It is back and, while not perfect, Majesty accomplishes a few things
Like many other I played the original Majesty and had lots of fun with it. The idea pretty much stays the same. As a ruler of the kingdom you don't control any of the heroes. They roam the land as they please and you provide them with armories, supplies and task to perform for a price. If they decide it is too much for them, they will go home and do something else. Majesty 2 does it the same way, actually being very true to the original. Disappointingly there is little more than there was 9 years ago.
STORY
To my surprise there is a story and it ties even better to what you are doing on screen. The Kingdom is ruled by a Daemon and as a last heir to the throne you must prove yourself and eventually slay the beast. On your way your are given various tasks which are more serious later on but at first your have to deal with rat infestations and improving net worth on your advisors domain. The mission briefings are quite humorous. I really have no complains, It is amazing as usually missions in such games are completely mindless.
In addition in certain mission your heroes recover relics. These can later be used in mission and give you gold and other bonuses.
GAME-PLAY
As I already stated the game-play is pretty much the same as in the original. You can build guilds for warriors, rogues, archers, clerics and mages. Later there are some specific races (elves and dwarfs) and finally after building some special temples there are priestesses, leeches, paladins and barbarians. The last tier characters can be made by upgrading basic character - warriors can be paladins or barbarians and clerics transform into priestesses of either Krypta or Agrela. This can give you a high level high tier character very quickly. Now, every guild has 3 spots for heroes, which doesn't make much sense since warrior at low level would be more effective in pack.
Your characters can buy one of three weapons and three armors, which is standard but in Majesty 2 it is crucial that they will do that because weapons are much more powerful. In Majesty, there where +1, +2 and +3 weapons, in Majesty 2 weapons give bonus to total damage. This means that and elf can be a regular fighter with 60 attack but after buying a +60 weapon his attack doubles. It is a bit unfair and I once watched my 15 level heroes being slaughter because my economy didn't allow me to build a higher level blacksmith.
That brings me to the next point - economy. They changed it as well and not unfortunately everything cost a lot but the buildings still have their low costs. That means that you can build a cheap warriors guild then put a couple of thousand gold in it and lose it unexpectedly. Also your heroes doesn't count that much, rather the economy is a main focus and as long as the money flow you really don't have to focus on your mission objectives. Some buildings tend to waste your time and money - an Inn has to be upgraded for 300 to be able to research parties of heroes. So the first upgrade of the inn does nothing and the second is a research of heroes coming to drink? I see little sense in that.
The new economy also leads to frustration of new players. The mission with dragons and elementals at the start can be tough if you haven't got you kingdom up and running by the time the first dragon showed. This and some other missions require you to replay the mission so you know how to defend. The demo mission (which is one of the single missions) can, for me, only be beaten if you know exactly where to place a couple of guard towers, which will also protect the caravan. This makes some mission seem unbeatable at first only to find the quite easy later.
The constant flow of money gives way to a new feature, which is the graveyard. Unlike first game it is not a novelty thing. You can at any time bring back any hero to life.
REPLAY-ABILITY
Well there are 16 missions and a o couple of single missions. I haven't played the multi player yet. The campaign has a new element - Lord. Though you can't play a level indefinitely, you can take a character with high level to one of the next missions. He remains in a pool of up to 16 (on from each level) heroes that can be recruited in a Hall of Lord. That means you can actually have heroes that play all the levels with you. It is fun and you can have some very high level heroes later on. The downside is that they can't get any new abilities from certain mission. Actually all the heroes follow a certain upgrade path that has no options. The other thing is that Lords are expensive to hire and you will not get them until later in a level when your own heroes are high level enough.
EDIT: I have some more thoughts after completing 15 out of 16 mission.
The level design is mostly great in the way that the levels are cramped but still you need to explore and there are some side mission to accomplish. Whats bad is that the enemies in some missions spawn so often your heroes have no time to buy supplies. In mission 15 my paladins had enough money to buy best weapons but they were fighting non stop and couldn't. I could have destroyed the lairs but then my heroes would not level up quick enough. Another thing is that side quests are useless and really doesn't help you with the level. As for heroes AI it is bad - they will often go by 3 coffers of gold and do nothing even though they didn't have any urgent task. As mentioned, they do not stop fighting to resupply which would be reasonable. This makes boss fight especially difficult
GRAPHICS AND SOUND
Graphics look a bit dated but at the same time they are pretty and have a fantasy like feel to them. Each hero has a character screen with a picture which changes when he changes gear. It is a bit stupid because I would rather have a big character model to see there (in game you can't zoom very close). Never mind that and most of the in-game artwork is pretty great.
The sounds are mostly brought back from the original, which is both humorous and satisfies the fans. Not to mention that original voices were quite good. The mission briefings are handled by an old mage who is great to listen.
CONCLUSION
Majesty 2 managed to bring back the original game with quite a flare and it has to be admired. It feels unlike RTS games and also it is quite in character for a fantasy kingdom. There are problems though and it can only be enjoyable for those who can stand through high difficulty and bizarre economic system that makes your heroes useless without extensive building portfolio. Much of the work was put in the re-imagining the original and little was improved to prevent repetition. As a fan I love it but I fear it will go unnoticed and unappreciated. It would be a shame because it is a base for a much better game if they continue to improve it.