I am not much of a gamer anymore. There was a time when I would start playing a game and not stop until I had mastered it. But these days I like spending my spare time doing other things, like writing about Android for instance. I just don't find many games to be that entertaining on a phone or tablet. That has all changed since loading the award winning Majesty: Fantasy Kingdom Sim by HeroCraft. I have found a game I want to play and I have lost a few hours at a time doing so.
Majesty was originally a PC strategy game that has been brought over to Android. I like that some of the older PC games are finding a new life on mobile devices. The late 90's and early 2000's offered some innovative titles on the PC platform. Majesty was one of these great titles released at that time. Now, on Android I think the game looks better than the original. It is colorful and the graphics are sharp.
The game play is different than most real time strategy games because you do not directly control the characters you create, called heroes. Instead, you offer rewards for them to destroy an item or to discover uncharted lands. The enjoyment you get by building your kingdom is where the game shines. You do not need to worry that your heroes should be attacking a troll or you need to lead them to the battles. Instead, you build your buildings and add heroes to succeed. In the game you build your blacksmith's shop and purchase upgraded weapons or armor. In your marketplace you buy potions so that your wizards can use new magic spells. You are building the kingdom to help your heroes be successful.
You not only build heroes, but as your kingdom grows you recruit heroes. This helps you become a stronger force to destroy enemies. There are 10 different types of heroes you can build yourself with unique weapons and armor. There are dozens of spells that help your heroes in battle. With 30 buildings which are upgradable to several different levels, you can upgrade to get more capabilities with your heroes. This game quickly grows on you!
I ran this on my Galaxy Tab 7" tablet and the gameplay was quick and fluid. Even with a weaker GPU unit in the Tab, the game does not lag like other games with so many things going on at the same time. The game also played great on my Galaxy Nexus but in my opinion, the screen is a bit small for all of the items on that sized screen. The sounds are just the right mix and the music sounds like you are at a renaissance festival. I normally turn all game sounds off but I found myself playing with headphones on and leaving the volume up.
As you start the game you are given the option to create a profile, enable/disable sounds and choose the point in the game where you want to begin. You select or cancel by clicking on a check mark or an X. The controls are consistent throughout the game but the placement of a few were off to the side or generally harder to find. I also wish there was a way to turn off more of the prompts. After you run through the tutorial I did not want to see all of the prompts that I was given throughout the game. This is a minor annoyance, but one that could be corrected.
Speaking of game play, it is relatively quick to play each round. You can stop and resume a round making playing on short breaks much easier. I would start a round and sometimes walk away for a few moments letting my heroes fight while my tax collectors gathered more money. I like being able to play and not have to babysit the heroes the whole game. You start off most rounds with an ample amount of funds to build what you need. There is nothing more frustrating than playing these real time strategy games when you are broke the whole time. I have played some levels on all three difficulty levels because they were that much fun to play. The addition of Skirmish mode needs to be mentioned. People asked for this feature and HeroCraft delivered. A skirmish mode was added to allow you to fight battles against AI opponents. This is a fun way to play different variations of the game. I found myself playing skirmish mode on Majesty: Northern Expansion for hours.
The game has already won several awards and with over 4600 reviews in the Android Market and sporting a very respectable 4.5 star rating, people love this game. It is available on several platforms including Android, IOS, Bada and Symbian. For Android, Majesty comes in the full version for $1.99 or a lite version for free. As I mentioned, they also have a new version that is called the Northern Expansion which offers new monsters, missions, weather conditions and lands. The Northern Expansion has a free and paid version also. I played the lite version and found the game to play just like the original but with new items. Either way, you will find this real time strategy game worth your time.
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