Populous II: Trials of the Olympian Gods

About Populous II: Trials of the Olympian Gods

Populous II: Trials of the Olympian Gods (1991) is Bullfrog's god game sequel set in Greek myth, in which a demigod son of Zeus battles the Olympians with 29 divine powers and legendary heroes.

Populous II: Trials of the Olympian Gods in Depth

Like its predecessor, it is a god game in which the player guides their followers against those of an enemy god, but where Populous only alluded to undefined deities, the sequel is rooted in Greek mythology. The player is a demigod, one of Zeus's countless children by mortal women, and must defeat one Greek deity at a time before finally facing Zeus himself, who has promised a place in the Pantheon on Olympus to any child who survives. Instead of Populous's eight powers there are twenty-nine, thirty on PC, divided into earth, water, wind, fire, plants and people.

All are fed by a manna meter that fills as the population grows and drains as powers are used, so repeated devastating miracles empty it. Each category also offers a hero, transforming the player's leader into one of six legendary Greek figures who roams the map attacking enemies. When either side controls a set share of the map, usually 75 per cent, indestructible monsters such as the Colossus or Medusa rampage across it, a cue to finish quickly. Victories earn experience points to strengthen the six categories, improving accuracy and duration and lowering manna costs. There are 1,000 maps, and strong performances skip ahead several at once. One plant power spreads a deadly fungus whose growth follows the rules of Conway's Game of Life.

Making Populous II: Trials of the Olympian Gods

Bullfrog developed it for the Amiga, Atari ST and MS-DOS, with Electronic Arts publishing; keyboard work on the Amiga version began in March 1991 for a November release, though The One noted the game had effectively been in development for over two years. Designer Peter Molyneux reused no code or assets from Populous, though development began with the first game ported to newer hardware as a framework. Computer Gaming World called it "instantly absorbing and addictive", Super Gamer gave the SNES version 82 per cent as "an attractive update of the original with a much smoother control system", and Total! later ranked it 85th among SNES games.