In the demo, Cyberlore puts you to the task of finding and destroying the "Dark Castle" and its inhabitants.  To help with this goal, you have warriors, rangers, mages and even a paladin.  While the enemy lairs are protected by zombies, skeletons, minotaurs, and trolls.  The keepers of the "Dark Castle" are powerful vampires, whose diminutive appearance can be deceiving before they unleash their sinister black magic.

You will also be set upon by rats and ratmen as your city grows and creates sewers, and if you lose too many heroes you will soon find a graveyard near your town filled with the restless undead.

The map in Majesty is automatically generated under specific conditions each time you play.  This not only offers a limited amount of re-playability but also can drastically change the pace of the game.  The first time I played, I never lost a single unit and destroyed the Dark Castle with ease.  The second time I played, I was nearly destroyed on a number of occasions and defeated the denizens of the Dark Castle by the skin of my teeth.

While the game itself is a breeze to play as far as user friendliness is concerned, many will find themselves caught up with the fact that you do not have direct control over your units.  It is important to realize that this game is very unique in its application.  Once you do, you'll find the game far more enjoyable as you place bounties and yell at your computer screen as that foolish tax collector tries to skirt the troll 3 times his size because of his blind dedication to his job.  I honestly have never had more fun yelling at my computer.

Once you have defeated the evil vampires, you are technically done with the scenario.  The good folks at Cyberlore were kind enough to allow you to continue on with you kingdom if you wish, fighting off the random monster or sewer spawn to your hearts content.

The demo does have a few technical quirks.  At some point after you have completed the scenario and continued on, the game will most likely crash.  This can be very disappointing because one of the things that is tempting to do with this game is to build up your forces and let the computer sit and watch the heroes and you town grow on their own...just to see how far they will get or how long they will last.

The demo also seems to have a problem with Sound Blaster Awe sound cards.  With one of these cards enabled, the animations and mouse movements are jerky, and the sounds are inconsistent.  The only real way to play the demo with this card is to temporarily disable the card in the Windows control panel.

The Majesty Demo is based on the Alpha version of the software's code, so small quirks are expected.  Cyberlore has noted that these problems will be addressed (or are already addressed) in the full version of the game to be released around February 2000.  Cyberlore has been very open about gameplay and issues from their forum which is something that is very refreshing to see from a game company.

Even with its quirks, this demo rocks!  It is easy to learn and play and is deeply engrossing.  The full version only offers more of everything that is good.  More monsters, more heroes, more buildings, more maps, new graphic effects, more everything! I know that this game will definitely make it into my gaming library, and I am betting this may be the sleeper hit of 2000.