Populous
Back in the Beginning, there was a game called Populous. It featured small blue men moving around, building little houses and fighting with little red men. You played the part of God for the blue men, and could "influence" them to act as you wanted, but you could not control them directly. You also had access to some spells to raise/lower land and generally be rude to the red men. I liked it, and so did lots of other people, there was even a World Championship some year. However, I didn't have an Amiga, so I couldn't play Populous very much. But then, Populous II turned up and now, I had an Amiga. After overcoming my general suspicions about the changes from the first incarnation, all hell broke loose once again over the blue and red tribes. There were a lot more spells, and they all looked great when used. Those volcanoes (wipes nostalgic tear from corner of the eye) ... There was a rumble, the ground started heaving, and then the volcano rose, spewing lava and fire and filling the whole screen. And at times, it was difficult too. Anyone ever defeated Hermes? That bastard threw twenty volcanoes or something at me during one game ...
Anyway, this Christmas I got Populous: the beginning, and had great expectations. It was a new Populous game, after all. And it was, but not exactly. Differences went deeper than just the new 3d and the fact that you were a Shaman which could be killed. Suddenly, there was direct control of your followers, and there were different types of buildings, and you had to order your followers around to get them to build. As Gamespot put it:
"The good news is that it's approached games such as Warcraft II and Command & Conquer. The bad news is that it's approached games such as Warcraft II and Command & Conquer." I fully agree, direct control takes some getting used to, when you thought your followers would go around building houses themselves. On the other hand, it sure refreshens the game, brings it up-to-date, and people new to Populous will probably find it a bit easier to get into. Fortunately, there aren't too many different buildings to build, and they all, like the rest of the game, look great. And the spells look good too, and although it's no Incoming or Unreal, volcanoes still look and feel great to use ...
The strategy is in many ways the same as in the old Populouses; outbuild you opponent and head in with as many warriors as possible. However, you need to think a bit more than that, higher ground needs to be considered, and the fact that a few well-placed spells can ruin even the largest army. One thing I like, which has remained largely the same, is the recovery rate of your tribe. You can be attacked and nearly defeated, as long as you have some followers left you can get back with relative speed. The same goes for the computer player, however, so watch out ... Speaking of the computer player, it does quite well except from always placing its shaman at the same place in its settlement. Regardless of whether you have placed a swamp there or not ...
There are things I miss from Populous II though. For example; where did the varying looks of your followers go? In Pop2, there were both male and female followers, and with different hair colours too. In Poptb, they are all identical males, why? Variation doesn't hurt. Another thing is those cool creatures which turned up in Pop2, when the game got drawn out, and started messing around with anything they passed by. Triton lowered the land, that walking tree thingy placed out lots of trees and the golden dragon started fires. they probably couldn't be directly translated into Poptb, but they could have made it in some form. Please? Just little things as you see, but they did add something to the previous game and I think they would have done so to this incarnation too.
The bottom line is that Populous: the beginning is a new game which still captures some of the old Populous feel. It's more like other games out there than its preceeders were, but it still stands out from them with its own style and feel. Its biggest problem is probably the Populous name; veteran gods will probably be disappointed at first, maybe too early and too much to give the game a good chance. But the volcanoes are still cool ...
