Customer Reviews

Populous

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Frankly I was a little worried about this title. The original was one of my favorite PC games in the early 90's. Subsequent console ports were pretty unplayable. And honestly the trailer video doesn't look that good. Plus the new play options are much more complicated than the elegantly simple original.

But the verdict is: it works. It works well. It plays at least as well as the original. The touch screen on the DS is a huge plus. The screen is a little small and the controls take a little getting used to, but only a little. By the first or second game after the tutorial I pretty well had it down, controlling just with the stylus and left shoulder button. Easy, fun and very reminiscent of the experience from the days of yore.

Like the original Populous the game can be at times slow and others frustrating, but it plays well, and it is a good puzzle/strategy game. This update has more strategy than the original, and I feel it works well. I don't think anyone will call this version one for the ages. But if you already like this kind of game, or were thinking about buying it based on fond memories of the original on the PC, it's definitely worth the price of admission.

Negative reviews kept me from purchasing this game when it first came out. It looked fun, but I had never played the original Populous so I had no idea what it was going to play like. Furthermore, I hadn't heard anything about the publisher (Xseed) at the time to know if they had a good reputation. As time passed I learned that Xseed was publishing some great games (Retro Game Challenge, Rune Factory: Frontier, Little King's Story, Avalon Code, etc.) and they are a group of former Square Enix members. The price went down on Amazon and I knew it was time to take the plunge. I am soooo glad I did! This game has me hooked right now. It's everything I hoped it would be and more.

Basically, you are a god against a demon with humans (your followers) as the pawns. Interestingly, you never actually take control of your followers. At most you give them general instructions (build, fight, unite, gather). You can also force followers out of cities they have built so they can do something else. Apart from that they are completely autonomous. The key to success is paving the way for your followers to outnumber and defeat the enemy. To do this you must flatten the land so cities can be built, raise land from the seas, and perform miracles to hurt your opponent's followers or help your own. You gain spirit from your followers, so the more you have the better. The more spirit you have the more miracles are available to you. Examples of miracles are raising a volcano that oozes out lava to destroy anything in its path and spreading conversion pools that convert your opponent's followers to your own. It's the constant flattening land and performing miracles while giving general instructions to your followers that keeps things interesting. Each god has certain stats for their followers on top of the unique miracles they have, so choice of which god to use is vitally important.

There is a time limit in most maps. At the end of the limit Armageddon starts (you can also start this with a miracle) pitting all of your followers against the demon's. No miracles are allowed, so you just watch and see who wins. This is what decides the victor over a map. Therefore, it is extremely important that you keep your population over your opponent's at all time. Although the first levels are pretty easy, the later levels will have you scrambling to keep up.

There is a Free Play mode that allows you to play the regular game with your own rules and there is a Warrior Hunt mode that has you searching for specific people in a mix of others. The Warrior Hunt mode is an interesting minigame, but it won't hold your attention like the regular gameplay does. As you unlock all the gods (there are five in all which are pictured on the box art) Free Play mode will probably be the place you come back to the most. It's kind of like playing Advance Wars outside of the story mode.

The music and graphics aren't anything special, but it's hard to care. The gameplay is so engrossing that I never really notice.

Pros:

+Unique gameplay
+Addicting gameplay
+Can be challenging
+5 gods to choose from with their own unique stats and miracles
+Great replay value

Neutral:

=Music is nothing special

Cons:

-Graphics are poor (but who really cares?)

Who shouldn't get this game? People who want to directly control/manage their units, want a variety of unit types, require great graphics, or people who don't know what fun is!

Overall, I would give this game a 9/10. Thanks for another great game, Xseed!

1. It is very similar to the original PC, but with touch screen controls.
2. Many, many hours of fun and gameplay if you like the idea of Sim City meets Act Raiser.
3. If you didn't understand that last comment you are too young to like playing this.
4. Pretty amazing graphics for a DS game. Lots of new god/goddess abilities from original.

A few negatives are:

1. Only a few save slots, one for each mode, free play, mission, etc.
2. Even experienced players will find some mission levels hard to beat, and hence unlock the next levels (but don't give up).
3. Your hand will cramp after hours of using the tiny DS screen.

But still, a really wonderful game for less than $15 all in all.

I was a HUGE fan of the original PC game, so I had to give this a shot for my new 3DS.

It's good, and it's only $12ish for the game. And I don't regret buying it, I can definitely get my $12 worth out of this game.

But, in my opinion, they made quite a few unneeded changes to what was already a great, playable game. It's fairly easy to pick up for those who already know the gameplay, but I can't help but think they really designed it for those who liked the original. I can't imagine someone who never played Populous picking up this game and finding it fun. It just doesn't flow as well as the original, and you find yourself the victim of seemingly "random" attacks from the computer player.

About the only thing that I think really comes through from the original is the feel of the game once you get into it. You start to develop the same type of strategy to beat the game, so it flows like the original. But it seems overly complicated with the new features, like the designers felt that the original was OK, but needed way more "Stuff". In this case, I feel like the "Stuff" doesn't add to the fun, it just makes things more complicated because they can.

Overall, it's a good game, but I think that it will only really appeal to those who want to get back into a classic game that hasn't been available for quite a long time.

If you love to feel the power of having your own army of people below you and being a god then you will love this game,Very fun and easy to learn if you actually do the training.So listen at the start or be doomed !

This game is the same format as the old Populous game, but as with many remakes, the original was left best unmade. The game play is similar, where the player needs to manage growing their followers population while conducting a war with the opposing side. Added in are a few graphical enhancements to allow the player to better manage their civilization, and some new miracles were added it. All thing being said, I would not recommend this game to anyone, even those who played the original game.