Populous: The Beginning

"This is one of my favorite Strategy games of all time..."

Introduction
Ever wanted to be the supreme king of thw whole universe? In this game you do just that! You have a ton of magical spells, ready to tortore other tribes. Of course, they have the same powers you do. So it becomes a war of the magical guys, and the not-so-magical guys!

Graphics 8.8/10
Beautiful, and the games strong point. All the characters look fairly detailed, although they could use a little work. The spells look painful and you can't help but wince when you see somehow get shocked by lightning.
The main world looks very well done. You can see lava boil when you cast a volcano, and the mountains are the closest thing to actually seeing real ones. Trees are also worth mentioning, because they look more realistic than the ones in most games, *coughMario64cough*. Overall this games strong point is very nice.

Story 5/10
You are the ruler of the universe, and three other people want to get your title. They each have an army and you are going to have to destroy them all!

Sound 9/10
The games other strong point. The music is perfect, you can hear it eriely in the background and it sounds very mysterious. That is what you should have for a stradegy game. The Sound Effects are good. You can hear a Guy scream in horror when you shoot him with a Thunderbolt, (and the Thunderbolt sounds great, too.). There is also the good sound of a volcano erupting. Overall this game sounds pretty good.

Gameplay 8/10
It is very fun. In most missions have to destroy all the tribes in the area. You have a lot of devastating spells in your hands, and so do your enemys. At your base you can train non-magical guys to be usefull. For example, you can make him a Swordsmen, you can make him a Convertor, you can make him a Fire Warrior, or you can have him build a hut. This brings up another interesting thing about this game, building. In most Stragedy games you buy the buildings. But in here you have to make the buildings, with trees! And who is going to build it? You non-magical guys! So you can tell half your army to guard the base, and tell the other half to build some new huts! To get more men you have to deploy some men into a hut, then thirty seconds later about four more will come out. Sounding fun already? Well I haven't even talked about the best part of the game yet, the battles! In a battle you take all the guys you train and have them fight the ones your enemy has spent all there time on too! The non-magical guys will always put up a fierce fight, so the training they have gotten is put to the test! Convertors will sit there and read some book, and any enemy who come close to him will be converted to your side, while a Swords man will kill everything that gets close to him. then there are the magical guys. They have special powers, like a Lighting shock and a Volcano. After you kill all your enemys, (or they kill you) then it is time to destroy there base! And then I think you know what happens next.... Overall this is a very fun game.

Controls 6/10
Very hard to learn, but once you learn it you will not have any problems.

Replay Value N/A
It is a very fun game indeed, but once you beat it you will never want to see it again.

Challenge 8/10
Very challenging, indeed. It should keep you occupied for a bout three weeks.

Buy or Rent?
It is a very good game, you should buy the next time you are bored. You won't regret it.

Overall 8/10

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/28/00, Updated 09/28/00