Gods. They're absolutely bonkers, aren't they? Just look at the wombat. Completely bonkers animal. How are you supposed to take the whole theological argument seriously when the deities in question are obviously a few Harry Secombes short of a Welsh male voice choir?

And I know why the gods are crazy. Yes. I know the reason for all the world's problems. Famines, floods, volcanoes, Top of the Pops, earthquakes. I know why they all happen. It's because - and steady yourselves for a fairly cosmic revelation - we are all little Populous people. Think about it. It all starts to make perfect sense, doesn't it? We're all under control of some huge pan-dimensional being who's busily trying to finish some huge, pan-dimensional game of Populous. Our entire existences are just figments of a gigantic inter-spatial Amiga. Weird or what? Well, it made sense at the time. I suppose you have to get drunk first.

Anyway, that's enough philosophy and theology for one review. Let's take a look at the steaming pot of noodles that is Populous II.
Where to begin? That's the question isn't it? How can a mere mortal even begin to explain the mind-boggingly divine entity that was, and is, Populous? It was, of course, the game that launched a million imitators. Well, one or two at least. And to be fair, they made the original Populous look a bit worn around the fringes and tassly bits.

So, not being ones to suffer such abuse lightly, Bullfrog have taken off the gloves and prepared to kick some serious rump with Populous II. And believe me, there's some distressingly bruised rumps out there tonight.

Populous II takes the basic idea of the first and builds on it to make it a much more involved and detailed game that its predecessor. The main criticism of the original is that all you seemed to do was flatten land and occasionally make a mess of your opponent's settlements with the odd disaster. And with hindsight, it was true. The game might have introduced a whole new genre, but after a few hundred levels it got flamin' boring as well.

To combat this niggle, Bulffrog have made everything in Poppie II much bigger and better than ever before. There's more disasters, with more emphasis on destruction and all round nastiness. The little Poppie people are more varied ,as are the buildings, the scenery and, er, the crisp flavours.

'Tis not only the graphics that have been made firmer and more robust, the sounds has been beefed right up as well with plenty of crackling fires, howling winds and screaming little Poppie people. All doing wonders for your ego and giving you a dangerous messiah complex. The power, the power. He he he he he he he. Die, little people, die. He he he he he he . Ahem.

And as if by magic, the gameplay has been polished, spruced up and had all the nobbly bits chipped off it. It's now been shifted to Ancient Greece, where all the gods were completely off their trees, and each god has unique specialities and playing techniques. And to keep it from repetition that flawed the first game, there's more to do now than ever before.

The new disasters are really violent and much more satisfying than the old ones. The earthquake for instance, sends huge cracks thundering across the land, swallowing up all and sundry. The whirlwind, er, whirls about and scoops up any bods in the way, dumping them miles from home, or, if you're really lucky, in the sea. And if the whirlwind goes over the sea, it creates loads of whirlpools which wander the oceans and destroy any land in their path.

Fire disasters will burn any building or person they touch, and leave behind a charred wasteland that can't be built on unless you level it out again. Blimey. That's just a small number of disasters at your fingertips, but they're almost all infeasibly wonderful.

It's not all warmongering and strife, though. There are icons to do nice things as well, such as planting trees and flowers in your settlements to make life nicer for your people, or building roads for them. There's even an icon that creates little pools, and when a Poppie person falls into one they switch sides, from red to blue or vice versa. These can reek havoc in the enemy's settlements, but then of course your new found worshippers can fall back into the pool and revert to the way they were. Careful planning is required to make best use of them.

Strategy wise, for each world you conquer, you'll get some experience points from Zeus (top Greek god bloke) depending on just how skilfully you managed your god-like powers. These can then be used to build up your prowess in one of the six elements.

For instance, if you build up your prowess in the fire element then you'll be much better at using fire disasters, and so on. Each time you upgrade your powers, you' ll be given a password that will restore them to your new level, when you restart the game. This password coupled with the password for each world means that you can start the game exactly how and where you left off. A save game feature would have been a lot less hassle, but then Bullfrog always have moved in mysterious ways.

