Have you ever played a game demo so many times that it finally occurs to you "I could just buy the full version of this game!"

I'll admit it - I'm cheap. I'm exactly the kind of person the industry hates. I buy maybe two or three games a year. If I can get a pack of 6 older games for $10, I'll do it! Add to this the fact that I'm on a Mac and the situation is worse. There are so few games made for the Mac, I'm not helping my own cause. I also have a bad habit of downloading and playing demos and never buying the game or I play shareware games I can get for free. I have bought a few, but I still download a heck of a lot more than I buy.

But, this game was different. I found myself actually excited by the idea I could play more than just the demo. I set myself up to go purchase it last weekend. I wanted to buy it off the shelf, like a normal person. Most times, we Mac people have to mail order our games because no one carries the few Mac games that are made.

I should have known better! I started off at Electronic Boutique - knowing that they used to have a decent Mac selection. This particular store had moved things around since the last time I was there and they had shrunken the Mac selection even further! The game was not there. CompUSA was next. I knew they sold Macintoshes and had a decent selection of games. They had an entire fifteen foot shelf of Exile: MYST III but not a single copy of Majesty. Best Buy was next door to CompUSA, I didn't have much hope since they only sell PCs, and they only seemed to sell VAIOs and HPs at that. I found a copy of Majesty for the PC, but no Mac software at all. On the way home I spied a store called Super Software. Just to torture myself further (by this time I was pretty mad, mostly at myself for not just going through mail order) I went into this store. They had every imaginable piece of PC and console gaming, including action figures and Pokemon cards. We had to ask the sales clerk if they had any Mac software, he pointed out an unmarked but well stocked(!) shelf. There was my copy of Majesty.

Okay, enough ranting. The game is very cool. It installed like a dream, I'm old enough to remember back in ye olden days (a.k.a. 1995) when installing a game was a hassle, especially on a PC. This was done before I cracked open my Coke. I have a newer G4, 550, 330 MB RAM - so this went in with no sweat.

As soon as it launches, it also connects up to my modem, and this interrupts the flow of the launch. It fades out to my desktop and I turn off the Remote Logon Control Panel, then it fades back into the game. Not a big deal, but it's a little annoying. If I was doing Multiplayer mode, this would probably be a cool thing.

Game play is slick. It is an older fashioned game, but I still open up WarCraft I every now and then, so this is about my speed. It does get a little jerky when a lot is going on - I haven't fed it anymore memory yet, I probably will soon to see if that helps.

I've played the first half dozen quests, they were fun. My only complaint is that once you get to a certain level of development, there is no more. Frankly, I'd like to see something beyond the third level for structures. More spells wouldn't hurt my feelings. The ability to have heroes from some of the monster races would be fun, too. How about Wizards casting spells that create spiders and snakes that fight for them? It would also be nice to be able to keep well developed heroes from previous games - even if there was only one. There is a lot of room for improvement, and I see that there is already an expansion pack out for the game, hopefully we'll see some improvements or additions.

There isn't much in the way of blood, guts or gore - even though the idea is that your heroes are killing monsters, the violence level is low. When the Wizards die (which they do early and often) they scream out "I'm Melting!" - very reminiscent of The Wizard of Oz. I do like that there are spells to bring back dead heroes! That Wizard only cost you 500 gold to make, but when he is 5th level, he is worth more than the 1500 for the spell to bring him back! Abduralzac!!!

Overall, a good game. I'm sure I'll get my $30 out of it. My wife is already upset that I have been spending far too much time in front of the computer. If she has to call me three times to dinner, it's usually a sign of a good game!

Recommended: Yes