and repeat. The formula is elegant and simple, and makes for a distinctive play opportunity to perform from the throne room (as opposed to being 'the hero,' as is typical in fantasy games).
The original Majesty 2 succeeded in its attempts to bundle both role-play and strategy together. However, in less than a year since our review of the game, a riveting number of expansion packs (this is the second, the third is due in December) have been released. It's almost unbelievable that enough content would be included within them to justify separate purchases. Lucky for you, I'm here to confirm that belief (or... err, unbelief as it were).
Eight new maps, a couple of monsters, and an infuriatingly endless supply of the "Main Menu -> Restart Map" motions later and I never wanted to look at the game again. I don't know how they've done it, but Paradox and 1C have transmuted losing into something addictive. It's almost a core mechanic of gameplay; in order to effectively 'beat' most levels to my satisfaction (minimal deaths, most accomplishments), I had to restart and retry strategies an average of two times per 'expert' level. Maybe I set my goal of "no heroes will die" artificially high, but regardless, it's still an exceedingly difficult game. Depending on who you are, that could be really enticing or really dissuading; I liked it, but quickly grew tired of the prospect that each level - seemingly thirty minutes of gameplay - ended up taking an hour or more of replays.
The plotlines and quests are not entirely different from the original title: our beloved advisor - voiced by none other than Sean Connery* - has returned to lead us into battle. (*not actually voiced by Sean Connery). Someone has created a disturbance in somewhere in the kingdom, and his Kingship must dispatch of them! It's about time too, because according to the advisor, things get boring rapidly in a perfect country. Unlike the original release, the challenges in Battles of Ardania require different strategies and more versatility; you can no longer recycle the same build order for each mission. I reverted to multiplayer strategies in the case of two particularly difficult missions: one required dwarf rushing an enclave of minotaurs, the other needed early group formation (you can research the ability to form parties of heroes, rather than let the individuals roam around).
Since our review of the game last year, 1C has made the map editor available for extended fun. While it's not entirely unique to this expansion, it is worthy of note. Level design is both simple and complex at the same time - it's easy to start, but very hard to balance things out (you should check our Level Design tips article if you need ideas for maps). The map editor lends itself to increasing replayability of Ardania's freshly-enhanced multiplayer options (including co-op and competitive play). Don't expect to jump into a multiplayer game whenever you want, though. It's unlikely any random players will be online, meaning you need friends with the game to get any multiplayer out of it. If you can muster a fellowship of kings to play with you, the competition is both humorous (following the game's sub-genre) and competitive: you'll be laughing with one another about the misfortune of your heroes - recently devoured by bears or zapped by lightning elementals - and then crying about the lack of any pathfinding whatsoever.
I get the feeling the expansions for Majesty 2 are being released too rapidly, and it seems like they should be compiled into more complete packages. The addictive nature of Majesty 2 is prevalent in each release, but my initial impressions remain unchanged: it's the same game, just a few new maps. You might as well make your own challenges with the map editor, if that's all you're after. Nothing justifies more than $10-$15 on this drop, but if you don't have the original, I completely recommend it.