Royal Envoy 2 Game Review

Rating: 4.5/5.0

Return to the island kingdom of Royal Envoy in the highly-anticipated sequel Royal Envoy 2! Take control of a backward province’s town planning activities, and transform it into a prosperous and crucial part of the kingdom. Build up houses, set up local industries and economies, and work your magic on the many towns and villages that dot the landscape in this time management strategy game.

The original Royal Envoy game caused a stir in early 2010, delivering an almost-perfect time management game of the village-building variety. With its fresh game mechanics and art, it improved on the genre pioneered by the Build-a-Lot series, and has since been followed by other similar games such as the Timebuilders series. Its sequel Royal Envoy 2 is finally here, and it doesn’t disappoint. The same great gameplay returns with nice tweaks and improvements, as well as a fun new story.

The game begins with the King (the same king from the first game, in his fabulous pink wig) listening to the governors of his many provinces reporting on how well their lands are doing. Every governor reports major improvements, except for the poor governor of Middleshire who can’t seem to get anything right. Exasperated, the King sends you to Middleshire as a replacement, with the task of getting the province up and running again. You are not alone in this task though; the King also sends along the trusty Cedric, your advisor from the previous game.

For such a small province, Middleshire has a lot of different zones in it, from lush farmland and dark swampland to snowy mountains and even an active volcano! In the course of the game, you will explore and attempt to develop all these areas. Each area also has a local chief who will help you by giving you an overview of the area’s problems, and by giving you plenty of advice (whether you like it or not). The interactions between these chiefs and Cedric can be quite funny and are definitely a highlight of the game.

Each area is split into a handful of “levels”, each of which has specific objectives you need to achieve. You usually start each level with a basecamp and the service of a limited number of workers. These workers are used to construct and upgrade houses and various other buildings. The houses form the backbone of your economy, producing rental income at regular intervals. In a break from the previous game, you don’t send tax collectors to collect the rent (workers are the only human resource now). Instead, the rent pops up next to the house, and you have to click on it to collect it. The same goes for the other resources you earn in the game (wood and food).

There are also plenty of other buildings that you can build in order to help you reach the level objectives. Each building will require varying amounts of the various resources. There are buildings that allow you to trade cash for wood or food, and those that generate these resources at a steady rate. There are also buildings that can boost the amount of resources you collect. If you find yourself short of workers, you can also hire more from the basecamp if you have enough cash and food.

What makes Royal Envoy 2 really shine is the addition of various fun and interesting tasks and events that you get to engage in every few levels. You will spend a level accumulating resources to build a grand snow fort, and then actually play a game of snowball-fighting against a visiting team of workers! Other minigames include navigating a dynamic maze and rescuing all your workers from it, all while trying to beat the clock.

As with the original Royal Envoy, this game is a very high quality game complemented with beautiful graphics and sound. The art is in the same vibrant and engaging style as the original, with slightly better animation. But what also makes this game great is its story and how you progress through it. As mentioned before, you will get to meet plenty of interesting characters and advisors as you go about your task of transforming Middleshire into a civilized utopia. You also get to take part in a variety of tasks (other than the basic building and upgrading, which can get a bit boring). All these factors combine to make it a really great game.

You will like Royal Envoy 2 if you like other village-building games such as the Build-a-Lot and Timebuilders series. You can get the basic version of the game, or you can get the Collector’s Edition which includes exclusive content such as bonus gameplay, an in-built guide as well as other media bonuses.

Check out the other games in this series!

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