Populous

"Little men, little buildings, little else"

In an age of strategy games and simulations, comes Populous, an old SNES game that had big expectations, but in some areas, it fell short of what it was supposed to be.

-=Graphics 5/10=-

The houses look neat on the different stages, but watching those little stick figures can give you a headache. The water moving was good for the system of the time, and the various burning of the houses, upgrading of the lands, but after awhile, that loses it's luster. I've found that strategy/simulation games should carry a kind of visual aspect that this one fails in.

-=Sound 4/10=-

Alright, you can only get so far with a drum beat that has highs and lows and a low wind sound. It's enough to drive you nuts after awhile, and you'll chuck your controller at the t.v. Nothing else in terms of sound effects really comes in, other than the earthquakes. Disappointing at best.

-=Control/Interface/Gameplay 5/10=-

Man, I've never seen so many buttons outside of an airport control tower. If you don't know what you're doing, and have no clue what to push, you're stuck at a standstill. The interface is confusing, trying to learn all of the buttons, their functions, when to use them, and how to use them takes time and patience, but in the mean time, you drive yourself nuts doing it.

The gameplay is strikingly slow, your goal is pretty much to populate the land section you have to work with, destroying the opposing peoples that inhabit the land with you. Slowly, you build up your peoples, and then raid the opposing force. Sounds interesting at first, but gets very very boring after a while.

Control is a factor that just doesn't exist, as most of the play is done through the interface on the screen, monsterous downplay. I don't like alot of games where the controls are based on the buttons on the screen, it leaves too much to chance, that you'll hit the wrong thing at the wrong time.

-=Overall 5/10=-

It's a matter of liking simulation games, And I do, but this one doesn't cut it. It's got base graphics, and slow gameplay, coupled with little sound, and a confusing interface, it makes a possible good game, bad. I'm not real sure what the point of the game outside of build your lands, and drive off your enemies, is, if there was one at all....

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 02/07/00, Updated 02/07/00