So the big question is "Is it a worthy sequel?", and the answer is "Yes", in a booming voice. It's tons more playable than the original and, in my humble opinion, more playable than all the pretenders to its throne. The new disasters are sexy beyond belief, and the 1,000 levels mean that there's no chance of it being a "one weekend to finish" affair. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that this is, ooh, it's, blimey, it's ooh I've gone all light-headed just thinking about it. Wibble. Rush out, buy it and see it for yourselves, OK? I'm going to lie down in a dark room for a bit.

Religion has caused more wars than anything else in human history, so nobody should notice a few more. This is what Populous 2 does best, set up two opposing deities and let them sort out who's boss. The sequel is couched in Greek myth and legend and picks up from where the mighty Populous left off. But is it just the same game with whistles and bells or have Bullfrog performed another coding miracle?

Version 2 is a power trip. The power of life and death, the ability to bring down a rain of fire, the power to send tidal waves crashing across cities are all yours to command. With these powers you must conquer the world. Currently, it is a land of heathen folk who prey the graven images of your Olympian competitors, but adept displays of your abilities will start the populace worshipping you.

The people live below, on a series of scattered islands which must be conquered one-by-one. The initial battles are fought with a few lowly powers against a sluggish, stupid foe. Conquer them and you move up the god league ladder, to take on more capable deities using increasingly pokey powers.

Battle Isles
Gods need followers to flourish. At the start of each island battle, a few already worship you - some folk will believe anything! - and a few pray to your foe. It is from the devotions of your followers that your power stems. Promote their existence while inhibiting those pledged to your foe and your powers increase as the population grows. The prayers your people offer up is measured as 'mana' and this is what gives gods clout.

For each island you will receive a set of powers with which to protect, promote and punish the population. Each power costs mana to use, and the pokier the effect the more prayer power it costs. Working on a direct debit system, your mana level automatically displays and deducts the cost of each power. This symbiotic relationship of god-to-people and power-to-mana, dictates your actions throughout the game.

The range of powers depends on the island. Gods always have the power to raise and lower land, to summon followers to their 'Papal Magnet' and to invoke Armageddon. On offer are 27 other effects and it is these which make Populous 2 a classic spectator sport. Swamps that suck foes to their doom can be placed in cities, hurricanes blow buildings into the sea, whirlpools erode their land and fire-storms can raise entire forests. These all cost major mana, but their judicious use is both amusing and effective. The downside of this is that the opponent god is also gathering mana and anything you can do he can do - better? Gods that spend their time gloating can have smiles wiped in seconds when they realise that while they flooded the enemy town their own one was being turned into ash. Play against the computer and you're assured a major fight, play down the wire against a friend and it's venom spitting time!

God!
The populace of Populous are a hardly and obedient breed - which is just as well. If you clear land and slap them in 'Settle mode' they instantly build houses. Clear more space and their shack becomes a hall, and then a mansion, which becomes a castle. And the better their living conditions the more praise - mana - they offer up. Better housing offers them greater protection though, so they tend to be a homely bunch, and have to be forcefully clicked from their house to go to war or visit the Papal Magnet.

Leaders are important to these people too. You can create one by hitting 'Go to Papal Magnet Mode' and the first man or woman there becomes your leader. People who follow them there are then absorbed into the leader, making them more efficient. This leader adds to the tribe's sense of security and can become a potent weapon in the Populous armoury. Leaders can become knights who seek the nearest enemy in an attempt to slay unbelievers. Both dogmatic and stupid they often need land raised from the sea to reach their foes, but the mana investment is worth it when you see the carnage they cause.

Battle Command
Each island war opens with the small population scattered about the map and with the worship ratio 50:50 between gods. Neither god has much mana and all you can do is move your Papal Magnet or begin reforming land. Dragging the magnet about is good for morale but levelling the land starts the settlers settling.
Soon the mana begins to build up and the map metamorphoses as both gods crazily create lebensraum.

The gameplay shifts modes when the mana balance builds up. War erupts suddenly and thunder clouds appear above towns threatening lightning, columns of fire wreck key buildings and conversion pools suddenly start changing the peoples' allegiance. The once small island, swiftly changes complexion as tidal waves destroy entire cities and causeways are created to allow armies to cross. The battle rages until one god has the upper hand and then it's Armageddon time - when both sides populations become knights and the ownership of the islands is decided in one final fight.

