Majesty 2: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim has finally been announced. There’s a new developer at the helm and a new Q&A with Gamespot is giving me and the many other fans of this cult classic hope that the sequel could be the updated re-invention of the first game we’ve all been hoping for.

What was so great about the now-ancient PC game Majesty, Majesty: The Northern Expansion, and its bundle pack Majesty Gold? It took a hands-off, hero-centric, humorous approach to the fantasy real-time strategy game. In an almost Sim City style of play you would drop building foundations down that would be built by peasants and then recruit heroes to fill them. The heroes would then fight creatures and threats to your kingdom on their own, leveling up and earning coin, or because of an incentive. You could place an exploration bounty anywhere on the map to encourage heroes to wander in that direction and reveal what was there, and you could place combat bounties to encourage heroes to attack incoming threats or monster lairs you find. The larger the bounty, the more heroes would take notice to seek it out. They would then return to your village, spend their money on armor and weapon upgrades or at the gambling hall, and a short trip via tax collector would bring some of that money back to your treasury.

The sense of humor in the game was excellent, with funny voices and one-liners being said by the heroes as they made decisions in the field. Hearing the little heroes give their typical class’s one-liner when running from a scary monster or turning to face it bravely was almost as much fun as the battle itself.

All of this from a game that rolled onto store shelves all the way back in 2000, and surprisingly my retail copy of Majesty Gold still runs, even on Windows Vista. That’ll put Majesty 2 a whole nine years after its predecessor, but if they can nail the same formula of funny, hands-off, yet engaging kingdom management it’ll finally have been worth its wait. If you’ve got an older computer, or even a newer one, you might have a bit of culture shock getting over the dated graphics but if you get the chance to play Majesty before its sequel arrives you’ll be in for a clever and fun treat.

Oh and that delicious-looking reward subtitle is straight out of the mouth of a thief when it notices a bounty you’ve just slapped down on the map.

From Gamespot. Logo from GamingShotgun.