Majestic Chess arrived on our desks a while ago and quite quickly got buried under an influx of PC games. However we have finally cleared the pile and uncovered this little gem that, much to our surprise, is probably the best game available to date.
Majestic chess certainly earns it's title, boasting no less than three different play options; Single Player, Multi-Player and Adventure there is something for every chess player and the ability to hop online and test out your chess playing skills against opponents the world over.
I hear you scoffing at the concept of a chess game already. Okay, so your average PC gamer is not really acquainted with the classic game of Chess, but surely you are willing to give it a go? If so, Majestic Chess is near perfect for you, not only does it allow you to play chess, but the Adventure mode is laced with tutorials and quizzes stitched together into a very RPG-esque whole. Majestic will make a chess player out of you yet!
When you start out in adventure mode you have no chess pieces at your disposal apart from your king, which represents you. As you progress through tutorials, visit buildings, and complete quizzes you gather pieces which you can then use to win chess games. The whole process of gathering and using pieces is somewhat like building an army. Once you obtain a piece you are given the opportunity to practice with it completing the process of learning about moves, taking a quiz about moves and finally practicing the moves with the relevant piece. This offers something to both new and rookie chess players alike, if you have played and enjoyed the odd game of chess you are likely to learn something new by taking the tutorials which will ultimately benefit you should you decide to test your piece-pushing mettle online. The games you play during adventure mode are in the form of challenges, giving you a specific number and formation of pieces and tasking you to take enemy pieces under certain conditions. These challenges focus your attention on the use of your last obtained piece.
As well as chess pieces you can earn gold by answering quizzes and winning chess games. This gold can then be spent in a store to purchase useful items such as Temporal Replay, which allows you to take back a move or Scroll of Wisdom that suggests a prudent move at the time. You can also buy Pawns if you think you need more to complete the challenges ahead of you. Once you have completed all challenges in a chapter you are pitted against a computer opponent as a final battle before moving on to the next chapter where you start at square one with no pieces ready to collect more, learn new moves and complete new challenges.
Graphically the game is quite simple, but a beautiful 3D chessboard affords you a prettier view of the game during challenges. Each building in adventure mode is well detailed and has a simple animation when clicked. You traverse the land as a knight on a horse and are guided from place to place with dialogue. It is nothing special, of course.. but what do you expect from chess?
Single player mode is your classic game of chess against a computer opponent. You can load all of the tutorials present in the adventure mode into single player, if you are not too keen on the adventure play style. Single player mode also allows you to configure a computer opponent, selecting a difficulty level to suit your ability and give an easy, balanced or challenging game. If you run into trouble then hints are available, but over use them and you will just be watching a couple of computer opponents battle! Single player offers a puzzle section in which you take on small challenges, such as completing a checkmate in one move.
Overall, Majestic Chess is probably one of the best, if not the best, chess games you will find for the PC. It offers a great teaching system for the beginner and an excellent place to play chess against worldwide opponents for anyone of any level of skill- providing of course the beginners take a little time to complete the tutorials and learn the basics of the game before diving in at the deep end. Majestic Chess goes far enough in the adventure mode to offer players who already know the basics, new moves which they can ultimately play against human opponents. This is the chess game which has something for everyone. Of course, if you hate chess with a passion you are probably not going to enjoy it... but what gamer could ignore the roots of the strategy genre? All we need now is Majestic Tic-Tac-Toe. N.O.R.A.D. themed, anyone?
Philip Howard