Victorious deities are rewarded with awards which can be spent to customise their powers. Any of the six power types can be invested in, or the awards can be scattered around them all and only time will tell if you made the right choices for your style of play.

The new skills will be needed though, because your score on the last island determines where you'll fight next. There are over 1,000 islands in total but fast learning gods can leap frog through early levels, advancing until they find their own degree of difficulty.

The more advanced powers are offered slowly, and only given en masse on the later islands, providing the incentive (as if any were needed) for the long-term play. A good 'saved game' god will be needed if you want to use volcanoes or hurricanes on the field of battle.
Populous plays fast and loose. It has an absorbing edge that draws you into the world you control. Your divine rod is the mouse and the cursor soon flies around the screen, dictating the outcome of this deity showdown.

Beautifully crafted graphics combine with the overriding design principal of playability. Helpful information inconspicuously fills the screen, ready to read with just an eye flick away. There's power here and it's as easy to use, as it is to let it go straight to your head.

Megalomania
The power of Populous is not just cerebral however. The speed of the play goes unnoticed, but the fast moving map and crisp mouse responses allow real high-paced action. Once embroiled in a battle you find yourself unconsciously drawn closer to the monitor in a bid to absorb all the information the screen has to offer. Start playing and the games only seem to last for few minutes, but look at your watch and hours have passed. Strangely, sacrificing evening and weekends somehow seems worth it when you reach giddy new god heights.

Populous 2 hits the imagination where it hurts, every action is seen and can be believed. The deity drama is fully acted out with small bright sprites fighting, burning, building and drowning. They may only be tiny pixel people, but the precise artwork helps bring the abstract god concept home. You do have the power to change the map. You do have the power of life and death.

Powermonger
Populous 1 set the world alight with its sheer originality. This should have handicapped Populous 2 because god games are now commonplace, but it is strangely liberated by it. Now the genre is established it doesn't have to labour to get the concept across, so Populous 2 is free to explore the possibilities of the game form.Populous 2 is not a rerun, quick copy or a cop out. It encompasses grand game ideas and presents them in a way that encourages players to explore the realms of their Amiga's given powers. You don't have to have been an aficionado of the first game to play, the principals can be learned in minutes, but players of Populous 2 will feel they've found the promised land.

You are given tools and a challenge and you have to supply the solutions, but every player will have their own. The game creates an environment and offers you powers to affect it. The problems are proffered in the design of each map and the effects allotted for it, but the outcome depends on the strategies you conjure up in the heat of battle. 30 effects would be enough for any mere mortal of a game, but Populous 2 is a god game and escapes such frailties.

All the powers that can flash forth from the cursor have hidden depths. The tornadoes that you use to whisk the other gods' worshippers away have positive uses too. If there's a city wall that your troops cannot breach, then judicious use of a whirlwind can waft them over it and into battle.

Trees planted to please the population can become a deadly fire-trap if a forest fire spreads, fatal for any troops wandering through. Tornadoes that wander over water start land-eating whirlpools. These simpler tricks soon become obvious, but off the wall, hatstand combinations often yield unexpected benefits. Their discovery lies in an understanding of each power and the ability to prise yourself from the present situation and look the facts in a cold gameplay light.

Captive
So where's the catch? What's the downside? Well, there isn't really one. A few minor niggles could be labelled as 'faults' but only for pedantic reasons. The heavy weight of animation sometimes strains the Amiga so it slows slightly, but then so much is happening that your brain's reeling too. The real pain with it is that any free time is swiftly swallowed in play. You may not mind, but family and friends will be seeing an awful lot less of you once you boards this godly roller coaster ride to ultimate power.

Populous 2 is a sequel, but in the best sense. It takes an all-time classic and reshapes its essential elements into something new. The concept remains the same, with an almighty being able to change the world at the push of a button. But, the development and changes radically transform the game. In comparison Populous was a puzzle game, where each island had a solution and finding it was the challenge. Populous 2 is a game that poses a problem but expects no specific solution. The difference is subtle but vital. With the inclusion of more powers and a radically streamlined display that looks less cluttered, Populous 2 comes from the rich gameplay family of Populous and Powermonger, but is the wealthiest of them all.

