Populous

Populous is the game that invented the entire god-game genre and remains its purest expression to this day. The player is neither an army commander nor a mayor, but a deity who cares for its believers indirectly: it cannot order them where exactly to go, but it can reshape the world beneath their feet. By raising and lowering terrain, the player creates flat areas on which bigger, richer houses grow, and the bigger the houses, the faster the population grows and the more divine mana the player gains. An opposing deity with the same abilities stands in the way, so every map becomes a race to see who can turn the wilderness into a tidy plain faster.

Saved-up mana is spent on miracles. It starts with swamps that swallow enemy walkers, continues through earthquakes, volcanoes and floods, and ends with the apocalypse, which forces both sides into a final battle. A special place belongs to the papal magnet, with which the player designates a rallying point for their believers and picks a leader who guides the others into battle. Battles resolve themselves, the outcome decided by the number and strength of units, so the real game happens in the preparation phase, where you decide whether to invest in growth or dig a chasm under your rival's feet instead. Hundreds of levels with different worlds and difficulty settings ensured the game lasted a very long time.

On DOS, Populous was ported from home computers and looks understated, the isometric map is simple but clear and handles large numbers of little figures at once. The sound is sparser than on the Amiga, but the atmosphere is carried mainly by the ant-like swarming of believers, which is hypnotic even today. The game was received enthusiastically at the time and became studio Bullfrog's first major success, and its principle was followed up by a whole string of titles from Powermonger through Black & White to modern imitators. Anyone who fires it up today will understand within minutes why thinking through the environment instead of through orders caught on so quickly.