Happened on this 1998 game by sheer chance and I’m really digging it! As far as I can tell it was never popular. It’s a mixture of an RTS and a “god game” where one unit (your shaman) is very powerful & special (chess analogy: sort of like mixing the central role of the king & with the power of the queen).
Strong “tribal” vibes that were popular in the '90s (think Deep Forest music, the game Riven, etc). Very nostalgic for me as I was a kid at the time. I’m playing the PSX version, looks like the PC version was even better!
Has anyone ever heard of this “Populous” series? I’m curious to try other titles, and to try more in the “god game” genre (a genre I never even knew existed!). Any other “god games” worth checking out?
Ah, I thought populous was more popular than that. I guess it was just popular in my friend group at the time. Would have been populous 1 and 2 we were playing, I didn’t even know a third one came out. I guess the most recent god game would be Godus, developed by peter molyneux’s current company. Essentially a modern sequel to populous 1 and 2. I haven’t actually tried it yet, last I looked it was still in beta or early access or something. And it looks like that makes sense as it apparently has been in early access for over 10 years… it seems decently high rated, but that is kind of concerning none the less.
Godus was a huge disappointment, basically a “what if Populous was a mobile skinner-box clicker with time-gating and micro-transactions?”
Makes sense.