Populous 2 stands a top of the games Olympus. It has everything a game should offer: it's fast to play but provides a long-term challenge; it balances control speed with tactical depth in a way that hitherto looked impossible; while excellent effects and swift moving graphics ensure that Populous 2 looks as good as it plays.

If you thought that your Amiga ran on mains power you're wrong. It was built to consume mana, vast amounts of it. Plug into the Populous 2 circuit and feel these god-like abilities flow through the mouse and onto the screen. Bullfrog invented the god game as we know it and have brought the full force of their skills to beat in the sequel. Kiss your weekends goodbye, the game of the year is here!

It's hard to know quite how to approach a game like Populous II. It is, after all, the sequel to arguably the most celebrated and original Amiga game ever., and lots of you will know exactly what it's all about, have a fair idea how it works, and really just want to know out of a review is if it's any good or not. To impatient Populous fans with thirty quid burning a hole in their pockets then: yes, it's excellent, go out and buy it now.

For the rest of us, however - especially those who've not had their Amigas more than a year or so - some explanation is in order. Populous II - like its parent - is one of those games that sounds incredibly complicated when you try to explain it, but is (a few of the more sophisticated subtleties aside) remarkably easy to play. It is, in essence, an extremely action packed and varied strategy game, but one with a twist - instead of playing some earthbound general, stuck up on a mountain top somewhere directing the flow of battle, you play god.

This isn't God mind you, but merely a god - ancient Greek this time (in the first Populous the time and religion were unspecific) - with one clear mission in mind, to make his people the dominant race on the map. In each world scenario - and there are a thousand in the game - the randomly computer generated map places two settlements on the landscape: blue guys (that's your lot!) and red ones (boo!) who worship one of a series of rival deity's. The game evolves as a battle of wits between yourself and the rival god, the people on the map below mere pawns in your conflicting schemes of things.

Being gods there are, of course, hundreds of god-like things each of you can do to try and destroy the other's people - thrown thunderstorms at them, or whirlwinds, or tidal waves - but equally important is building up the strength of your own worshipers. The most important basic way of doing that is to give them enough flat land to expand onto - settlements can only grow on plains - which you do by raising and lowering the ground around them.

It really is as easily said as done - select an area of land with the mouse cursor and one button lowers it, the other raises it, in no time at all creating a nice flat plain. Already you'll see new settlements crop up and existing ones expand as your little computer people get to the business of (ahem) breeding - each time a house gets full up (shown by the height of the blue flag outside) a person leaves and starts a new one, though you can speed things up by clicking on the roots of houses to get people to leave before they're totally full. In no time at all you'll get quite a nifty city building up, at which point it might be worth popping over to the other side of the map to see how your opponent's doing - happily, the computer god you're put up against in the early games is crap at creating flat land, so you should be able to beat him on sheer weight of numbers alone.

Still, let's assume this is a half-way decent god we're up against. Over there the situation will probably be quite similar to your own - a number of settlements building up, his numbers increasing and so on. (You can check out how well the two of you are doing by looking at the people in the stadium on the top right of your screen). Time to do some damage, quite clearly - it's in the myriad ways that you can wreak destruction on your opponent's people that much of Populous II's appeal comes. As a beginner god you're fairly limited in the number and power of disasters you can control - abilities build up as you defeat more and more opponents, each rival god grudgingly allowing you a smidgen of experience as reward for having beaten him - but there's still a fair range available, and a lot you can do with each one.

Take the column of fire, for instance - you can set one of these going in the middle of the enemy's town, and watch as it burns up any houses or little people foolish enough to get in its way.
Unfortunately, columns of fire are fairly unpredictable - you can't decide with any accuracy exactly where it's going to ignite, or what direction it'll move in once you've got it going - and there is an easy defense against them. IF the defending god sets up a mountain nearby, the fire will head towards it (it's drawn towards high land) where it'll eventually fizzle out. Learning defenses and counter-measures to enemy attacks is much of the skill of Populous, but so is finding new ways of mixing your own aggressive abilities for more devastating effect - a lone column of fire won't be half as effective as one dropped on a largely wooded area, for instance, where it'll create a raging forest fire. (You might be wise to plant a few trees on enemy soil before you use one, in fact).

