Some of these are spectacular – calling down a massive firestorm or tornado from the sky, but this will usually cause a few dropped frames. It gets worse when you cast things like a landmass spell that creates new land in water – the game chugs struggling to render this. It’s the environmental details that begin to cause problems – every area is filled with plain-textured land and water that you can deform using spells your Shaman will learn. Shamans all look great too – with a coloured aura around their enormous tribal masks, while the settlements are filled with buildings ranging from tiny huts to massive training academies. Things like followers, wild men and your troops look pixelated but thanks to their unique designs are easy to tell apart (preachers wave their hymn books around as they chant while fire warriors have obvious cannons attached to their arms). It’s just a shame there’s not more actual story here – something more of a thread than ‘eradicate anyone who stands in your way’.Ī title unfortunately too ambitious for the PS1 hardware, Populous has big dreams but stumbles with a number of performance issues.įor the most part, the game looks pretty good. It’s not a setting seen often in videogames but is embraced brilliantly here – from the chants of your warriors, the incantations when casting spells and the desolate, feral landscape it truly feels like a different galaxy which does wonders for immersion when playing. Part of the reason for this success is the world-building that takes place – this is an ancient tribal universe where wildmen roam free, technology doesn’t exist but magic does and belief in bigger deities governs everything. Populous makes no qualms about the fact that this is a title about violent conflict between rival tribes but this works surprisingly well for it – despite the fact that actual plot and story development is fairly sparse here.
Some will require you to worship a statute to receive a divine blessing from the gods, but more often it will simply be to eradicate all opposing foes to pillage your way to victory. By travelling from planet to planet fighting against rival tribes (led by their own Shamans) and stealing abilities and spells, your Shaman ultimately attempts to become a God herself.Įach new planet you reach will have a different enemy – the Chumara, Dakini and Matak tribes – and a different objective for victory. In Populous: The Beginning, you take the role of a Shaman who guides her loyal followers through a bloody war across the solar system.
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