Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim

Game Review: Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim

Majesty was developed by Cyberlore Studios and published for Windows by MicroProse in 2000. An expansion pack was released later on as well, but this review will not take into account the additions made by the expansion pack.

The basic gameplay is that of a real time strategy game except that it revolves around the fact that the player has no direct control over their "Heroes". These heroes can be hired by guilds that you build and are autonomous. The biggest way you can influence them is by placing flags on specific things you want them to go to, and tie a reward to it. This lack of control over what your heroes do might seem odd at first, but it works really well and adds to the charm of the game. Also, resource management is not present in the game, the only resource you have is gold which is collected by the tax collector from your buildings.

In every level of the game you have some task such as "Destroy the Evil Castle" or "Defend against the hordes of evil". The things you have to do are quite interesting for the most part, although some of them are a bit dull such as "Build a Fairground" which involves just getting your palace up to level 3 and building it, not much action involved. But for the most part, the game offers interesting objectives.

But we have yet to discuss the Hero AI, which is very important in this game. Basically, depending on the class of hero its behavior will change. The Rogue is more likely to go after bounties then a paladin. A paladin is more likely to fight an approaching monster than a gnome. A warrior of discord is more likely to do something stupid like fight a horde of monsters himself than......anyone else. You get the point.

To complement the charm of the game is the voice acting, which is great. The game is narrated by...a Sean Connery impersonator? And all the hero voices sound great too. But more so than the voice acting itself, is the lines they say. There are lines in this game which I will never forget for the rest of my life. For instance, when a gnome finds an item it says "I've always wanted one of theeeeeeeeese!" but the gnome sort of sings it. I don't think I will ever forget that one.

The entire game has this sort of.........amazing charm. It is a mixture of the gameplay, the voice acting, the music and everything else that makes this game so classic for me.

Also, like in Dungeon Keeper there is one building that, when destroyed, makes you lose the game. That building is the palace ( Dungeon Heart in Dungeon Keeper ) and its level also determines what buildings you can construct. For instance the temples in the game can be made when you upgrade your palace to level 2. There are also the non-human races that will only be made available once your settlement fulfills some requirements.

The difficulty is actually quite hard, but only once you get into the later levels. And the "Master" levels are really quite difficult.

If you manage to beat all the levels, you can derive even more joy out of the game via the Freestyle Game option. Using this you can make a random map and play it, which is a very nice addition that is surprisingly absent from a lot of games ( Black and White 1 and 2 come to mind ).

The graphics are...well...old. That is to be expected from a game that is indeed old. But if you are the kind of person who can pick up an old game, then you won't mind the graphics ( Which although weak does have its own charm, especially the character portraits ).

The music is good, although I have to say that the game could have had a few more songs. Other than that, it is pretty good overall.

So there you have it, I love this game. Although perhaps not as good as Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons / Ages it is still a great experience. I urge anyone who likes strategy games to play this.

Overall Rating: 5/5