And that, in its basic form, is the game. Yes, it can get incredibly complicated - when things are going wrong you often find yourself caught up in desperate fire fighting attempts, running frantically around the map trying to save what's left of your people, while at the same time attempting to attack your enemy (and hopefully cause him enough problems to create yourself some breathing space). That the number and power of effects you can generate is directly dictated by the amount of manna (a product of the happiness and numbers of your people) you possess means that when things go wrong they go very wrong - you'll be hard pushed to counter a volcano, say, when you've only got three hut-loads of people left, and they're obviously not at their most relaxed and spiritual when there's white-hot lava bubbling through the carpet!

It can be an incredibly frustrating, tear-your-hair-out experience - but then, it's meant to be. Happily things are paced beautifully, so how well you do against each god dictates just how tough the next scenario will be - when you're in trouble it's because you've mucked things up, not because the game's being incredibly unfair to you. If there's one thing Populous II boasts, it's a lovely learning curve - progress is just tough enough to keep you guessing, just easy enough to make every new opponent seem at least potentially beatable.

But hold it a minute! Describing things in terms of progress though the game does this no favours at all - it makes Populous II sound like something with set levels, set ways of solving puzzles, set objectives and a finite end. It isn't. Perhaps this is one reason why many people respect Populous but have never actually played it, why so many reviews of it are so unfocused and woolly as soon as they've got past the "you play a god" bit. Perhaps it's easiest to think of most computer games as a set series of puzzles linked together - there's an argument to say they're are not actually true 'games' at all. There's always a 'right' way to do it, whether that be by working out the correct route in an FRP game or the exact correct split second to move your joystick in a shoot-'em-up - it's practice that makes perfect to a large extent, rather than skill.

Populous isn't like that - it's more like chess, or football, or running around shooting paint-ball pellets at people in a forest, or any other 'real' game you happen to fancy. By that, I mean it forms a game structure with various things you're allowed to do and various things you can't - what happens within those constraints is really up to you. You can solve any one 'problem' = defeating a certain rival god - in a so-close-to-infinite-it's-not-worth-counting number of ways, such are the number of effects and tactics you can juggle.
And things are even more open when you take on a human opponent (through linked machines) - it's just about the closest computer games have come to a genuine competitive sport, head-to-head flight sims perhaps excepted.

And that - more than any of the slick programming, or the spectacular visuals, or the very rightness of the whole idea - is what makes it a dead cert as one of the few games it'd ever be worth the bother of taking to a desert island with you. You wouldn't ever complete it as such, and even if you got tired of it after a while, you could guarantee you'd be reaching for it again eventually - it's just not the sort of game you'll never fully exhaust the possibilities of.

When you add to that the resurgence of interest that's bound to happen when Bullfrog get around to releasing the inevitable World disks (ideas currently being kicked around include a Norse gods disk or an Egyptian gods one - though the fact that Bullfrog claim not to know the first thing about either culture, coupled with the wait we've had for the Powermonger disk, makes us suspect it'll be later rather than sooner), you've got a game that people won't just be playing for the next six months, but for years to come.

Yes, existing Populous fans may balk a bit at the idea that Populous II is in many ways just Populous 1 writ large, not genuinely a new game at all (though every component that goes towards making it up is new), and the more dedicated arcade heads might find it a little bit too cold blooded to be interesting (their loss), but the fact remains that there'll be few better ways to spend your time this Christmas.

For once £30 for a game doesn't seem a bit steep (or worse) but an unbelievable bargain, and you can't really praise it more than that.

Let's make things clear right away. You don't have to be a fan of the original game to enjoy this bigger, brighter, and better omnipotent outing. The basic core of the game remains exactly the same. As a divine being, you have a group of followers from whom you derive power in your quest for ultimate greatness.

As Vic Reeves, Britain's top entertainer and roundabout Populous fan, recently revealed in an interview, you basically just raise and lower land so your people can spread out, build cute little houses and generally prosper. Gods can also have some fun, though. If your followers have produced enough power, known as manna, you can invoke the odd catastrophe, such as an earthquake or volcano. The latter disaster is the nearest Populous comes to a smart bomb. What's the downside? Your godly opponent is doing exactly the same thing. The winner is the one who totally wipes out the opposition first.

