What's up: (Updated Review)

This is one of the few games in a while that I have found myself so involved in that two hours feels like around 20 minutes, and the last time I experienced that was the good ol' days of Diablo 1 and a bit while playing through Half-Life.

Now if I'm comparing it to these two Titans of Games then it must be good right? Eh.. kinda.

The premise of this game appears to me to be (as I'm sure you've heard this from many others) Populous with a big creature and a different style of play being thrown in.. (sure you can be evil to your people in populous.. it might not get you very far though..).

You go through the game trying to get more and more people to believe in you as a god while trying to fend of your foe, "Nemesis"


The game basically goes like this:

Good Side of Morality:

Micromanaging ... You gotta keep those people happy.
Keeping your creature from (as ads so well put it) serving your people as entrees.
Keeping your creature from destroying everything.
Assigning, managing, protecting, and creature chores.
Less Conquering and more "making them believe" in you.


Evil Side of Morality:

Less Micromanaging
Being evil
Keeping your creature from being too nice.. (doesn't seem to be too hard)
Making sure not to do too much as far as killing and neglegence.
Conquering by way of fireballs and rocks.


The Ups:

-The interface works somewhat well. But it takes a bit getting used to. Your creature is a big up in that it can be pretty funny. The spell casting system is cool. The graphics are stellar. The voices work well... "Stay out of the water!", "Ahh, I think I'm having a panic attack."

-The battle system. Reminds me a bit of Soul Reaver for playstation, but better. It's easy enough but lets you do what needs to be done. It works off of either A} Letting you click on the body of the opponent to attack him there. Or clicking on the body of your own creature to have him block. You can also click on the ground to have your creature move or dodge. All this being done in an "arena". Or B} Let your creature fight for Himself.

-Your conscience sides can be pretty funny, well at least the evil one.

The Downs:

-The interface can be VERY frustrating. I keep finding myself in the middle of casting a spell when my creature (when trying to be a good god) goes and eats someone or something. How am I supposed to slap him around when I'm in the middle of fireballing cottages?!?

-The system requirements are true.. but not. You CAN play the game on the system they require but forget about some of the movies and don't expect to play it that well.

-There are some bugs, although the bad ones I haven't gotten quite far enough to experience.

-The micromanging can get tire-some after a while, as it can with a lot of games.

-The camera angels are annoying. It's hard to get them to be perfectly where you want them too.

My test systems:

-System A

AMD k6-2 450
Biostar M5ALA MB
64 meg PC-66 SDRAM
TNT 2 - 32 meg

Result : (Playing it on medium graphic options) Game itself plays decent most of the time, The movie at the beginning wouldn't play (the space one) where you could see what was happening. And you get some slowdowns some places. Some of the movement animations and speech parts while movement on screen sometimes causes a system stutter.


-System B

AND DURON 750
Biostar MK7VKB MB
128 meg PC-133 SDRAM
TNT2 - 32 meg

Result : (Playing it on high graphic options) no problems, runs fine and dandy like lemon candy.


- So my recommendations would be around a 450-500 processor with 128 pc-100 or higher ram and a good video card.

Bottom Line

On a scale of 0-100 I give it a 90. It's good, you'll like it. If you have an evil streak in you, or even if you don't you should try playing evil "black", it's quite amusing. And even playing as good "white" is pretty fun.

The graphics are great. The sound is great. The voices are great. And even the gameplay is on most things, enjoyable.

It's all pretty much good. The interface takes some getting used to but it's not to bad. Give it a try, if you don't like it.. well it's software and it's open so your gonna have to live with it.

But I forsee a good number of people enjoying this creative game.


Recommended: Yes