A year after the hugely popular Reigns, the makers of the power simulator with Tinder mechanics are returning with a sequel. We now decide regarding the queen’s life and fate by moving future interlocutors left and right, and easy tasks have gained some depth owing to the addition of things. Her Majesty is a lot of fun.
Reigns is nothing more than a toy. Even though the entire game is based on shifting cards, we receive a well-told tale that connects the events from following cards. When a character appears on the screen, we must respond to his query or provide a solution to the problem, endure the repercussions of our decision, and move on to the next character. We move through dozens of interactions and situations, both serious and absolutely silly, dying, reborn, and encountering truly insane persons, just a handful of whom appear normal. It’s a game about maintaining equilibrium, which is crucial to life while also being almost impossible. When one of the four forces – the clergy, the army, the people, or the bankers – comes to despise her or obtains too much power, the Queen is threatened. Each of our choices affects the power of individual groups. However, because many events are not directly tied to the church or army, it is not always simple to predict whether a certain move would be commended or condemned by specific organizations.
Death, on the other hand, is not the end of the journey; each death entails a jump to the next incarnation and re-playing the social tightrope walker game. We never start from scratch since prior life’ actions put fresh cards into the game, and hence new experiences. Characters we’ve already met return with each approach, even if we elected to banish or behead them in a prior iteration. When we are carried away by the oddities and gags of the screenplay, Reigns is most amusing – abrupt, unexpected parallels to the current day plainly reveal that medieval realities are extremely conventional. In reaction to the employment of objects – a new gameplay element – at the incorrect time or on the wrong characters, large doses of meta-humor are provided. While the magical book grants you the capacity to communicate with animals and gain the favor of pagans, exposing it to a bishop might result in tragedy. But that is precisely the point of the game. Balancing love and hatred is only a tool on the path to discovering new situations, seeking for combinations of cards and objects that will provide us with a new piece of history, a new adventure. The myth of the All-Mother goddess, which involves the lives of successive monarchs, has its appeal, but it is also a pretext for testing more dumb responses, which occasionally lead us to the death. The authors were highly inventive in terms of how the queen may die, and finding all possible deaths is part of the adventure.
Reigns: Her Majesty keeps us entertained as we wonder, What will happen if we fulfill the request of the people in the snake masks? alternatively we’re attempting to outlast our monarch and maintain control.
This is a fantastic and intriguingly written puzzle in a visually appealing, straightforward context. Despite its significant resemblance to the original, the creators’ offbeat wit and clever ideas keep the production feeling new.