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Populous™: The Beginning

in library

4.5/5

( 334 Reviews )

4.5

334 Reviews

English
5.995.99
Why buy on GOG.COM?
DRM FREE. No activation or online connection required to play.
Safety and satisfaction. Stellar support 24/7 and full refunds up to 30 days.
Populous™: The Beginning
Description
Includes Populous the Beginning and the Undiscovered Worlds expansion. Shaman, the path is laid before you. Your destiny is to become a god! But it will not be easy. Not for you, and not for your followers. To become a deity, you must conquer all 25 planets of the system and defeat every other trib...
User reviews

4.5/5

( 334 Reviews )

4.5

334 Reviews

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Product details
1998, Bullfrog Productions, ESRB Rating: Teen...
System requirements
Windows 10, 1.8 GHz, 2 GB RAM, 3D graphics card compatible with DirectX 9.0c, 2 GB HDD...
Time to beat
23.5 hMain
30 h Main + Sides
32.5 h Completionist
26.5 h All Styles
Description
Includes Populous the Beginning and the Undiscovered Worlds expansion.

Shaman, the path is laid before you. Your destiny is to become a god! But it will not be easy. Not for you, and not for your followers. To become a deity, you must conquer all 25 planets of the system and defeat every other tribe and their shamans. The ultimate struggle will be a difficult one, as you build mystical cities, unleash devastating spells, harness volcanoes and tornadoes, and shape the face of the planet at your will. Remember, your apotheosis awaits!

In the third part of the Populous series, you control your shaman and the tribe of her followers in a difficult quest to conquer all 25 planets of a star system and ascend to godhood. For the first time in the series, the world is presented in true 3d, which at the time amazed both the players and the gaming press.The level of control you exert over your followers also takes you to a new level: you can order individuals or groups to perform certain tasks like gathering resources, constructing buildings, or attacking your enemies.

Populous: The Beginning takes a slightly different approach from the previous installments of the series but this is not, by any means, a bad thing as it kept the series fresh and innovative. It was a bold move for Bullfrog but the proof exists in the fact that, after all these years Populous 3 is still a great strategy god-game.

© 1998, 2012 Electronic Arts Inc.

Goodies
manual reference card
System requirements
Minimum system requirements:

ACCEPTANCE OF END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT REQUIRED TO PLAY

ACCEPTANCE OF END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT REQUIRED TO PLAY

Why buy on GOG.COM?
DRM FREE. No activation or online connection required to play.
Safety and satisfaction. Stellar support 24/7 and full refunds up to 30 days.
Time to beat
23.5 hMain
30 h Main + Sides
32.5 h Completionist
26.5 h All Styles
Game details
Works on:
Windows (10, 11)
Release date:
{{'1998-11-30T00:00:00+02:00' | date: 'longDate' : ' +0200 ' }}
Size:
394 MB
Rating:
ESRB Rating: Teen (Animated Violence)

Game features

Languages
English
audio
text
GOG Preservation Program
We make games live forever! Since 2008 we enhance good old games ourselves, to guarantee convenience and compatibility with modern systems. Even if the original developers of the game do not support it anymore.
  1. This game will work on current and future most popular Windows PC configurations. DRM-free.
  2. This is the best version of this game you can buy on any PC platform.
  3. We are the only platform to provide tech support for the games we sell. If some issues with the game appear, our Tech Support will help you solve them.
What improvements we made to this game:
Update (13 November 2024)
  • Updated DXWrapper to the latest version, ensuring smoother performance and compatibility
  • Validated stability
  • Verified compatibility with Windows 10 and 11
  • Added Cloud Saves support
Internal Hotfix (06 July 2021)
  • Rolled back accidental wrapper downgrade
I Internal Hotfix (02 July 2021)
  • Fixed possible DEP-related crashes
Internal Hotfix (16 July 2019)
  • Fixed a typo in registry keys that could cause problems pre-Win10
Update (15 July 2019)
  • Added Windows 10 compatibility to the game
Buy series (3)
Buy all games in the series. If you already own a game from the series, it won’t be added to your cart.
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User reviews
Overall most helpful review

Posted on: April 18, 2012

grimpunch

Verified owner

Games: 73 Reviews: 2

This game made me a game developer

This was the first pc game I played that made me go "WOW" and inspired me. Everything I do as a game developer, I wholly attribute to this game. This is the game that made me want to make games for a living. :) Buy it, play it. love it. It's the best strategy game ever, the sense of power and emergent gameplay from spell use is just amazing. You can't go wrong with Populous..


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Posted on: April 18, 2012

BertieDastard

Verified owner

Games: 401 Reviews: 1

Thank you, GOG.com. Thank you!

This game is, without a doubt, my favourite game ever. When I was little, this was THE first pc game I ever played; I was given it by my cousin, who found it boring, but I loved it. Working your way from level to level, finding new and ingenious ways of winning- and some of these levels were particularly difficult or tricky, requiring good timing, or management, to complete (level 16, I'm looking at you). With all kinds of fun powers, from the regular ones like a basic bolt, to the extremely fun to use- volcanoes and angels of death- this game as a pleasure to play. The visuals were bright, and fun; the sounds were great (especially the names of each spell!), and the gameplay was so, so addictive- five more minutes gameplay at it's finest! If you don't play this game, you're missing out on one of the (in my opinion) best experiences ever.


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Posted on: April 18, 2012

betpet

Verified owner

Games: 1188 Reviews: 9

Fantastic RTS in the Populous universe

This was an *Instabuy* for me. You are a god who has a Shaman on the planet you are taking over. You use this Shaman to control your population and fight opposing tribes (and their gods) in order to take over and rule the planet. The game play is great. The difficulty is just right and, as you'd expect from Bullfrog, the attention to detail is excellent! You'll get plenty of hours of fun. Just hope that GOG get their act together and release the 'Undiscovered Worlds' expansion soon.


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Posted on: April 24, 2014

kaensel

Verified owner

Games: 10 Reviews: 1

Works for Windows 8.1 x64

I bought this game and tried it under Windows 8.1 x64 and it works :) However running the GOG Launcher will not work, to play the game you must launch it via popTB.exe in your installation folder. No need for compability mode or launch as admin.


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Posted on: December 14, 2012

cliffoch

Verified owner

Games: 20 Reviews: 1

Crashes under Windows 7 / 8

Great game, I remember it well. But there's major problems being experienced by a number of users. I can't get this to work with hardware graphics acceleration and above 800x600 so it's completely unplayable as things stand. I'm not the only one having this issue - see the forums.


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