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By Al Giovetti
Price:$50
Genre:God game
Release:November 17, 1998
Developer: Bullfrog Productions Limited
Lead Artist: Steve :emeu
Programmer:
Designer:Bullfrog Productions and Peter Molyneaux
Producer:Stuart Whyte
Music Composer:Mark Knight
Project Leader and Engine Co-Creator:Alan Wright
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Phone: (650) 571-717 main, 800-245-4525 sales, 650-572-2787 customer service
Website: Bullfrog Web Site, Populous Web Site
Requirements:Windows 95/98, Pentium 133 MHz, 16 MB RAM, DirectX 6.0, and a 16-bit sound card.
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Populous (3): The Beginning
History
Almost two years ago we reported on the eminent release of Populous 3: The Third Coming (working title). Well now the game is out and they are calling it Populous: The Beginning. The original populous was released just about ten years ago and was the brainchild of the famous game designer Peter Moulineaux. Unfortunately, after searching the credits at the back of the 20 page manual that came with the game, I was unable to find Peter's name there.
Populous was one of a stream of hits from this innovative company. Many of you may have seen the wonderful Dungeon Keeper game which will be soon coming out with a sequel. This is one French gaming company to watch. One of my most favorite games was PowerMonger also by Bullfrog.
Populous single-handedly invented a new game genre: the God game. This is a game where you play the role of god and direct the actions of your little simulated people, who have a life of their own, but without your guidance would be lost. You guide your people either in peace, conquest, or defense of their homeland. Other similar games include SimCity where you played the god of a hypothetical city that needs essential help in planning.
Alan Wright, the producer of Magic Carpet 2, was the project leader on the product. Alan was the producer of the game as of February of 1997. Needless to say, the game has had a stormy road to creation, not the least of these components, the dissatisfaction of Peter Moulineaux with Bullfrog and others. Up to about a year ago, Peter had resolved to finish the game as his masterwork, but sadly this dream was not to be.
Just to give you an idea of the expected popularity of this title you can check out how many localisations were done. A localization is the countries that the game has been translated to. A localization goes beyond a mere translation, it is a cultural transfer where the game makes sense in that culture. Many things in a product are culturally dependent and require translation or change to something understandable in another culture. Populous 3 has been localized into French, German, Spanish, Swedish, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Chinese, and Japanese .
Bullfrog is known for hits such as Populous, Populous II, Theme Park, Magic Carpet, Syndicate, and Dungeon Keeper.
Company Line
Game Play
Like most of these games, this one is similar to Dune 2 or War Craft. You build buildings and the buildings can be used to build vehicles or to train four types of warrior. You fight with the other side for resources, which in this case are trees, and you fight literally whenever one of your people come in contact with their people.
The role of the shaman is to assist the people whenever possible with 24 spells and the layout of the town and training of the people. You can use terrain spells, such as level terrain and land bridge to block off areas and make it impossible for the enemy to get to your people save by boat or balloon. There are nine possible building types.
The game controls are relatively simple with a full aspect of key and mouse commands. Other keys (1-6) can be used to set a group of characters into up to six separate command groups. These groups of characters can be added to with the the command keys and other methods.
Tasks can be qued so that you can have a group of characters perform a group of tasks one at a time. Production can also be qued by putting multiple characters on the tasks
Many have touted Myth's Bungie to be the first game to put terrain to good use. Populous may be the game that has that claim to fame with people falling down hills and spells having greater range from a higher height.
Plot
The setting is prior to the previous Populous games, before the shaman has turned into a god. Your mission is to become a god by defeating from one to four enemy peoples on 25 different worlds.
The plot is a rather simple affair. There are a number of missions that you can play. In this reincarnation there are 25 missions where you are stranded on a planet with from 1 to 4 other shamans. You as the shaman of your tribe search the land for obilisks, vaults of knowledge, and large nodding stone heads, that are not unlike the little doggies in the back windows of cars. These archetectural monuments provide temporary or full use of spells and building plans.
You as the shaman plan the tribal actions by guiding the sims (simulated human intelligences), called followers in the game, to build buildings,boats or balloons or train in four separate professions: preacher, spy, fighter, and fire warrior. Each profession has special powers. For example, the preacher can convert all enemy players into your players, just give them a soap box and an audience.
Just to make the goal plain: You try to kill off the other shaman and his tribe. You cannot kill the other shaman until you have killed all of her followers, otherwise the shaman merely reincarnates in the center of her camp of natives.
Graphics
The geomorphic grapics engine provides a clear global view both in close up and in the world view.
Animation
The begining and ending cut-scene animation is quite good and has somewonderful cinematic scenes with music to go with it. The animation in the game is also good.Voice Actors
The scenerio briefings are fully narrative and when the shaman cast spells they can be heard intoning the spell words.Music Score
The music sounded really great coming out of our Altec Lansing speakers. The music is very tribal and mixed with sound effects and drums beating.Sound Effects
Utilities
As many save games as you want are allowed. An online encyclopedia will identify any object or explain any command in the game. The twenty page manual is sparse but adequate to explain all the game functions. No attempt is made in the manual to give strategy, walkthroughs or hints. A sturdy keyboard command card came with the game, making it easy to get started with the gameMulti-player Features
Populous can be played for free over the populous.net internet matchmaker service, by modem or by LAN. Two to four players can play over TCP/IP internet connection and IPX compliant LAN, while only two players can play by phone or null modem. Each station when playing multiplayer requires a CD. There are no special missions written for the internet or multi-player games and the game has no terrain or senerio editor.Cheats, Hints, Walkthrough
Populous: the Beginning CheatsJournalists
I can predict that the other reviewers will moan this one as another Dune 2 (Command and Conquer or Warcraft)clone without the new and needed accessories that such real-time strategy games require. If these people criticize the game for being too much like these rescent real-time strategy games, then they do not understand that Populous was one of the first real-time strategy games, from which many of the games now being developed find their true roots.Put your review right here by emailing us the text.