Customer Reviews

Majesty Gold

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

My husband gave me the original "Majesty" years ago, I bought the Gold Edition when it came out. I love this game, but, unfortunately, it freezes a lot on my XP PC.

This is why this game is perfect for me: It is a strategy game but divided up into discrete packages. Each quest is separate and you are measured not just in whether or not you can accomplish the quest, but in beating your prior time, as well as anyone else playing the game (it saves for multiple names/questors). Each quest is different and needs a totally different game plan to win. Plus, in each quest, there is always some luck involved, too, and things you have no control over. Unlike a big war sims game, Majesty is a very fine combination of puzzle and war. For example, your quest can be to find and rescue slaves held in three slave pits. The luck is that you have no idea just where in the Majesty world to look first, and the locations change every time you play. The strategy comes in because there are many types of heros to recruit, there are many types of incentives to use, there are many types of enemies you'll face, and finding the right combination of heros for the enemies who show up is important. (And for me, sometimes takes many many tries!) You have limited gold, so should you build an armorer first, and to what level should you take the armorer? Or should you build marketplaces or fairgrounds or a library or add to the castle or guardposts or magician towers. What skill set will help you most? Berserkers, magic, stalwartness, sneakiness, thievery, healing powers, ability to raise the dead, high defense, low morals, poison, etc etc. It is an absolutley wonderful game for a middleaged woman without the reflexes for straight shoot-em-ups but a love of figuring out what's the best strategy.

I eagerly await Magesty II, coming out next month. I hope they kept the best about the original, because it's a fantastic game for what I would call the thinking and older gamer. It is, for example, a game where I can still beat my 15 year old.

Majesty is a real-time strategy game set in a medieval fantasy world with you as King or Queen. Your goal is to establish your kingdom and try to expand it. Majesty's interface is easy to understand. You click on a building, character, or item to get information about it and act upon it. Acting upon a building means repairing and upgrading it. In several cases, such as with a guardhouse, marketplace, or blacksmith's shop, you conduct research into areas specific to that building, such as weapon and armor level upgrades for the blacksmith and additional types of goods for the marketplace.

There are 18 scenarios included in the game. Four of them are secret and require you to complete one or more of the other 14 before you can start them. The others are independent, and there's no cohesive story or campaign linking them together. Some of the scenarios are designed for beginners as a means of introducing the various elements of the game system, while some are rated as advanced, and a few are designed for expert players.

This game has great replay value, and even after all these years since I purchased this game, I find myself installing it back onto my computer and doing it all over again. It gives you a sense of power, as to what and where you are gonna build and whether or not you will attack the neighboring kingdom.

I'm not surprised I haven't heard of this game earlier, and with that, I feel like I've been stolen of a gaming experience late to admire. But better late than never, right? Majesty is a one of a kind type of game, most likely, the ONLY type of game in its kind as I've read it to be a genre-creating game as I've yet to see a game come close to the kind of sophistication and charm this game offers. This game plays alot like a casual gamer's type of mode; there's nothing extreme to it here as most RTS's/typical strategy games would demand. In fact, there's not a whole lot of resource managing or unit micromanagement at all! You don't even touch a single unit yet the game functions exactly as it should feel! AMAZING! I must admit, the interface felt a little odd, not to mention the player's detachment from unit control was something a little surreal but once I got into the groove of the game's mechanics-- it's simply outstanding. A real addictive experience worth every minute of your time!

It's hard to place a comparison to what this game is like. It plays like an RTS yet functions like a simulation (such as SimCity or The Sims) yet it plays like a puzzle game as it demands a degree of attention that keeps your interests motivated and your mind geared to what you should be doing to protect your kingdom. The game is so remarkably streamlined, almost too simple that I can yet still believe this game can actually be played as many times as it could and yet never feels dull! Given a few moments away from the game and moments later I'm drawn back in because of this game's quirky, whimsical, however aspiring charm.

I only wish more games were created under the scope of this kind of gameplay because it really has something for everyone when it's not demanding to do something extreme, serious or hardcore like with so many other games out there. While a few hodgepodge titles outside of Majesty exist to kick back, relax and take a moment with one's own devices-- Majesty is a game exactly for that principle and should be an addition to anyone's "Leave me alone I'm gaming because I want to get away from people" type of way.

There is one drawback to this game however and that's without cause, and it's graphics. The game is severely outdated but the gameplay remains as its strongest suit-- as mentioned at first I was taken aback by this game and the graphics at first did little to interest me but once I got past that, I found some love in its outdated look and embraced the game completely. Which got me to thinking, as treating this as a casual game; do you play Tetris for its graphics? Or Bejeweled? The same kind of mentality fits into Majesty but even more so as the game's graphics suit the title comfortably. However, seeing current generation graphics of this game would be a nice gesture. I'm aware of Majesty's sequel, Majesty 2, but I've heard and read reports of the game's failing aspiration to be as successful as its predecessor (solely because Cyberlore had nothing to do with Majesty 2 at all except by association of its prececessor as it sold its rights to Paradox...) which leaves me at a bit of a loss as I was hoping to get into Majesty 2 if I liked Majesty-prior at all... and now here I am obsessing over the game's fundamentally obtruse gaming mechanics! I can only imagine what a more sophisticated, graphically detailed, SUCCESSFUL reemergence of this title would be like... as they say, third time's a charm so IF we see a Majesty 3? I'd like to see it done right. In the mean time, Majesty on its own stands as a game that, while probably remaining underrated and overlooked entirely, will be a diamond in the rough for most people who have yet to discover this game.

