The lost Review

Well, since whatever that stupid site was pulled their review [Dead] - I'll just have to write one myself.

I haven't played the game, nor got my hands on an interactive demo, nor gone to lionhead studios and played their dev builds - but just pretend I've gotten my hands on the playable build that's doing the rounds.

If you know what the game is, skip the bumph, and get to the conclusion

The game

Yadda yadda. It's a god-sim, Peter molyneux wrote populous, then he wrote it again, and, well, let's just say he's a bit typecast now. But, that aside, it's looking like it's going to be the best god-sim ever created.

You fly over the world (3d, yadda yadda) and can pick things up and throw them around. By wiggling your hand (mouse) in various symbols, you can raw magic spells. The better you draw the shpe, the more powerful the spell.

People you interact with worship you (if you're nice, they worship you in thanks, if you're nasty, they worship you out of fear) - and if you bung them near something, they'll do whatever it is. They build buildings and so on.

The game itself is built up around quests - some just give rewards, and you are allowed to fail those. Others are required to progress, and you get plenty of chances at those.

The game doesn't force you to do the quests in any one way either, they're very open 'deal with this' type things, and squishing the petitioner deals with it...

A big feature of the game is your avatar, a creature (3d, skins, persistent scars, grows, no two alike yafdda yadda) which learns from your behaviour - has personality, and which you can reward or punish. It's a tamagotchi.

Online, you've got basic populous war mode (two gods vs) a chat room thing (your critters talk, and mime) and a training bit where your creatures can fight.

Spells learnt online work offline, and vice versa - which is nice, but expect save game editors quickly, meaning everyone will cheat to have everything online. Still, they can't steal your stuff...

Thoughts

It looks nifty. The screenshots are pretty. I really hope it comes with a 'greyscale' option. The world changes according to how you act. Your conscience (both halves) are annoying as all get out. There's no real way to be 'neutral' - it comes out like being 'good' but failing sometimes. Pete makes ridiculous claims about the AI passing turing tests.

Nice touches

The game integrates with outlook, and names villagers after people in your address book. When you get mail, they try to get your attention, and wave a bit of paper at you - so you know you got mail, and who from. (Presumeably so that you can decide whether to read it, or ignore it and keep playing)

There are a heck of a lot of touches like this (squish someone named after your boss!) but, I can't tell you about them. I claim this is because I don't want to spoil the surprise, but actually it's because the review got pulled...

Final Line

I will buy this game. You need any other recommendation?