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Finally, a breath of fresh air in a rather stagnant genre.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 67 / 71
Date: March 15, 2000
Author: Amazon User

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.

Innovative game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 18 / 18
Date: August 28, 2000
Author: Amazon User

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.

Intriguing ideas, nice graphics, short life

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 18 / 19
Date: June 27, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Being Strategy Guide for BellaOnline.com has its good sides and bad sides. On one hand a game like Majesty is something I buy immediately because it might be great, and on the other hand I've played so many great strategy games by now that I feel let down when a game isn't fully implemented properly.

You are ... yes ... a ruler of some sort, although they were nice to make it genderless! It's a building-placing game, where you locate each new construction site - be it for a Warrior's Guild, a Ranger's Guild, or so on. You then request for that building to either upgrade new weapons or items, or recruit named heroes to join your cause.

The graphics are very, very nice, but I've been spoiled in recent years by some of the amazing graphics from the various games. It's a shame that detailed leaves on trees and items by the buildings only elicit a "Jeez, that's pretty" instead of amazed appreciation.

The named units is a nice touch - instead of a random ranger exploring, you have Teave Trailblazer exploring the eastern marches for you. The home building tells you what each unit is up to, and the units themselves have little thought bubbles over their heads, a la Dungeon Keeper.

The Scottish-lilt voice chimes in with important information. "More gold, your majesty" is a common call, as your tax collector makes his rounds. Your troops defend your town from killer plants and rat-men while you build it up.

I appreciate that units should actively roam and defend and right, but really, many strategy games out there *do* have that ability. In Majesty, it's fun for a while to set rewards and try to motivate your units, but it can get very old and frustrating very quickly. Also, the missions are not extremely challenging, making the game itself a quick play-through.

A fun play for its sim-like qualities, but not a top notch strategy game.

A great game... but some weird install problems

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 13 / 13
Date: March 24, 2000
Author: Amazon User

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!

great game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 17 / 20
Date: March 28, 2000
Author: Amazon User

One of the best rts games i've ever played ever since playing the demo i've waited for the release date for like ever. However the point of the game is NOT to destroy a dark castle (despite what a certain review says)that is only in the demo version. The real version consists of 16 hero classes and evil baddies you want to smash. The best part about it is YOU DON"T HAVE TO BABY SIT YOUR HEROES! All of your heroes do everything on their own. This however can sometimes be annoying since heroes don't have to attack if they don't want to.(really if you were a hero would you go around fighting off a dragon that would smite you in a blow?) I really think this is a great game i'm a big age of empire I and II fan. This is right next to them and actually above. I've played tons of rts game but this is a refreshing change. NO MORE BLOODY WATCHING OVER YOUR STUPID GUYS EVERY SECOND!

Terrific game, if a touch too easy.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 12 / 16
Date: January 09, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I've always been attracted to sim games, but I inevitably get bored with them -- as neat as "SimCity 3000" is, there's really no POINT. It's like a digital aquarium, really: Get the system stable and thriving and then ... watch it.

"Majesty," though, solves that problem. Sure, it's a sim, a medieval fantasy version of "SimCity" by way of "Dungeons & Dragons." In addition to creating rogues guilds, dwarven settlements, blacksmithies and the like, "Majesty" is based around "epic quest" scenarios wherein you're challenged to defeat some evil facing the land, send your heroes on a quest for some fabled artifact, rescue a hostage taken by villains and so on.

Just as in "SimCity," you don't control your wizards, warriors, rogues, elves, dwarves, gnomes, thieves and so on. Instead, you have to do what any good monarch does in a fantasy game: Put prices on monsters' heads and offer rewards for heroes willing to explore unknown (and almost certainly hostile) territory.

"Majesty" is a hoot, and a massive timesink: You'll lose whole nights and weekends to it without realizing it, and love every minute of trying to squeeze a bit more service out of heroes who'd rather laze about the inn than go study new spells or visit an elven hut-of-ill-repute than go fight the troll heading for the kingdom's market.

The 19 epic quests included with on the disk are fun, and a 20th is available from on the official Web site. (It serves as a preview for the forthcoming expansion disk.) But while there's a large jump from the beginner to advanced quests and then another more moderate jump from advanced to expert quests, they ultimately don't prove too challenging overall. Expect to finish most of the quests with a week or two of nightly play (less if you've got more time to devote to the game). There is a mode where the game randomizes new quests, but it's along fairly simple lines and the random quests don't have the same appeal as the premade ones. And once you're done with the quests ... well, it turns into "SimCity" again.

Hopefully more quests will be added to the Web site for download or the expansion disk can finally be released. (It will add more building types, more monsters and a dozen more quests.)

An excellent game for sim fans who, like me, want a bit more direction and focus to their gaming experience. While it's worth the price -- it really is a unique and entertaining game -- it's not one you're likely to spend playing for months and months to come.

Majesty

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: July 03, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This is a great game, mainly because it combines a new type of playing with a cool Sword and Sorcery enviroment.

You have just been crowned King of Ardainia. You will need to manage your kingdom all by yourself (But you will have the aid of your faithful and sometimes humurous advisor Ven Fairwhether.)