And for the price tag you'll find this at nowadays? It's literally a steal... do yourself a favor, don't think, act, and check this game out. It is hands down AWESOME.

Majesty is the greatest game of all-time. With a sequel Majesty 2 just released (not nearly as good as the original as the programming company of the original Majesty, Cyberlore, sold the rights to Paradox), still a decent attempt, I am sure there will be much interest in this game.

This game has so much replayability it is remarkable. I have played Majesty almost everyday for the past 9 years. Each scenario has a different playfield each game and with the different types of guilds and temples you can build, you can control how you win each game. You can decide to do a strong economy and use Elves, or go with a strong defense and use Dwarves, both of which require you to do build-trees a little differently in the game. If you want Dwarves, you must upgrade your castle to level 2 (which requires 4 heroes and 2850 gold if you have a blacksmith) and your blacksmith to level 4. If you want Elves you must upgrade your castle to level 2 and build an inn.

The game keeps track of how many days it takes you to beat each scenario and that is a goal you can try to best each time you play.

There are 3 main factions in the game also:

You can go with a 'light' side...Temple of Agrela (healers) and Temple of Dauros (monks), which allow you to recruit Paladins within your warrior guilds.

You can choose the 'dark' side...Temple of Kryta (priestess that spawn skeleton helpers) and Temple to Fervus (cultist charms wild beasts, bears, rats, hawks, werebeasts, etc... as helpers) that allow you to recruit Warriors of Discord within your warrior guilds.

Choosing either of the above also allow you to build either a Temple to Lunord (speed) or Temple to Helia (sun/fire) once your Castle is upgraded to Level 3.

Or you can forgo all of these and simply choose to build Temple of Krolm which allows you to recruit brute force Barbarians.

It is fun to try each scenario with all of the above options and see which is the best way to win. Each scenario has different creatures and with each hero class having weaknesses and strengths, different factions will win certain scenarios easier than others. But it is fun to try to win with the weaker factions to see if you can do it.

I cannot recommend this game enough. I would not still be playing to this day if it were not the best game ever.

I love this game and have played the first one since it originally came out. It is a great real time strategy game where you don't have to micromanage everything, plus you have the unique challenge of not being able to command your heroes, but to reward them to get them to do what you want. As they buff up, they tend to be a lot more bold. The heroes act differently every time. They may stay and fight a tough opponent, sometimes they run at smaller ones. I like the unpredictability. The maps are random so that also adds to the re-playability.

The only down part is that since I upgraded to Windows 7 I haven't been able to get it to run, even in compatibility mode!! I am very sad. I love playing this game on international flights to pass the time. I hope someone figures out a way to get it to run on Windows 7.

The game is a straightforward example of the genre, but well executed with a simple, intuative interface. It's highly playable and has enough possible strategies in each scenario to keep it fresh. The "Northern Wastelands" expansion (included with this) doesn't add much; the new buildings are somewhat pointless and some of the new scenarios are irritatingly & pointlessly hard. But still a classic and worth getting.

I really liked this game in the past and used to run it on windows 2000. I was excited to see that it was available for windows XP. I tried to load my old game from the windows 2000 version on my brand new computer. The game would load and then it would close out without even getting to the main menu. I purchased the new windows XP game version thinking that the updated windows XP version would work but got the same result on two different computers and two different discs. I really do love the game that is why I purchased it again. But spending only $[...] on the game it would cost more to send it back so I guess I will just eat the $[...] bucks and never be able to play the game again.

Just a bit of advice, if you have windows XP on your PC you are running the risk of it not working on your system. Good luck.

this would be a lot more fun without the constant freezing. Running win 7. I am lucky to get 15 minutes out of it before it craps out on me. Avoid

This game takes everything good about Civilization and Packages it with everything good about a Fantasy RPG!

I've played this game for hundreds of hours and the heros you 'control' have so much personality and randomness and depth that you almost never get tired. This must be what God Jesus felt like during the middle-ages.

I find myself returning to Majesty after the New Civ (which sucks) and the new SC (which is just okay) have faded. Majesty is THAT replayable.

This was the first PC game I ever bought. I was very, very pleasantly surprised from the first time I played it several years ago until today. I still play it somewhat regularly. While the graphics cannot compare with today's 3D wow stuff, it suffices. But it's the gameplay that remains fresh and addictive. You are the king and you have to build your kingdom up from meager beginnings, recruit heroes to defend your kingdom from various monsters, and solve quests. The original twist the game has is that you cannot control your heroes directly. You place "flags" around the map to get Rangers to explore, Paladins to fight monsters, and so on. Your heroes may decide against fighting and run away or they may decide to stay in town and sit in an Elven lounge drinking and gambling. There's always an element of surprise possible. There's also a sense of humor built into the game; for example, when the Wizards are bored (you have to keep your heroes busy or they get cranky and bored), they wander about the kingdom muttering, "Now where did I put that spell book." Not as funny as Robin Williams but you'll probably chuckle from time to time. The quests are varied, challenging and always fun. You can also play random games, so replayability is high. Hard to believe I'm still playing it after 10 years. If I had a complaint, it's that the game has three levels of difficulty for the random games, ranging from pretty easy to challenging to impossible. I have never, ever won an expert level random game, not in 10 years. Then again, I really am still playing it after so long and there aren't many games I can say that about. The "Northern Expansion" sequel is also well worth buying (the "Gold" package probably includes both the original and the expansion pack). I recommend this one as highly and happily as can be.

Other games I enjoy are the city building games, Zeus and Posidon.

Note: I'm not particularly good at computer games, yet I still enjoy this one. For what it's worth.