This is Reprisal, a free flash game.
Okay, my first thought when I saw this on Rock, Paper, Shotgun was “What the hell?!” Saying this game was “inspired” by Populous is like saying Pepsi was “inspired” by Coke. Except for the interface, it would be very easy to mistake a screenshot from this game for one of Populous and Populous 2.
I was a bit irate at first…and I’ll be honest. It’s because, despite all my efforts, this game is more complete than Planitia. Planitia, after years and years and years of work, is still not a game that anyone would want to play.
But after reading the development blog, my ire waned. The developer, Jon Caplin, is just a guy who loves Populous and wants to write his own version in Flash. I can’t begrudge him that.
It took me a while to realise that you have to click on the “Earth” power and then click repeatedly on the raise/lower to toggle direction, which was quite a step back from Populous where it’s the default action.
I understand you can’t use right-click in Flash, but you can use modifier keys so I’m not sure why these weren’t used.
THAT SAID.
1. I LOVE the 8-bit retro feel, more so than the original Pop/Pop II style.
2. I LOVE the 8-bit thunderstorm and firestorm graphics. 😀
3. I LOVE the 8-bit retro music.
As far as I’m concerned, the Dev is a magician… 😛
Actually I find this game rather addictive. I wonder why, because it’s such a simple game, what is it’s appeal? I can’t even control the people! I think I’m gonna reply this game one more time and then quit, it’s sapping too much of my potentially productive work time damn it!
I guess you never played the original Populous, huh? 🙂
If GOG.com gets Populous 2, I would highly recommend buying it. It’s still a fantastic game.
Bullfrog rules, their games are awesome. I never did play populous, but I watch my friend play it on one of his Atari computers, maybe I should try to pick it up and give it a try. I did play Powermonger multiplayer though. Those were the days, I can’t believe a game released in the 80ties had multiplayer 😀
Oops, sorry, Powermonger was released in 1992, I guess the graphics made me think 80ties.