Review: Majesty: The Fantasy Kingdom Sim

Score:
71%

Author: HeroCraft

Version Reviewed: 1.4.5.0

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Most of the commands you issue to rule over your kingdom are through a menu based system, which works well on a smartphone screen. There is some scrolling around the map, but you can pop out a smaller thumbnail view in the corner to help you locate yourself. Each corner has a different function, and you are taken through them all in the tutorial, which is available in the demo version of Majesty. 

It's important to pay attention here as the game has a lot going on, and this will be the only opportunity for you to have your hand held on a mission (although you can play the demo level again if you need to). The demo steps through the first basic mission, showing you where the options are to help you build up your kingdom, train your heroes, send them off exploring, and how to partake in combat - both with regular weaponry and magical spells.

After the tutorial though, you are on your own, and it's going to be a difficult one. Not because the missions and quests are especially difficult, it's always clear what you are being asked to do - but you will need to build up resources before you can complete each mission. And these are built up around constant attacks on your territory. Throw in having to decide what to spend your money and resources on (Warriors now? Wizards? Better training, buildings, etc), and you have your mix of strategy, combat, resource management, and exploration. It's a potent mix if the balance point can be found, and I'm glad to say that developers HeroCraft have found just that. It helps that Majesty is derived from the PC title of the same name, but lineage means nothing if the gamer doesn't think the game is 'playing fair' or 'feels right'. Rest assured it is both.

You do need to remember that, unlike other games in this genre, you do not have direct control of your heroes as they head off into the wastelands. You can set out general commands, such as 'look over there' and 'defend the castle' but the units themselves will decide the best way to do that - or even if they will do it at all. You need to set rewards of gold for each task, and it needs to be a high enough reward that the troops will take up the challenge.

This does take you one step away from the action, but it also makes for a game that's better suited to a smaller screen - you don't need pixel accuracy if your troops can handle that detail as long as they get 'close' to the enemy you want them to attack. It also puts the focus squarely on your resource management skills, and does not ask you to do an arcade style combat section when the time comes.

One thing the game does not do is take into account all the things that can happen on a Windows Phone. When you switch away from a game in progress to answer the phone you must remember to switch back to the app using the 'back' key rather than open it from the Start screen. If you do the latter, then you will lose your progress in the game you were playing. In my opinion, an auto-save feature needs to be added as quickly as possible.

While the graphics and presentation are all suitably atmospheric, the font used, with the medieval tails and flourishes, can be hard to read on the smaller screened Windows Phone devices. A little bit more legibility would not go amiss.

Majesty is a game that has many elements right, but there are a few quirky issues that could dull the excitement of the title. A little bit more time spent looking over the app before it was released might have been in order to stop small issues like the task-switching above making it to the general public.

Nevertheless, with fourteen missions available in the download, I think Majesty is good value for money at the £1.49 / $1.99 level, although some people might feel a bit short changed having come to expect more content from their mobile games, even at a relatively low price. HeroCraft have promised more missions will be available in future updates, but I can only judge the app on what I see now. The missions will take time to complete, but once you've worked out the best strategy for each one, you'll find there's very little need to replay a level in Majesty.

And I do like what I see. This is a game that will not appeal to everyone, but it is pitched at just the right level for fans of the 'Medieval Command and Conquer' style gameplay. Recommended, with the caveat that you really should take some time to try out the demo before buying it.

Reviewed by Ewan Spence at 7:27 UTC, July 13th 2013