Populous (series)

Last updated
Populous
Genre(s) God game
Developer(s) Bullfrog Productions
Publisher(s) Electronic Arts
Creator(s) Peter Molyneux
First release Populous
1989
Latest release Populous DS
2008

Populous is a series of video games developed by Bullfrog Productions and published by Electronic Arts. The first game in the series, Populous , was released in 1989. At the time, it was hailed as revolutionary, and it coined the term "god game". [1]

Contents

Gameplay

The games involved the player taking on the role of a deity and leading followers into battle against opposing deities, and intervene by using a variety of "divine intervention" that affect the world and indirectly, the people.

The first two games were similar. In Populous and Populous II: Trials of the Olympian Gods , much emphasis was spent on flattening the terrain. The view of the game-world was isometric. Populous: The Beginning was more like a conventional war-game than a god-game and uses true 3D instead of isometric 3D. In Populous: The Beginning, the player is set in the role of a shaman instead of a god, but at the end of the game attains godhood.

In an interview, the series creator Peter Molyneux, said that "Populous was like it was due to my incompetence as a games programmer ... the reason the feature (raise the land) was there was because I couldn't get the little people to navigate around the coast". [2]

History

The series includes: [3]

Reception

In 1996, Next Generation listed the series as number 16 on their "Top 100 Games of All Time", commenting that "aside from single-handedly creating a new genre overnight, Bullfrog's Populous is a great marriage of war-game strategy, resource management, and pure originality." [4]

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References

  1. Populous to The Sims: a history of playing god at techradar
  2. Retro Gamer magazine, issue 71. Pages 82-89 "In the chair with ... Peter Molineux"
  3. The Populous series at MobyGames
  4. "Top 100 Games of All Time". Next Generation . No. 21. September 1996. p. 64.