The first cool thing about the game is that the single heroes that you recruit from your guilds are not directly controlled by you. They run around and decide what to do themselves. Each hero is unique, and some heroes hate each other, so you cannot have both kinds together. Some help out each other, some steal and betray each other.

Warriors, for example, like fighting and defending buildings, as well as hard quests. "Now I'm ready for ANY trouble!"

Rangers like exploring and making healing potions out of plants. They also like aiding wizards and barbarians. "I take the path less-traveled."

Rouges are sneaky theives who like stealling from lairs and gravestones, and even your own buildings! "One day, this will all be mine!"

You will build buildings, and they will be constructed by your peasents. As your kingdom grows, you will get new buildings, and upgrade them. Also, you will need to choose between the three difrerent non-human races, if you want one in your kingdom. There are gnomes, elves and dwarves.

You will also fight monsters, who pop out of lairs. Lairs can be caves or castles, or something in between You will also need to overcome truly challenging Monster Lords, such as the Witch King, who summons hordes of evil giant spiders, The Liche Queen, who uses her dark magic to raise the undead, Rrongol the hunter (Two 'R's) who hunts your heroes down as they struggle to get at the keep he guards, Url Shekk, the three headed beast who enslaves those he captures, yto draw life from them, Dirgo, the giant cyclops who lost his one and only eye and blindly attacks your settlement with his tree trunk, Vendral, the two headed dragon who chars your heroes with his fiery wrath, and is almost immortal...and three shadowy apparitions, known only as the black Phantoms, who will challenge you the most...

Overall, a phenomonal game. You should also get the expansion for the full experience.

Fun but lightweight RTS

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: March 16, 2008
Author: Amazon User

It's hard not to like Majesty when you first play. Graphics are pleasingly "garden gnome" cute, soundtrack is atmospheric and there are tounge in cheek humorous touches scattred throughout from the quotes your heroes say to the narrator who sounds not a touch unsimilar to Sean Connery, Your Majeshty. And like a good empire builder it's satisfying to watch your buildings be improved, heroes gain levels and workers go about their business. Probably the most intruiging aspect of the game are the various temple factions which you can choose from. Some are mutually exclusive, so you may concentrate on one aspect at the expense of another.

The main problem with Majesty is that it's simply not very deep. Usually you'll be able to construct just about everything and upgrade it, giving you few dilemnas. And you have no direct control over your heroes you can simply tempt them to battle mosters or explore by placing reward flags. The biggest flaw with strategy IMO is that the landscape really has very little effect on anything. Trees don't block movement there are no roads, no meaningful elevation changes etc. It's like it's all being played on a billiard table. You're unable to build any defensive structures like walls either.

Overall an entertaining game, but pretty lightweight. Might appeal to younger players, or those who like their fantasy CS Lewis wholesome.

Just plain fun.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 10 / 14
Date: April 27, 2000
Author: Amazon User

In Majesty you take the part of the king of a fantasy kingdom. Although you have ordinary minions, they are no match for the ferocious and magical enemies that will attack your kingdom, and so you must also recruit mighty heroes. But the problem with heroes is that they're heroic; they tend to go their own way rather than strictly obey orders. And that's the fun of Majesty. You can support your heroes with money, spells, and enhanced weapons, but then you must sit back and watch them go about their highly entertaining business. You can let them know what you want them to do by placing bounties on things, but your heroes will not necessarily pursue your bounties. Sometimes they'll attack monsters, and sometimes they'll go carousing at the inn when there's work to be done. Sometimes they'll undertake quests, and sometimes they'll turn around and run when they see a monster. Whatever they do, it's fun to watch, and fun to listen to as well because they've all been given amusing things to say. This is a simple game to play, but not a dull one, because there is quite a bit of strategy involved in growing your kingdom and combining complimentary classes of heroes. Majesty is that rarest of computer games: something that you can just sit down and toy with and have a great deal of fun.

Majesty, a Fantastic Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: April 27, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This is an amazing game. You are the king of Ardania and you must set your land right. You have the power to destroy your enemies or let them destroy you. There are many quests in which you have to accomplish goals. The object of the game is to complete all of the quests. You can build a major economy or relax as your heroes wipe out your enemies and die. You can choose to have one of three types of no-human races in your kingdom. They are the Dwarves, Elves and Gnomes. Each of them have their own abilities and weaknesses. You control a palace and anything that you make to go with it. You can't control your heroes. They fight whoever they want but you can persuade them to fight who you want with bounties. You can make different temples too. Certain temples have religous problems with others so you can only make three at a time. If you choose the Barbarian temple you will omly be able to have one temple. Each temple has their own spells they can cast if in range. Besides beefing up your kingdom you can beautify it too. You can create Royal Gardens, Statues and some buildings that appear are Gazebos and Fountains. In addition to the area around your palace you can build far away too. You can create Inns and Trading Posts far away which gain money for your kingdom. Inns are also helpful because they give your heros a place to rest. Also, inside the kingdom you can create blacksmiths to upgrade your heroes' armor. Overall this is a fabulous game and you should buy it.

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