First thing is that you need to play the Amiga version, the DOS box version only has awful bleeps which kills the atmo. The Amiga version has the nice, calming music, the trademark heartbeat and swordsound. This alone gives the game the befitting Godgame atmosphere. I used WinUAE for emulation. You play as the God of the blue pixel people and need to make the land flat in order for them to be able to build a house and give you more followers. The more houses and followers you have the more mana you generate which you'll need to build and gift natural disasters to your (evil ofc) opponent. You can bring righteousness through earthquakes, swamps, vulcanoes and a flood to stop your opponent from getting stronger than you. When you gather your followers to get a strong leader you can convert him to a knight which brings down furious anger on your foes and burns their houses. There are 500 levels with grass, volcanoe, desert and snow surface which changes how fast your people reproduce and how long they can survive without shelter. Depending how much you scored you jump forward several levels and a sort of higher deity (what higher than me?) announces that you've done well and the code which you'll need instead of savegames. Up until 100 the game is easy, in later levels your opponent gets gradually more challenging. There is an expansion for DOS and Amiga called Populous: The Promised Lands with the following world designs: Lego Wild West French Revolution Bit Plains Silly Land I've played Populous 2 and 3 and they are ok but don't have the magic of the original Amiga Populous version.
