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Firstly a note to other populous vets, this game has only superficial similarities to the previous games. You are no longer a "god" as such, you have a physical presence on the world in the form of a sexy little shaman. You begin most levels with the shaman and a few "braves." Braves are the basic worker units, and as you might expect they're very good at working, and very bad at everything else. You have far more control over your village than you did in the original game, being able to indicate exactly where every building is to be placed. There are basic houses (which are upgraded over time independently of your will), and various specialty structures designed to train warriors, provide lookouts etc. Like before your basic currency is mana, and it is mana that allows you to train new troop types, cast nasty spells, and generally enjoys the power trip. Your subjects generate mana when they rest in their houses, and in accordance with human nature, people in houses produce more people...

The object of the game, as before, is to annihilate the opposing tribe(s). Each level is basically a new planet or moon in a large solar system, and to win the game you must of course conquer them all. The missions primarily revolve around the "expand, build, kill" pattern, though there are a few problem-solving missions thrown in for fun. One particularly satisfying mission involved reaching a statue before the opposition, upon completing of the mission a dragon cracks out of the statue and floats around eating the enemy. In most missions however you destroy your opponents by tearing down their villages and killing all their people. To accomplish this you generally need to run a large number of angry people through the front gates and do things the old fashioned way. Different type of warriors such as fighters, fire throwers and priests add some variety to this, but the basic formula is the same. The real fun part is using the shaman to her best. While physically weak and unable to defend herself against large numbers of enemies, when escorted by a contingent of troops her spells can literally destroy armies and turn battles in your favor. Basic spells such as fireball and lightning do as you'd expect, blowing enemy troops and buildings to pieces, but the real power comes from spells that help your own warriors out. Use of spells such as insect swarm, which causes all enemies in the area to run away in a panic, are what wins games.

Graphically the game is very good by strategy standards. Use of a decent 3d-card allows for smooth rendering of the world and it's various elements, and small touches like smoke rising from chimneys, rolling waves, and wild men running about really brings the world to life. The people themselves are unfortunately only 2d, but with the massive numbers of them that can appear in an average game 3d models would be impractical. Still, some sort of size scaling would be nice - when on the horizon they look like giants. The land is very smooth, and spells that raise and lower it work with impressive fluidity. Sinking land under an enemy village is a great prank to pull. The sound can only be described as basic, with tribal grunts and mutterings being the basic unit reply and typical whoosh-bang-crack sounds for spells. The music is similarly average, being a slow mellow sort of tune that is probably not so appropriate for a game where so much combat takes place.

Multiplayer the game is a strange experience, basically because whoever attacks first usually takes the game. There's not a lot you can do to stop a shaman trotting up and planting a volcano in your village after all. Still, if both players can survive each other's early barbs long term games can be quite enjoyable. Since the whole idea of the game is to give a feeling of a power trip it can only be more fun to crush a human rather than the computer.