Happened on this 1998 game by sheer chance and I’m really digging it! As far as I can tell it was never popular. It’s a mixture of an RTS and a “god game” where one unit (your shaman) is very powerful & special (chess analogy: sort of like mixing the central role of the king & with the power of the queen).
Strong “tribal” vibes that were popular in the '90s (think Deep Forest music, the game Riven, etc). Very nostalgic for me as I was a kid at the time. I’m playing the PSX version, looks like the PC version was even better!
Has anyone ever heard of this “Populous” series? I’m curious to try other titles, and to try more in the “god game” genre (a genre I never even knew existed!). Any other “god games” worth checking out?
The obvious answer would be Black & White and its sequel, which for many is the definitive god game. You’re an untouchable god interacting with your world and physically manipulating it with your hand, but you also have a giant animal familiar that you raise to also interact with the people. You create miracles and either help or terrorize the population into following you. Not much combat if that’s what you’re looking for, but it’s a unique game that unfortunately has not seen a worthy successor in 20+ years.
I played this. A great game. That era and Bullfrog in particular were incredible. Dungeon Keeper is one of the best games I played. Theme Hospital and Theme Park were great. It was the golden age of strategy games. Age of Empires 2, Heroes of Might and Magic 3. Red Alert games. Railroad Tycoon. I have no idea why this type of game became unpopular.
I strongly recommend Dungeon Keeper 1 (ideally gold with Deeper Dungeons add on) and Theme Hospital. Can get them on Gog.
Ah, I thought populous was more popular than that. I guess it was just popular in my friend group at the time. Would have been populous 1 and 2 we were playing, I didn’t even know a third one came out. I guess the most recent god game would be Godus, developed by peter molyneux’s current company. Essentially a modern sequel to populous 1 and 2. I haven’t actually tried it yet, last I looked it was still in beta or early access or something. And it looks like that makes sense as it apparently has been in early access for over 10 years… it seems decently high rated, but that is kind of concerning none the less.
Godus was a huge disappointment, basically a “what if Populous was a mobile skinner-box clicker with time-gating and micro-transactions?”
One of my favorite games of all time. Always been sad that the god game genre really petered out. There’s definitely a few modern examples but nothing thats really captured the feeling that pop3 had.
Definitely check out the black & white games, From Dust, WorldBox (which is more sandbox but still fun), RuinArch, and Reus(1 & 2)