The first time I loaded Populous on my PC (that is way back when you had discs and inserted them into a physical drive) I was just stunned. The pictures were amazing and the concept of Populous just floored me. Populous was the first ‘god’ game that I ever played. Later I got it ‘for the kids’ on the Super Nintendo.
Populous was designed by Peter Molyneux and released by Electronic Arts in 1989. In 1990 Populous won Computer Gaming World’s Strategy Game of the Year award.
In Populous you take the role of a god and through your interventions you help your followers while at the same time hindering the followers of your opposing deity. You have the standard god abilities such as raising/lowering land, earthquakes, floods, swamps, volcanoes and giving your followers powers.
You advance through levels which start with a different type of land and layout and the two groups of followers. As your followers advance your mana grows so you gain more powers to in turn help your followers.
Populous played more like a board game than a video game.
The ability to raise and lower land and see the effects on the groups of followers was terrific.
The Good: Just an earth shattering game. So fun. So revolutionary. The Bad: Wish I playing it now.
The Dastardly: It is always good to be a god.