14 DAY TRIAL // Paradox Interactive, best known for its Europa Universalis series of games in which realism and historicity take center stage, has announced that it plans to launch a sequel to cult hit Majesty - The Fantasy Kingdom Sim, in early 2009. Development duties will be handled by 1C:Ino-Co.
The original game was published by MicroProse in 2000, being developed by Cyberlore Studios. It was unusual for the strategy titles of the period because of the way it approached heroes and quests. At its core, the game is an empire builder. It is set in a fantasy land troubled, as all fantasy lands are, by numerous evils, from giant rats and trolls to evil necromancers. The player is set as the power behind the throne and has to build up a successful kingdom, prosperous and safe. The main task is building cities and obtaining gold which can then be spent on defenses, upgrades and heroes.
The hero units were very varied, with classes going from paladin to cleric and rogue and with various racial backgrounds, from human to dwarf and elf. The main innovation of the game was the fact that heroes themselves were not under the direct control of the player. The player had the ability to recruit them and to set them various rewards, but other than that the characters behaved as they wished, based mainly on their class and racial background.
The sequel will be likely to take the best elements of the original game and adapt them to the needs of todays gamer. There will be more city building options, more hero types and more ways in which a particular hero can be influenced to take on a particular quest. Heroes will also be able to band together to form parties that can perform the hard quests in the game. It has also been hinted that the player will have special global magic powers at his disposal that can used to help the heroes on their quests.
The game is currently in development for PCs, although the developer has not ruled out a port to other platforms, and more details are bound top show up before the game is ready for release.