Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim

MacPlay has done the Mac Gaming Community a great service by bringing Majesty over from the PC side for us all to enjoy. They brought a game full of great graphics, wonderful gameplay and a Sean Connery-style voiceover that completes the audio-visual component. The gameplay is fantastic, especially over the Network. The detailed interactions between characters and rulers are truly enjoyable, and the complexity that exists in Ardania is fantastic. It provides hours upon hours of fun, so go out and enjoy. And I'll see you on GameRanger, I'll be the guy with the Temples to Fervus and Wizards running willy-nilly all over the place.

I played through the game in a single weekend, not because it was short, but because it was so much fun I didn't want to stop. Majesty is definitely a break from the same old same old that we often get on the Mac and it makes for a great diversion. If you enjoy strategy games at all, Majesty is a winner.

Though I must say that not every person out there will like it, as some might find it too repetitive for their tastes, or perhaps have an unnatural hatred for mediocre graphics in a game, this is still a must for any god-sim and RTS fan out there. Way to go Cyberlore Studios, may you revel in fame and fortune for a while and live on to hopefully produce a Majesty 2.

Majesty is one of the rare games that you won't want to stop playing until you find out what happens next. Your heroes can die quickly, but you'll find yourself cheering for some of them and delightedly watching them grow into increasingly powerful characters. There's frequently so much going on in Majesty that it's too hard to keep track of everything, and the action happens so quickly that you'll hardly have any time to watch the enjoyable graphics and animations. While some elements of the game's interface are a bit clumsy, Majesty is truly excellent overall because of its simple but immensely effective system for getting your heroes to do their jobs. Majesty is original, fun, and challenging, and it's a winning combination of real-time strategy and role-playing elements.

В Cyberlore велосипед никто не изобретал и даже не пытался, там просто сгребли в одну кучу все удачные жанровые находки последних лет. В этом-то, собственно, и заключается гениальная изюминка этой Игры. Как следствие, «Наш выбор». Желающие поспорить — пишите. А у меня электричка уходит.

Magic can play as large of a role in the game as the player feels comfortable with. While I personally favor good old-fashioned sinew and bone hacking and slashing with my heroes, with a working mage tower or temple, realm-wide spells can be cast. The power and complexity of the spell is dictated by the upgrade level of the mage guild or temple, and if the creature is in range of your spells. Spells are cast with a cost in money, not mana. Rarely will you find a kingdom with enough resources to research both powerful spells and have a formidable fighting force.

Een uiterst diepgaande game met een typische fantasy sfeer. Majesty zal meer aanspreken bij Sim-liefhebbers dan echt hardcore RTS gamers, maar toch moet gezegd worden dat dit een fris en origineel spel is.

Bref, pour en terminer, on peut dire de Majesty qu’il est un jeu complet, aux multiples facettes, très riche car très dense en unités, bâtiments et autres… De plus la technique, sans être miraculeuse, est tout de même très bonne, vraiment soignée et le moteur de la simulation semble très performant. Majesty plaira aussi bien aux pros de la stratégie qu’aux nouveaux venus.

Majesty earns 4 GiN Gems for its treasure trove, with one Gem off for reliance exclusively on smaller maps and slowdowns late in the game. But this is one of the most advanced RTS games we have ever seen, and the intensive AI comes with some tradeoffs. Still, any RTS fan will find themselves quickly hooked on this new way to play war games, where the player is both powerful and powerless at the same time.

Majesty er et rigtig godt spil: Fængslende, underholdende og med et stort identifikationselement - men det kunne have væet endnu bedre, hvis Cyberlore for alvor havde indset dets potentiale.

Normalerweise ist bei Echtzeitstrategiespielen die Vorgehensweise klar: Kasernen errichten, Einheiten ausbilden, Ressourcen abbauen, Feind ausknocken. Doch was passiert, wenn ein Titel auf all diese lieb gewonnenen Rituale verzichtet? Majesty tut genau das - mit Überraschendem Erfolg. In Majesty haben Sie eigentlich nur zwei Aktionsmöglichkeiten: Häuser bauen und Geld eintreiben. Alle anderen aus vergleichbaren Echtzeit-Titeln bekannten Optionen (Einheiten anwählen, Formationen erstellen, Angriffe durchführen) fallen weg. Von Ihrem Palast aus lassen Sie Schmieden, Kasernen, Zauberergilden und Wachttürme errichten.

Wanneer je Majesty meer beschouwt als een simulatie dan een echt strategiespel, kan je er nog best plezier aan beleven, maar al jullie machtsgeile strategen zullen je gading elders moeten vinden.

