Overview
Populous II: Trials of the Olympian Gods is the direct sequel to Bullfrog Productions's Populous, and was released on a multitude of systems in the early 90s. The game focuses on Ancient Greek mythology, rather than the nebulous mythology of the original, and the player controls one of many demigods competing for a position in Zeus's pantheon on Mt. Olympus.
The game is functionally similar to the original Populous: there's an isometric viewpoint where humans that worship the player's character will build structures and fight encroaching enemies. Raising and lowering the landscape to an even level allows the allied humans to increase the size of their domiciles and create powerful fighter units, which in this game are specific Ancient Greek heroes that will cross the stage fighting the player's enemies. In addition, the player can use an array of godly powers to help their citizens or eliminate those of their opponents. The quantity and variance of these divine intervention abilities have been greatly expanded in this sequel.
The home computer versions saw a data disk expansion pack named Populous II: The Challenge Games. These scenarios focused on Japanese mythology instead, and usually required a specific strategy in order to beat each of them.
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