Ok I've played over half the game now so will show my findings:
Pros:
The humour is good and made me chuckle a couple of times during the advisors mission briefings. Some of the monster descriptions when you hover over them are great too.
The voices are good for the heroes, many exactly the same as the original which is great.
The new flags are very good. It's a great idea to be able to tell your heroes not to go near something or to be able to get them to defend.
Some new options of upgrading buildings to be able to buy heroes new abilities is a nice addition.
Cons:
Heroes aren't as vulnerable at first like in Majesty 1 so to make up for it they seem to pump a constant supply of monsters at the City. This has huge negative effects to the gameplay though. For one thing your heroes are constantly defending and rarely ever explore. It can be stupidly frustrating to build in certain locations because there are sewers spewing out ratmen and rats constantly.
Heroes don't feel like they are simulated adventurers like in the original, they feel super dumb and basic. You have to set flags even to get them to explore. If you set an attack flag somewhere heroes will go in to a mode of "Attacking target" and run to the target, but this is so stupid because if any monsters hit them on their way they ignore them and carry on running.
Another wierd thing about the hero AI is they will never interact with a monster den/dungeon unless you put an attack flag on it. Rogues don't ever loot dungeons and it's very rare for heroes to bother looking for treasure around the lands unless they happen to be there because of an attack flag. Related to this If I put 100g on an attack flag it will only be rogues and elves that respond, with no variation, as I up the value more class types respond, there's no feeling of individual heroes, just a blanket personality based on hard rules.
Getting a statue is necessary to get the heroes to defend buildings. In Majesty 1 you could make guilds be the outer most buildings and heroes would come out when attacked, in this game they just stay in doors...
Levels typically are exactly the same every time. Start with Marketplace and at least a couple of guilds, research health pots etc etc. The only thing I vary is if I get clerics first when undead are attacking or another guild instead. Basically you end up being tight on money for most of the game until you have most things out and then all of a sudden you have way more money than you ever need. By the time you are established enough to be able to defend Trade Posts you don't need the extra money anyway.
They really needed more time refining this game. Looking at what made Majesty 1 so great and making sure they didn't lose that. The dumbed down hero AI and the fact that they don't really do anything other than defend the city unless you tell them to has really spoiled the experience so far for me. I'll probably finish the game eventually but I'm really hoping for a patch or mod that changes the balance of the game to feel more like the superior prequel. I'm yet to try the multiplayer.