Dedicated Populous players are probably shouting: "What's the difference, then?". Well, for a start, there's a new storyline. You are the mortal offspring of Zeus, out to prove you can handle absolute power. Every level of the original was essentially the same - but you now can face an epic struggle against over fifty Greek gods, titans and mythological creatures. With this kind of tough challenge, it's a good job Molyneus and his gang have carefully invented a hefty Pandora's Box of horrible calamities to inflict on those poor unsuspecting mortals. Not only that, the actual playfield itself has undergone a complete facelift.

GOD HAVE MERCY
At the start of play, you can customise the face of your god. Want to look like a beautiful woman or shifty scholar? No problem. This isn't just graphical nicety, the game alters depending on your portrait. If you design a mean-looking geezer, for instance, you're going to encounter more aggressive opponents. It doesn't mean that it's any easier or harder, it's simply different.

Each of the thirty-something gods have their own strengths and play characteristics. Ares, God of War, isn't very intelligent but has great power and strength. You'll have to be cunning with him instead of brutish. You don't have to be Einstein to guess Poseidon, Lord of the Seas, is going to cast some watery effects. Demeter, Goddess of Fertility, can obviously call upon a fast-growing number of followers, so make sure that you wipe them out. Luckily, there's a briefing before you confront every new opponent.

Not all the gods are invincible colossi. Things start out with the likes of a God of Shepherds and Epimetheus, the weedy titan in charge of Afterthought. Prometheus, brother of Epimetheus, stole fire from the sun to give to mankind for which Zeus had him chained to a rock while an eagle ripped out his regenerating liver every day. I don't believe he's going to be that interested in your empire building, right?

GIVE ME STRENGTH
Your godly skills will be stretched every time you play the game. As there are 1000 worlds to journey through, be prepared for a few surprises along the way. The best players are the ones who use common sense and take a few risks.

The worlds of Populous are alive with ocean, coastlines, fertile and barren lands, swamps, hills, mountains, trees, buildings, people and the sound of music. Well actually, it's the sound of a heartbeat which starts off slowly and calmly, but becomes erratic during the heat of the battle.

Settlements range from primitive huts and workshops to intricate villas, fortresses and temples. You're able to make entire towns complete with city walls, gate-houses and roads - but this takes plenty of manna. The flag on each building denotes how many people are inside and whose side they're on.

Of course, the more followers you have and the greater their achievements, the more power you wield. Your people mainly look for unsettled flat land. Once there, they will build the largest settlement possible. Like real lfe, people grow tired from exhaustion and lack of vital supplies. Terrain makes a difference. Grassy fertile lowlands are the easiest to populate but far more susceptible to tidal waves.

A deity can only influence the behaviour of its people and perform occasional divine intervention. The Papal Magnet acts as a beacon for your followers and can be placed anywhere on the Map. However, a leader is needed to relocate it. You can command your people to look for enemies to attack. If none are in the vicinity, they will go back to their favourite hobby, home improvement. Added to this, mortals have a higher degree of freewill than before. There are old men, young buxom blondes, soldiers, etc.

During play, your attention is split between an overall Map of the world in the top-right section of the screen and a Close-up isometric-3D representation of the events. All the game command icons are situated around the side of this Close-up, which takes centre stage. This is the area of the world where you directly influence the populace using icons for adding or removing layers of terrain, invoking a catastrophe of godly proportions, and so on.

With the default mode, a pointer is placed anywhere on the Close-up to raise and lower land, although in some worlds you should already have a house on the screen. A right click of the mouse while the pointer is on one of your settlements instructs some of the people inside to move house. The more manna you gather, the more commands you can execute. Keep an eye on the red manna bar to check the current status.

If you're having difficulties, you might try letting the computer give you a few handy hints and prompts. A coliseum under construction in the upper right-hand portion of the screen is the final ingredient. This indicates the size of the two tribes as they grow, and it also displays other useful information.

GOD GRIEF
Experience gained can be attributed to six elements: People, Vegetation, Earth, Air, Fire and Water. You therefore decide what sort of power you can excel at. Effects become more and more powerful as the game progresses. Casting a volcano will produce a wimpy effort at first with just two lava flows. Later on, if you put all your experience into Earth, it will create a monstrous structure that takes up a quarter of the world.

