Greg Recommends Populous : The Beginning

Price : $5.99

Website : gog.com

The one of a kind God Game RTS, Populous The Beginning, (or Populous 3) is my favorite game from the legendary BULLFROG Studio. This 97 gem was ahead of its time and I have no idea how many hours I've logged on it but lets just say I've memorized each of the maps in the single player campaign and multiplayer matches. Basically, take a simple RTS where you control hoards of cavemen, add a shaman with god-like abilities, and a crazy physics engine and you have Populous 3.

The game's premise is played out in the intro cinematic. A young woman from a tribe of otherwise unremarkable cave persons is able to channel magic. She has visions of other worlds full of hostile tribes that would destroy them if left alone, so she becomes the shaman and leads her people to these other worlds to preemptively destroy their enemies picking up all manner of powerful magics along the way so that she can become a god and they will all live happily ever after (except for everyone on the worlds they burn on their interstellar / interplanar path to victory). It's not a very deep story, but it doesn't have to be.

Each map starts out with your shaman and a handful of villagers around your incarnation circle. As is customary in RTS games your villagers can build buildings, gather resources, and fight things (but are not good at fighting). In Populous they can do all this and train to become warriors, priests, spies, or firewarriors but unlike every other RTS everything they do they do with gusto! Their animations are hilarious and this is the first part of what makes this game so great. If they are building something they actually run around building it, not just hitting the ground next to it, they are literally running around the structure hammering things, hauling things, and jumping up and down to raise / lower the land. If the shaman walks by they immediately fall on their faces in reverence. If you tell them to attack they start running and screaming as fast as they can and then punch, kick, push, pull hair, fall over, roll, get up, run inside a building and shake it all to pieces until it collapses... they're super fun to watch.

You'll use your starting villagers to build huts which will produce more villagers over time depending on how many huts you have. Villagers living in huts allow your shaman to recharge spells faster and also increase the speed at which new villagers are spawned. Extra non-house villagers can be used to grab map spells from magic nodding head statues or trigger a map changing spell from a totem. These are often valuable in your fight against the enemy as they usually contain spells that would otherwise be unavailable. Each map also holds at least one vault which bestows the permanent knowledge of a new spell or building unto your shaman that she can take with her to all future levels. The formula for going through a level is simple, grab the goods in the vault(s) then use said goods to your advantage and kill everyone who is not your color.

The star of the show is your shaman. With an arsenal of spells at her disposal she will eventually be able to level entire cities and send hundreds of enemies to their deaths in the blink of an eye. Her starting spell is the humble fireball which will send small groups of enemies flying, killing villagers it directly hits, starting the pants on fire of enemies that survive (they run around waving their arms and screaming trying to put their pants out). If you are particularly skilled with your shots you can use the physics to your advantage and control which direction the enemies get flung, preferably down a hill for greater damage or into water / lava which is an instant kill. The fact that little people will be sent flying (sometimes quite spectacularly) and then run around yelling and screaming in terror makes this game an absurd amount of fun. Lets just say I wasn't the only one who played the demo over and over, perching my shaman in a tower on top of the hill overlooking the red village and spent hours tormenting the enemy. "Oh look, you just finished repair that house..." wait for everyone to go back in, LIGHTNING STRIKE! House catches fire (again), villagers run out yelling and screaming with their pants on fire. "Oh look, you're sending your army up the hill to kill my shaman..." FIREBALL they all roll back down the hill, many of them die. SWARM SPELL the survivors scatter yelling and screaming before swarms of wasps. Eventually you will be able to call down tornadoes that comically suck the roof off buildings, then suck up everyone inside the building, erode spells that will send buildings and people into the sea, and volcano which creates a lava spewing mountain in the middle of someone's town in addition to many other goodies that are not named here.

Although very powerful your shaman is also quite vulnerable and your enemies also have one shaman each who will be gunning for yours. A stray lightning bolt, falling into water, or straying a little too close to the enemy armies will quickly see her dead. She comes back at the reincarnation circle after a little while but your mortal warriors will have to contend with the enemy in her absence and the enemy team who killed her will get a substantial boost in spell regen for a short time.

