Sound

The Weird Feeling

A staple of any good RTS is the sound set. Sounds are just as important in RTS games as they are in a first-person shooter. Attack warnings, building completions, research notifications - that all has to be signaled audibly in some way, since the player can only see so much of the map with his screen. Given the dynamic and fast-paced nature of most RTS games, a "your units are under attack" warning is among the most vital. If your forward forces are being shredded because you're at home fixing the economy and don't get a warning - you're dead.

I'm a baaad king

The market just survived

Majesty has almost all the sounds you'd expect in a real-time strategy game. You'll get a notice when a building is done, or when research has completed, though not for units that are under attack, or your buildings either for that matter. Why not? Because the AI has total control of your units. They move, scout, engage and retreat of their own accord. If they have healing potions they'll use them by themselves, and buy replacements. So even if you got a warning that your troops are under attack, what are you going to do? Since they're not under your direct control, you can only influence them. That influence doesn't really have a lot of effect immediately, often too late to change the course of any shorter battles.

Oh no... not again!

Nice land!

Spit-spat-spatter

So, now that we're used to the new style of play, how did we judge the sounds? Average on the whole, maybe a bit less so. Keep in mind that the "average" sound of today is a lot better than the "quality" sound of 3 years ago. Still, they sounded weak and indecisive (for lack of a better term) compared to the ones in Shogun. To be honest, the age-old classic StarCraft seemed to have better battle sounds at least. Certainly StarCraft's speech was better. Is it fair comparing Majesty to a classic like SC? Well... yeah. StarCraft is 2 years old now, so you'd think that games would start sounding as good as it does.

Ranger Thieves?

But of course

The music is ok, not particularly exemplary. It follows the graphics in them - high fantasy. Lots of light tones, not particularly moody - some might even call it flaky. For the most part it actually manages to blend into the background when playing, since it fits in so well with the setting. However, there are times that you'll think your headphones or speakers have a life expectancy just slightly longer than a rat thrown into a piranha tank. The music doesn't follow the course of battle at all, so when you're dying and hearing cheery notes... yeah, you get the idea.