Populous

Populous, from Bullfrog Productions, is regarded as the founding title of the god-games genre, in which the player, as a deity, shapes the landscape to allow their followers' civilization to grow, while also battling a rival tribe's god for the souls of the inhabitants. The player raises and lowers terrain to create flat land for new settlements, sends down disasters such as floods or volcanic eruptions, and in the later stages of the game can also call down direct military strikes against the enemy. As the inhabitants' faith in the player's deity grows, stronger powers unlock, from earthquakes all the way to a spectral Armageddon, pushing the game from quiet building toward open confrontation with the rival. The followers themselves are the key source of power — the more densely settled and well-developed the land, the greater the might available to the player's deity.

On the Commodore 64, the game was ported with the limitations of eight-bit hardware in mind — the isometric view of the landscape is preserved, albeit with simpler graphics and slower response than on the 16-bit platforms the game was primarily designed for. Even so, it managed to keep the core gameplay loop of shaping terrain, growing settlements, and the gradual escalation of the conflict between the two deities. Players used to the smoother versions will appreciate that the eight-bit port, despite its technical limitations, kept the controls clear and the map legible. The music is more modest than in the versions on more powerful computers, yet it still manages to evoke the calm, meditative atmosphere of shaping the land that the game offers during its quieter stretches.

Populous is still cited today as the game that founded an entire genre, later popularized by titles such as Black & White or Dungeon Keeper. The Commodore 64 version can't compete with the smoothness of the original on the Amiga, but it allowed the god-games genre to reach players limited to eight-bit hardware, and so it remains an interesting historical chapter in the development of both the series and the entire genre of divine simulations.

Why play: For anyone interested in the roots of the god-games genre later made famous by titles like Black & White or Dungeon Keeper, it's worth playing despite being less smooth than the Amiga version.