Levels 7 and 8 of Populous: The Beginning, though probably objectively a bit harder than 6, felt easier to me, since I wasn’t surprised by the rise in difficulty this time.

Unseen Enemy

Level 7, called “Unseen Enemy” was all about a new spell – Invisibility. The enemy shaman already had it, so I needed to get it to, but the level was clearly designed so I don’t get the spell until the end. The whole planet consisted of two continents, with me being on one of them, and the enemy on the other. The enemy shaman knew the Land Bridge spell, so it was just a matter of time, before she got over to my area. To combat this, I could pray at a stone head between our two continents, which would get me charges of the Erosion spell.

Instead, I  just built a tower on the tallest hill at the center of my continent and built my village around it. I had a few attacks, but with my shaman being in the tower, I could easily fight of any major attack with a well placed lightning. Eventually, I gathered a small army and went to the stone head, just so I could make a quick shortcut towards the center of the enemy village, but the enemy shaman got a lucky shot and killed the entire squad, including my shaman. About ten minutes later, I did it again, and this time obliterated him.

Continental Divide

Level 8, “Continental Divide” was much more fun. First of all, this was the level where I could finally get the plans for the Fire Warriors training site. The whole planet was actually a single landmass this time, with a bunch of smaller or larger lakes on it. There was plenty of hills around my village, so I immediately started using Land Bridge to create what was basically an impenetrable wall. A couple of well placed towers on top of the wall meant I didn’t need to worry about any attacks.

Thanks to some stealthy play, I managed to sneak around the enemy village and learn the building plans without any losses, so I filled the towers with fire warriors. Once I got the two stone heads, one of which gave me Magical Shield and the other Tornado, I finally built up a small army and obliterated the enemy village in record time. The three tornadoes destroyed most of it, while my fire warriors cleared the rest. It was a big village, so it took some time to kill of the stragglers, but after a few minutes, the level was over.

Now Let’s Talk

This can’t be bias. Nostalgia cannot be the reason I’m enjoying this game so much. It has some bad, old school design choices, the controls can be annoying, but the game is just so much fun I don’t mind the flaws one bit. The level length is just about right to play through one at a time and the new spells and buildings are arriving at a nice pace Everything just clicks into place, in spite of all the issues old games have. Heck, I’m playing it in software mode in 800×600 and the graphics don’t bother me one bit.

I know Molyneux has hyped up his games for over a decade now, I know he almost never delivers, but God, I hope Godus is half as fun as Populous.

Related Posts:

• Populous: The Beginning [13] – Completed!
• Populous: The Beginning [12] – Solo [22] and Inferno [23]
• Populous: The Beginning [11] – Archipelago [20] and Fractured Earth [21]
• Populous: The Beginning [10] – Head Hunter [18] and Unlikely Allies [19]
• Populous: The Beginning [9] – Levels 16 and 17