Majesty

by MicroProse

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00004C8SI
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 8 x 2 inches ; 5 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: March 27, 2000
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #22,546 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

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

Cons:

• Lack of direct control may not appeal to everyone

Product Description

Manage your resources and complete a variety of exciting noble quests. Each quest requires you to determine your own strategy, build your tax base, collect money, explore, and most importantly, vanquish your many enemies.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

71 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, a breath of fresh air in a rather stagnant genre., March 15, 2000

By 

Joshua P. Earl (Norwood, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Majesty (CD-ROM)

What to begin with? Majesty first and foremost of all, is something a little outside of the normal classification of games.. yes it is strategy and similar to other popular strategy titles such as Starcraft and Heroes of Might and Magic, in that you hire people to come and serve you and do battle with your foes, while you yourself do not actually "do the work" as it were. With one disturbing difference (at least to a classic RTS fan). You DON'T CONTROL THEIR LIVES. Well not in so many words. In this area it is MUCH more like the Sim(place noun here) games. You dictate where the buildings are to be set, but the peasants do the dirty work. When I first played this game, I set about building different structures and as my peasants built everything (I was happy to see they did it automatically) I began to feel pride in my growing metropolis. Unfortunately when the first evil rat thing came and started attacking, I watched with despair as everything I built crumbled. Clicking on my *(? $@# loyal subjects did nothing and they basically watched it burn. You see... if YOU saw an evil giant rat would YOU want to attack it if there was absolutely NO reason for you to?

Of course not, which is what the game is all about. Your subjects will do as you want... as long as you give them a reason to do it. So you place rewards for doing different actions.

Enter the strategy:

Want that rat killed? Well... how about if you put a hefty bounty on his head? Your greedy little peons will suddenly spring into action now that there is a jingle of gold in their ears... careful though, they may be greedy, but they aren't dumb. You have to make the bounty enough so that some of your Heroes are intrigued by it, but don't put so much on it that EVERY Hero makes a mad dash for it, leaving the rest of your kingdom defenseless. This may seem a little odd, but really, what do you hate about RTS the most? When those idiots get stuck behind a rock or something and they wander back and forth accoplishing either:

A)Nothing

or

B)Getting you killed while you attend something else more important.

Since your subjects have a mind of their own that frees you up to focus on the important stuff.. i.e. getting more moola. Meanwhile, back at the castle, you are busily creating places for you to recruit heroes, for the heroes to stay... and....what's that? Places for your Heroes to SPEND that hard earned cash you gave them? And of course you need money to continue to provide those services to them so whose going to notice if you tax everything a little bit... or even a lot... (Nice to start GETTING taxes, huh?) So you have to balance it all.. you sure wish you could upgrade your armor so that your heroes could buy better weapons, and be more effective, but that dragon munching on your peasants would probably be better off dead, and most of your heroes aren't going to face something like that for free....

One of the most innovative, and addicting games I've played in a long time. Strategy, action, simulation, and most important humor abound, and you'll be playing this game for hours before you put this one down.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Innovative game, August 27, 2000

By 

C. Bickford (Round Lake Beach, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Majesty (CD-ROM)

Bought the game and brought it home after seeing a demo of the game at a Convention. I'm a fan of Sim games, but I find RTS games difficult. This game might appear to be RTS, but it really is more of a sim game than anything else.

It's a fairly standard fantasy type of game, with wizards and rangers, priests and fighters. In and of itself, it's fairly simple. You have peasants to build, tax collectors, city guards and you can recruit heroes.

The interesting part is that you don't have direct control over the heroes. I find it's a lot of fun to set things up and let them run, and watch your heroes. I often change the order I build guilds in to favor a certain hero, so they can be the biggest and best.

Once I reach a certain stability in the game, I'll sit and watch my favorite hero run around and do their thing. I'll even let the monsters live sometimes so that I can have things play on for a little more.

I've found that there's a big jump in difficulty from basic to advanced. In advanced, you have to make the right moves in the first few seconds or forget about it. Even if you make the right moves, a random encounter can just plain dust your struggling city and leave it struggling until you quit, or die.

Then again, for me the fun isn't in beating the game, it's in watching the heroes.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great game... but some weird install problems, March 24, 2000

By 

E. Arnold (Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Majesty (CD-ROM)

First of all... I play games alot... and this one is an excellent game. It has a very intelligent and easy to use interface for dealing with your kingdom (building, etc.). The engine is terrific with multiple battles and spell effects that go way beyond the above average RTS/SIM. What sets it aside is the AI for all the sub-objects (i.e. heroes, monsters, etc.) but, don't think that will get you by if you have poor strategy or don't pay attention. Definitely there is plenty to do in managing "rewards/bounties", recruiting heroes, building guilds and support structures and of course watching your heroes do their thing. The only aspect that prevented me from giving this game 5 stars was the weird (and I do mean weird in a bad way) install problems. I had to uninstall and reinstall multiple times. My system was in peak condition beforehand too. In fact, if I had not backed up the registry... it would have been hard to correct the problems that occurred - everything from the game crashing constantly (even with the available patch) to weird things occuring with the Windows Explorer. I have installed it on several different machines and have come to a conclusion that it happens randomly with no set variables to try to figure out. I intend on notifying Cyberlore... but, even with this... don't be discouraged... the game is definitely worth it. I have now a stable game and it has not crashed or hung on me in many hours of game play. I have even run other things in the background testing the ALT-TAB aspect... no problems. Word to the wise - if you notice a crash... uninstall (delete out all files and check registry) then reinstall... apply patch and things should run fine. Again... this is a great game to fill the void until... DIABLO II!