Skip to main content

Reprisal

It's not everyday I come across a truly exceptional Populous port, let alone one written in Flash!

If you're looking for a game description here I'll just let you search the internet for the thousands of words written for Populous (I'm sure). To summarize real quick: You're given a isometric 3D map which you can terraform (i.e. raise/lower land) in order for your people to settle in and build better homes, use spells to either make your people's life better. Of course these powers can be used to sabotage your opponent's land and people (setting fire to the enemy houses etc). You start with just a couple of abilities and you gain more as you progress through the levels. You could find a million flaws with the original, but none mattered because the game is fun and you usually have a hard time stopping playing once you get going.

Now, getting to this port, it's simply delightful and written with a lot of care and love of the original. Very few things have changed from the original, so thankfully it plays like it should. The presentation is nothing short of excellent: from various transition fx between different game screens (which of course are never needed but to me make a world of difference), to various background animations, to depth of field blurring of the playfield (you can see the background titles blurring if you choose so in the options - nice!). If I could criticize something, it'd be the lack of smooth scrolling - I really think it could be achieved and it'd make the game look better in my opinion. The music, I didn't enjoy that much and opted to turn it off after a while.

Well, nothing more to add, go ahead and play it already!

Comments

Comments powered by Disqus