Good fun in an original idea
Populous was one of the first games to offer gameplay in which your actions do not directly control the characters; instead, what you do manipulates the environment and give behavioral commands to your people. You have powers you can use to alter the world, which takes mana. Mana is generated by your followers, so you try to grow the population as quickly as possible. Mainly you do this is by removing rocks, raising and lowering land so that your people can settle and multiply. Then, you may have additional powers to use to demolish the enemy: making crusaders, earthquakes, swamps, rocky mountains, or floods. There's enough to do here for a bit of strategic and a lot of tactical variety if you're willing to try different tactics.
This shows what gaming was back in the 80s: with more than a dozen competing PC platforms, versions of games were produced for each. This is great, but it was particularly well-done on the Amiga/Atari computers. This is the DOS version, with inferior graphics and no real sound FX. Gone are the fanfares, clanging of swords, or any of the sound you may remember. Instead, this game sometimes has PC speaker bleeps. Had this game included the better sound, it would get a five rating. As it is, I'm playing it, but missing the better sound.
39 gamers found this review helpful