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