So far, so good. What about these new effects? One of my favourites is Plague. This causes your opponent's houses or people to become riddles with an infectious and fatal disease. These people will no longer give manna to their god and spread the plague to anyone they touch. They're identified by a screeching black bird circling high above. Another neat trick is to place down some fungus. The way it spreads is determined by the pattern in which it was sown.

Most of these effects can backfire. Your people are just as susceptible to plague as the opposition. Creating forests is great for the environment but these can quickly be turned into infernos.

The knight in the original Populous has been replaced with six Heroes, one for each element. A Hero allows you to turn the leader into a more effective killing machine for a limited amount of time. Heroes like Hercules are masters at breaking bones, chewing gristle and all sorts of horrible things. Perseus, the people's hero, is very similar to the original knight except he is far more intelligent. Bellerophon is a half-man, half-tree beastie. Whenever he wins a battle, Bellerophon splits into two and causes double the trouble. Earth-champion, Hercules, is super-strong and capable of taking on many an adversary, while air-head Odysseus is the swiftest of all the heroes. Achilles, the arsonist, is surrounded by a mantle of flames and will burn anything he comes into contact with. The strangest of the heroes is Helen of Sparta. She is very beautiful and anyone who sees her will follow Helen wherever she goes, even to their watery doom.

GRACE OF GOD
Armageddon is the most devastating effect and requires a tremendous amount of manna. Make sure your population heavily outnumbers your opponents because once Armageddon has been called into play, you cannot alter the flow of events.

The best parts of the original game have been retained, while the gameplay has been further enhanced by some stunning special effects and more in-depth challenges. The result is, in a single word, incredible. Populous 2 unreservedly receives my vote for game of the nineties. But don't just take my word for it...

So you can conquer all 1,000 worlds in Populous II and regularly trash your mates blindfolded but still you want more? Then you obviously need therapy - and a copy of Populous II - The Challenge Games.

Here are 500 new worlds to play, with the added bonus of "stunning Japanese graphics and sprites" and 42 challenges. Oh, and a new Divine Intervention thrown in for good measure. The 500 worlds are just that. Big deal. Apart from new oriental visuals (ho hum), there is nothing innovative on offer - and certainly nothing you could not put together in a time-consuming sitting with the CUSTOM GAME option. No, I am afraid it is standard expansion disk fare here.

The challenges on the other hand, all 42 of them, are more inventive and along the lines of 'Can you do this before the time limit expires but without that and the other ability available?". It is the sort of stuff I'd expect to see printed in magazines and not have to fork out 15 hard-earneds for, only it'd be tricky to create these challenges on the standard Pop II. The first handful of challenges are easy peasy lemon squeezy tutorials (with a HINT for the complete divs) to the point of being condescending. For example, in the very first challenge a lone subject wanders aimlessly on a small plot of basalt. You have approximately 30 seconds to realise that in order for at least 10 percent of your population to survive, the only option is to vegetate the land and get sproggin pronto (although how you are going to manage that with only one little chap, I am not too sure) to win.

In Challenge Number Two, it so happens that your chaps have erected walls to form three sides of a square. An enemy hero is attacking and he can stroll straight in and pummel your people. What should you do with that gaping hole?

Challenge Three: A tidal wave will wipe out your tribe unless you can move the people and ensure that at least 10 percent are saved. By the time you reach Challenge Six, the HINTs have dried up and your people have an impending sense of doom. Maybe it would be wise to move them. Why? Their tiny settlement suddenly bursts into flames. Oh dear. Get the idea?

The challenges get tougher, with more tidal waves and having to boost your people's morale after their leader's popped his clogs. But the time limits stay tighter than a fish's bottom.

In some ways it is a bit like having an Action Man ("It is NOT a doll.") and buying extra kit for him.

Fiddling around with icons at high speed is not a bundle of laughs. There is too much disk accessing, too, which hardly befits these time-sensitive challenges. It seems as if more time is spent waiting between challenges than is actually spent playing them. It is a bit cack, really.
Come to think of it, I never did fancy Populous' interface much. And I certainly never got off on the restrictions imposed. That is like learning to drive a car and then someone saying: wouldn't it be fun if you had to drive blindfolded? Or with no brakes?" No it wouldn't.
Populous II: The Challenge Games gets right up my nose, and you must be a Populous pervert if you'd pick it.