It's worth mentioning that every map is spherical. You can zoom out and spin the map to get a satellite view of the action. This may throw new players but I thought it was freaking awesome, especially back in 1997. Similar to Planetary Annihilation, a spherical map means that you can expand, attack, and be attacked from any direction. Most of the beginning levels (and a few multiplayer levels) restrict this because both you and your enemies do not yet have the ability to build boats or hot air balloons. Oh, did I forget to mention that your shaman can cast spells from a mobile hot air balloon? Even once these options are unlocked the strategic affects of the spherical map isn't as potent as PA's.

It's also worth talking about what sort of strategic value can be had with the few unit types available. Villagers can be trained into one of 4 other units by telling them to go train at the appropriate building (they line up to go in one at a time). Warriors are your tough melee hoard members. They will punch, kick, push, and pull the hair of enemies, ganging up on them 3 to 1 if numbers permit and make short work of all but other warriors in melee combat. Firewarriors are ranged combatants whose fireball spell isn't nearly as powerful as your shaman's, but if they all fire at once it will wreck havoc on enemy armies and quite possibly send some into orbit. These are best placed behind your warriors or stationed in a tower which greatly increases their range and firepower. Preachers, instead of fighting, will pull out a holy book and preach to the enemy. All who hear their voice (and are not already in combat) will sit down to listen and over time they will swap there pants colour to join you. If an enemy shaman or preacher goes up and slaps your preacher (for blasphemy?) everyone who was sitting down to listen to him jumps to their feet and beat him up. Spies will appear to be friendly villagers to enemy players who view them but will start their buildings on fire until caught.

The selection is small and simple. The focus really isn't on the units but on your shaman and sort of mayhem you can unleash but don't discount what your army can do. Your shaman can only do so much and even in the late game the enemy shaman or a small group of enemies that get too close can put an end to her. A large army though, not only is that tactically sound but hilarious to watch as they push over buildings, send enemies flying, and possibly lay a beat down on the enemy shaman for you. (An army of preachers is also very frightening, just saying). Add to this the fact that your shaman can make them invisible and immune to spells and they can become nearly unstoppable.

The game ending Armageddon spell sends every player and all of their people into an arena to have it out. Winner takes all.

The computer doesn't play very smart but it was pretty good for 1997 AI. They mostly just sit back and let you build up, sending their shaman and a small raiding party to your village every so often. A well placed lightning bolt or swamp spell usually stops them before they get anywhere close to your village. Later in the campaign they are a bit more aggressive and the map terrain has you at a disadvantage. It's enough to be challenging to casual and beginning players but intermediate RTS players will be underwhelmed. Thankfully the campaign mixes it up with a puzzle map every so often in which you must win by figuring out the solution, usually under an unforgiving timer, instead of by power.

As for multiplayer this game was a blast. Who doesn't love sending hoards of yelling and screaming cavemen to your friend's village and who doesn't love blasting said hoards off a cliff? Who doesn't enjoy a spell slighathon of lightning, dragons, earthquakes, and tornadoes tearing up the map? This is where strategy and experimentation with the physics engine can yield incredible and hilarious results, especially with terraforming spells like land bridge, flatten, volcano, and erosion.

Populous 3 is not a serious strategy game, but it is incredibly fun and very well put together. You play this game for the physics and for messing with the poor little AI villagers. If you can stomach the graphics (which were pretty awesome back in 1997) then the campaign is fun, if a little samey by the end. If you have a group of friends who are willing to go in with you then this is a blast to play multiplayer.


Now there is a light theological point that needs to be addressed. Populous includes blatant idol worship. The little cavemen will literally fall down on their faces to worship the magic nodding heads, totems, and the shaman. Now for anyone who has read through their Bible you know that idol worship and the pursuit of magic are anathema and were a major point of contention between ancient Israel and her God. Obviously Christians should not worship idols so how could I recommend a game that includes idol worship?

My answer is that this is a silly caricature of idol worship in general, nothing that encourages, endorses, or even resembles Old Testament Baal / Ashera / Molech worship.

Yaka! Let the games begin!