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Amazon.com Review
Both the fantasy and the real-time strategy genres are so worn out that it is nearly impossible to think of a way to freshen things up, but that's exactly what developer Cyberlore Studios did with Majesty. More of a simulation game than anything else, Majesty lets you tinker with your own kingdom. Its main elements are in building a city and populating it with heroes recruited to expand and protect your kingdom's borders.
You don't control characters and events in Majesty so much as you influence them. Players used to more conventional strategy games like Starcraft will be a little perplexed when they click on a hero, order him to move somewhere, and watch as their commands are ignored. Characters in Majesty have unique agendas and personalities and operate on their own in accordance with those characteristics. If you want the avaricious Greedheart Thistlebottom to slay that large green beast that's approaching the village, you'll have to put a price on the monster's head. When the job is finished you can watch the hero squander his reward on warm beer, cheap women, and newer weapons. The entire game plays out like a fantasy soap opera, with you as the director and your minions as the actors (with a lot of room for improvisation).
The game's graphics and sound effects aren't too spectacular, but frankly they don't need to be. Majesty's unique and addictive gameplay overcomes any multimedia gripes we can level at it. Our bet is that fans of games like SimCity--as well as open-minded strategy aficionados--will agree. --T. Byrl Baker
Pros:
- Unique gameplay style
- Watching recruits become heroes and cowards is a treat
- Many missions and scenarios for hours of play
- Lack of direct control may not appeal to everyone
Amazon.com Product Description
Majesty is a unique sim, putting you in the crushed velvet hot seat of your own kingdom. With an epic quest before you, you make the decisions of where to build your settlement's guilds and temples. From these decisions, you recruit a varied cast of larger-than-life heroes. Each one has a mind of his own and must be enticed to meet your goals, via rewards you offer and spells you cast. Meanwhile, you must make sure that your treasury stays flush with cash to support these and other outlays necessary to maintain a thriving medieval town. The fact that you are being barraged by attacks from mythical beasts and fantastic creatures doesn't make your job any easier.
Poor choices will leave your kingdom in ruin, but a wise ruler will complete his quests, fill his coffers, and create a kingdom that will be remembered in song and story.
Majesty (Mac) Reviews
Majesty (Mac) Reviews
| 17 of 17 people found the following review helpful  How to Relax During the Lunch Hour, By A Customer This review is from: Majesty (Mac) (CD-ROM) Majesty for the Mac (and also for the PC) is a major league addictive recreation and time sink in our household (and both my wife and I are old enough to know better). Consequently, we've had to limit our playing to lunchtime, evenings, and/or weekends, or we won't get anything done.This strategy game combines some of the more enjoyable aspects of Sim City and various fantasy role-playing games. You are the monarch of a small kingdom, facing a variety of challenges from the simple to extremely difficult (depending upon scenario). Your job is to survive and win; the catch is that not all of your subjects understand the task at hand (nor are they always up for the challenge); and the various monsters and "creatures of the night" are doing their best to destroy both your kingdom and you. (It can be very disheartening to watch your castle being destroyed by a wave of fire-breathing dragons - found in one of the more challenging scenarios - while your various heroes, who are... Read more 24 of 26 people found the following review helpful  A fun fantasy game, This review is from: Majesty (Mac) (CD-ROM) (NOTE: this review is based on the demo. I have liked the demo enough to buy the full version.)While any fantasy kingdom-building game will be compared to Warcraft, this game is not just another WC clone. The developer bills it as a "fantasy kingdom sim" instead of an RTS game. The biggest change is that you never give orders to individual units. This is very nice if you don't like the mad click-fest that Warcraft can become when you're trying to order around large numbers of units. Instead, you recruit heroes from the guilds, then manipulate their attacks through placing bounties. Heroes can gain experience levels as they hunt monsters, and spend the gold they earn on better equipment (such as better weapons, magic rings, potions, etc.) The levels have a set quest for you to accomplish before you move to the next level. If there's anything keeping this review from 5 stars, it's that you almost don't do enough... once all your buildings are set up, you can sit back... Read more 12 of 12 people found the following review helpful A uniquely addictive game, By This review is from: Majesty (Mac) (CD-ROM) While Majesty looks like a fairly standard real-time empire building and goal-oriented scenario game, its unique interface is what keeps you playing. Rather than directly controlling your "game pieces," i.e., the various fantasy heroes you enlist to help build your kingdom, you can only place rewards for certain activities. Need to find something in this scenario? Then an exploration reward will send heroes off to push back the fog of unexplored terrain. Dragon attacking your castle? A price on its head brings the heroes running.The mix of scenarios is good, providing a good path to learning how the kingdom works while being a challenge to complete. The ability to create freestyle quests and also to download quests adds to the game's variety. My only quibbles are that the scenarios don't tie together into a good plotline. While you cannot attempt some until completing others, there is no "story" behind the greater task of completing all of them. It would also be... Read more |
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