Populous II is one of the most brilliant yet simple games ever devised. The rules are simple 'create a tribe sufficient in size to overthrow your opponent come armageddon and do whatever you can to ensure the diminishment of your opponents tribe'. You're tools for the job are unlockable miracles and the ability to attract and repel your followers generally to objects and areas. But it is not as simple as clicking the smite foes button (although for most intents and purposes most of those icons may as well state) as you have a hugely upgradeable system whereby your miracles or people get stronger; and your not the only one who gets increases in these 'skills'. a thoroughly enjoyeable sandbox god game that have hints of puzzle aspects based on it's miracle limitations imposed by the levels (albiet not how much you use them). In fact there are only two god games i have enjoyed since one of which does not run well at all on my system currently. These are: Populous the beginning a more personal version of populous where you take on the role of a tribal leader and go between for omnipotent power (does not like playing with newer hardware very choppy) and black & white 1 which promised a brilliant game and not to put too fine a point on it seems to have been sliced in half with a rusty butterknife simply because it was so ground breaking at the time the company must of believed a rough shod split to create an add-on pack would bring in the dollars hand over fist (as opposed to creating a highly profitable game franchise based on inflating the public opinion of it's products) leading of course to massive failure to deliver a decent product and no doubt turning the company to look to the console market to grab extra revenue for it's sequel instead of once again making a decent game.
