Fun game that's worth the bargain price, though there is questionable design flaws inherent in it. Minor spoilers.
The game plays sort of like a standard RTS game: Set up your base, create your units, scout for the enemies and resources, build your base up and eventually kill the enemies. However, you don't control your heroes, rather guide them with the use of flags to attack, protect or keep away from things. Almost every mission is front-heavy, meaning that you will be attacked viciously from the outset. However, once you get past that and up to the second tier units, you've basically won, unless it's a timed mission and things keep spawning. That leads to the first major issue: The base you build, the heroes you focus on and the way you progress up the tech trees eerily feels the same mission after mission. Indeed, by the time you've wrapped up the original campaign you've basically got the next two expansions beat. Also, only in a few missions do hostile lairs or monster creators actually spawn, so once you have enough heroes to adequately defend your base the hard part of the mission is basically done, which leads to the basic progression being pissed off at getting swarmed, happy you're holding your own, boredom at wiping out the enemies. Even against the "bosses" your heroes are usually strong enough and have taken out enough hostile spawn points it's just a case of watching the warnings and health bars and healing/resurrecting those that need it.
Second major issue is the sheer stupidity of the AI. The number of times you'll see a priest walk right by a unit that desperately needs healing (or against undead, a nice holy bolt thrown into the fray), a warrior not helping the caravan that is dying to a damn rat as he is too focused on "going home", etc etc is absolutely frustrating. Enemies too will always attack in predictable fashion. Even in the more difficult missions merely knowing what will come from what direction will make things much easier. The designers have thrown in a "randomize" option to try to deal with that, but it will still be the same mobs, so even that makes the game easier. Your heroes will also prefer to buy potions over longer-lasting improvements, like better gear, so kinda makes the magic bazaar a bad thing to really improve (indeed, I only build the bazaar for money, and if needed, goblin poison antidote). Heroes will also inappropriately attack enemies far too powerful for them and then not run away, or will run like Forrest at mobs which they and the other heroes around them could easily take down. The second last mission of monster kingdom shows that weakness (indeed, it shows the weakness of the entire design) as near the halfway mark you will get swarmed by undead, and you really struggle to advance as your monsters just keep running, even though they could easily kill them. Oy.
Third major issue is the buildings. You are allowed only one marketplace, tower costs rise the more of them there are, and you can't destroy buildings. That's right, you built it you're stuck with it unless your enemies are feeling generous and destroy it for you. Temples also can only be built on holy ground, and as they tend to be far away from your town, your use of your best troops is curtailed, as they too love doing nothing as they are "going home". grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. The marketplace is also where they buy their health and mana potions from, and the second last mission of monster kingdom (hate that mission, it's the poster child of all the bad parts of the game) really shows the weakness of it, as your monsters will walk from one side of a map that is one long winding path with your base in the SW corner and your objective in the NE corner, wasting so much time in the process, which wouldn't matter except for the fact it's a timed mission. Oy.
Fourth issue is the party system. It sounds good in theory, bind your heroes into teams to make them stronger. However, selecting a team means your heroes have to congregate around the inn until you get the ones you want, so if one member you want is on the other side of the map and is slow, congrats, your heroes will spend an inane amount of time messing around near an inn rather than fighting off enemies. Clap clap to the designer on that one. Also, only the leader will then decide to respond to flags or not, so if you didn't put a unit like an elf or rogue as leader, good luck, usually those four heroes are just going to keep their asses in town. To cap it all off, only the leader gets the bounty from the flag, and the rest won't shop for new stuff. It simply is not worth bothering with unless the mission needs it. Oy.
Now that the negatives are covered, it is still a fun game. It looks nice, watching the heroes level is fun, and beating levels that were infuriating you is addictive. However, it really lacks replay value. There is only 2 missions in the single maps I haven't completed, and the rest are on farm status. There is no skirmish sort of options nor random maps, and the randomize feature doesn't have the impact on playing as the designers had hoped.
In short, this wouldn't be worth full price with the flaws detailed above, but as a bargain game, I strongly recommend it. I hope they look at the flaws outlined and make a Majesty 3 that will really shine.