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It's time to become a god

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 39 / 41
Date: May 20, 2000
Author: Amazon User

You are the shaman the leader of a primitive tribe, if you are to realise your dream of becoming a god, you must defeat your foes and conquer all 25 worlds in the solar system. To conquer the worlds you must use your minions, spells and houses. You could send a few fire warriors by boat for a devastating sea attack or send spies to burn their houses or say what the heck and use the volcano and wipe out their whole tribe. Build huge cities complete with civilian houses boat shacks, churches, spy huts, guard posts and many more. Have faith in the elements as you use 26 unique spells like the Tornado, Earthquake, lighting and Meteor shower spells. Then send your braves, warriors, fire warriors, priests and spies into battle against the enemy.

I must say that Populous is the best computer game I have ever played. With 25 highly detailed 3D levels you will find yourself playing until late at night. You can have your attacks as basic as you want to as complex as you want. The really good thing with this game is that not only do you have the normal close up view but you can have a view from outer space which is excellent when you want access your options before going into battle. Even though I haven't yet done it, you can your play friends or strangers over the Internet. I feel if you want to get the most out of populous you must have "direct 3D rendered" it just makes the game 3D accelerated and the landscape is more detailed and as just more clearer but if you don't direct 3D it doesn't matter that much. I take my hat off to bullfrog with an anther superb 3D strategy game. I can't wait until I play Dungeon keeper 2 which another bullfrog game. If you like Populous then look out for Dungeon keeper and Age of Empires they'll be up your ally. 5 stars.

A five-star game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 21 / 23
Date: November 30, 2000
Author: Amazon User

Populous: The Beginning is a great game, and does't have any downsides. You control a tribe in their quest to promote the Shaman to God. To achieve this, you must guide the tribe through 25 levels, destroying any enemy tribes in the way. There are many types of followers: braves, firewarriors, preachers, Shamen, warriors, and spies. The Shaman is the most powerful follower; she can perform 15 spells, such as volcanos, lightning, tornados, and earthquakes, as well as four very powerful spells, Armageddon, Bloodlust, Teleport, and Ghost Army. Each spell has its own use, to guard followers, attack enemies, and other uses. There are three enemy tribes: Matak (green), Chumara (yellow), and Dakini (red). Levels can have one, two, or all three enemy tribes that you must destroy. In each level, there are Vaults of Knowledge, Stone Heads, and/or other special things to help you. Some may give you new spells, others can destroy parts of the enemy. You can also build buildings, but your braves must build them for you. All of the buildings have different uses, such as training followers to be warriors or other special followers (except the Shaman), or to reproduce new braves, to increase the size of your tribe. Overall, this game is great, and has no flaws, yet it is difficult, especially the levels toward the end, so I would recommend this game to people who have patience, lightning-fast reflexes, and intelligence to form strategies.

Great graphics, an outstanding game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 9
Date: May 19, 2000
Author: Amazon User

I love this game. The graphics are beautiful, you can rotate the whole globe, and watch the mountains move below you. Watch the detailed sky, with clouds moving on in the wind. The gameplay is easy to learn, and there is a built-in tutorial section which teaches you the basics: casting spell, training warriors, building huts, and fighting the opponent. True, there are only five types of military units in this game, which you might not like after playing a game like Age of Kings for example, but the fighting looks great! And of course, the spells. Only your shaman can cast these powerful spells, so you must guard her with your troops. These spells include drastically changing the terrain, again with beutiful graphics while doing this. There are also attack spells, like lightning, which you can use tokill the enemy shaman or units. There are many more spells, which are very fun to try out. The whole game, in single-player mode, is your journey through different planets to gain control of a galaxy and become... a god! The levels get harder and harder, while giving you new spell to use, and step-by-step introducing the aspects of the game. The computer AI is smart enough in this game to give you a challange, which cant be said for all strategy games. Also, there is a multiplayer mode, where you can play with a friend on two computers (too bad it requires 2 CD's), or you can also play on the internet against other gamers! Summary: if you like a cool strategy game with beautiful graphics and great action, this game is 4 U. Thank you for reading my summary. If this helped you, please click YES below...

A very nice surprise!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 12
Date: February 14, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This game was a nice surprise. The cut scene movies they had were very cool and the game play was pretty fast paced. From training you guys to throw fire to flying around in a hotair ballon, this game offered alot of different was of reeking havoc. Especially your Shaman. Once powered up, the Shaman can unleash many spells such as earthquake, tornado, and volcano eruptions and believe me, these are very cool. You can garrison towers to use to your advantage as extra defense while you are attacking. Lots of cool features. You have plenty of battles to fight to get to the final confrontation and this is a very challenging game as it seems like every time you turn around, you are getting attacked again. And when you get to the final battle, well, you'll just have to see for yourself. Very cool. Probably closer to 4 1/2 stars.