Eines gleich vorweg: Wenn Sie nichts gern dem Zufall überlassen, sondern am liebsten jede Einheit pixelgenau postieren, werden Sie an Majesty keine Freude haben. Die indirekte Steuerung (Helden bewegen sich automatisch) ist nicht jedermanns Sache. Mir hat Majesty dennoch viel Spaß gemacht: Der Mix aus Häuschen bauen, Helden anheuern und Zaubersprüche erforschen fesselte mich länger vor den Bildschirm, als ich etwartet hatte. Das liegt nicht zuletzt an dem "Eine Karte löse ich noch"-Syndrom. Leider hat man viel zu schnell alle Levels geschafft, und im freien Spiel wird Majesty bald langweilig. Bis dahin habe ich mich gut unterhalten; Microprose sollte möglichst schnell über eine erheblich umfangreichere Missions-CD nachdenken.

Majesty has certainly brought some new notions to the genre. Still, a hybrid like this, with inadequately combined conceptually different elements, is not too playable on its own. The ideas introduced here will hopefully be used in some future, more mature projects.

Majesty is the paragon of innovation. Cyberlore promised a cool game that had roleplaying, RTS and Sim aspects, and they delivered. We enjoyed the casual romp through the campaign, unlocking the "secret" missions and had a bit of fun in the random campaigns. However, after a while, the AI drawbacks really got to us and we found ourselves because it was losing us games. This is where Master of Magic was good - it didn't let the AI run things, but gave it to you. Sure it was longer, and less realistic, but also less frustrating. But is it THAT bad? No, no more than bots that rail you from across the map in Quake the moment you come out from behind a wall, or Goliaths in StarCraft that almost trip over each other. Frustrating, but not game-killing. Majesty is a game that's designed (or destined to be played) with casual play in mind. It's a new experience and ranges from easy to challenging, slowly training the player up in skill.

All in all Majesty is a fun, lite strategy game. Yes, the gameplay is subtle and has some depth, but after the basics you can just play around with different strategies with the varying quests. The quests, thankfully, are varied in what you have to do, which is probably what makes you wish there were more quests, or just plain more campaigns. Majesty is in the same vein as Dungeon Keeper, so if you enjoy this sim/strategy type of gaming, I suggest Majesty will please you. For those who prefer more traditional based RTS games, Majesty may only frustrate you with it’s seemingly lack of direct control (or, hopefully, it will open doors in your mind to new venues of gaming).

Die Idee, die eigenen Truppen mittels Belohnungen an Ihre Ziele zu locken, ist wirklich gelungen. Schade nur, dass Helden und Monster scheinbar unter Altersschwäche leiden, denn besonders fix bewegt sich in Ihrem Königreich niemand. Leider wurde auch das Rollenspiel-Element verschenkt, denn Ihre Charactere geben viel zu schnell den Löffel ab und können nicht große Kampferfahrungen sammeln. Dazu kommen Schwächen im Missions-Design, denn die Aufträge und Karten gleichen sich wie ein Ork dem anderen und motivieren langfristig nicht. Dennoch macht Majesty in den ersten Stunden jede Menge Spaß und hebt sich insgesamt doch positiv vom sonst üblichen Strategie-Einheitsbrei ab. Das originelle und ausbaufähige Konzept schreit geradezu nach einem Nachfolger - der dann allerdings etwas besser durchdacht sein müsste.

Majesty was fairly disappointing, in that it had a great idea, but just didn’t follow through. With a generous dollop of bug-fixing, and some general gameplay improvements, this could have been a sleeper hit in the RTS world. Instead, it will probably be relegated to the bargain bin sooner than expected. I sincerely hope to see a patch, expansion, or sequel out that fixes a lot of the problems with this game -- and the sooner, the better.

Majesty stands out primarily for the unique perspective of being a ruler, and not a micromanager. For this reason Majesty stands out against other real time strategies. Further to its credit, it is a very "complete" game, i.e. there is a wide range of gameplay options for both single player and multiplayer gaming that are both varied and flexible. So why does Majesty not rate higher? Ratings are somewhat deceptive... and for some people this game will definitely rank number one. For me, however, Majesty delivers one unique idea amidst a sea of been-there, done-that presentation.

Wer das Spiel damals geliebt, aber zwischendurch seine ollen Spiele entsorgt hat oder die letzten acht Jahre im Koma lag und von aktuellen Spielen überfordert ist, der kann sich 'Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim' ja für knapp 10 Euro noch einmal besorgen. Alle anderen sollten vielleicht den Kauf einer CD der gleichnamigen Metal-Band in Betracht ziehen – da kracht es wenigstens ordentlich.