I always wanted to become a god!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: January 05, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I love this game -- half sim, half war games! You are the shaman of a tribe. As you progress through the game levels, you gain more and more magical powers, and learn how to train your braves to be warriors, priests and fire-walkers. Many of your powers are earth-powers giving you the ability to make lightning, tornadoes, control swarms of hornets, volcanos, deadly swamps, etc. Your other powers give you the ability to hypnotize other tribes warriors, convert wild men to your braves, and create force fields around your warriors.

There are 25 levels. On each level you struggle with one to three other tribes, each with its own shaman. Your objective is to totally destroy each other tribe, including all its citizens and buildings. As with sims, you need to build housing so your tribe can grow, training facilities to train your warriors, priests and firewalkers, and build boats and balloons to carry your warriors into battle. The more warriors you have, the faster your magic is built up. Each time you destroy an opposing shaman, you gain some of her destructive magical power.

In the last level, you are divested of your body, and can travel anywhere on the last planet to cast destruction on your enemies. But, as you progress, you discover that a god without worshipers, like a shaman without warriors, cannot win.

The graphics are out of date as this game has been around for years (it only requires a 133MHz machine), but it does not stop the game from being fun and challenging. There is a lot of cartoon violence, so the game may not be suitable for younger children.

Populous the Beginning -- Beginning to get Addictive

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: December 19, 2000
Author: Amazon User

This is great! My little men run around, stand still, jump, build houses. When they fight, they don't leave blood and gore all over the place (hooray!), instead, they push and shove and kick. (Dare I say it, it's cute.) When they die, their spirits ascend upward. There is strategy involved, although after you play it so many times, the computer becomes predictable. The best part is the destruction -- earthquakes, volcanos, tornados. It's quite the stress reliever to unleash these on your enemies. Very dramatic. This is my favorite game. I just wish there were more missions ("worlds") available. (Anyone from EA listening out there?)

Really cool

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: March 19, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This game is a really good buy. Not only do you get to build villiages but you get to destroy your enemies by eroding the land under them and watching them run around like idiots when you cast a spell that involves a swarm of bees. Plus there are a full 20 levels of this. Just to give you a sense of how much these people thought of you can control a warrior that shoots fireballs out of his hands, a freaky lady wearing a mask called the shaman that can cast spells from lightning bolts to conjuring up a flying dragon that eats up people then spits them back out again. If you like the age of empires series then you will probably like this game just as much.

Conquer the Planatery System with a Shaman

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 14 / 22
Date: March 23, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This is a build & conquer game, but one in which conquest often requires solving a unique challenge. There are fewer routes to greatness than in a game like Sim City or Civilization. The nature of the challenges & the limited number of resources keep the number of options reasonable.

Populous resides in the genre somewhere between arcade games and strategy games. Unlike Civilization and Alpha Centauri, events happen in real-time; there are no turns. Step away from the computer to take a phone call and you can find your team quickly eliminated.

The graphics are OK, and the game is efficient enough to run on even a 200 MHz Cyrix, if you turn the music off and run on a small screen. It's an interesting game, some of the challenges can be quite puzzling, but I don't find it as addicting as Alpha Centauri.

(If you've enjoyed this review, please leave positive feedback. Click the "about me" link to read my other Amazon reviews. Thanks!)

He, he! Look at the Cute Little Braves....

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: July 02, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Populous: The Beginning is possibly THE cutest Command and Conquer type game EVER!! Its humorous 3D cartoon-like graphics add a good deal of relief to the sometimes frustrating level difficulties. Combat is actually made some-what funny what with all the wild cries of Warriors clashing in battle. Magical spells cast by a Shaman can cause enemy units to scream histerically and run around like idiots. And maybe best of all, the fact that after winning a level (a.k.a. world), all your followers stop what they were doing, dance, cheer non-stop, and sometimes make Kongo lines.

Apart from the amusing graphics, Populous has extremely addictive gameplay. The mouse clicking skill needed is relatively high.

This game deserves any and all high ratings it gets and should be on all PC gamer's lists of games-to-buy. Its inexpensive price tag makes up for the minor drawbacks it has. If you're still reading and not buying than you're wasting your time. Buy Populous: The Beginning, put the disk in the drive, and then start using your time more efficiently!!

Total Challenge/Fun

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: August 02, 2006
Author: Amazon User

About 6 months ago my 14 year old son downloaded the demo of this game (we had never heard of this game before) from a Sim City 3000 disk, and then he got me into the game. We just recently found the full version on Amazon, after searching video and p.c. game stores all over the valley we live in to no avail.

We have both gotten into the game pretty big time. My son loves the cheats, but I try to do it the harder, but more challenging way. Thats what I love about this game. IT IS CHALLENGING. The graphics are pretty good, but that does not take away from the game at all!!!!.

Reading other reviews I came across a couple that were trying to disuade people from buying this game, well, I recommend buying it! One other that I came across and I hope this person reads this ( I dont know if it will help or not) cuz they say that they cant get the game to run with XP, but when we loaded it we have had no problems running it on XP -- maybe because you have to have the disk in the drive?

Well from a person who just likes to play, regardless of graphics or whatever, this game is awesome.

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