The only difference is the color of the followers’ clothes and the banner. There are four gods in the contest to choose from. Exactly like the original game, Populous II doesn’t want you to think much. Without the complexity of historical reality, such a world is devoid of theological substance. In those stereotypical ancient times, every conflict was religious, and every war was carried on for the glory of some god. Its simplified stereotypical representation distances the game further from any sort of theological statement. Populous II takes an even easier way out-antique paganism. When I wrote about the original Populous, I’ve stated that the game never makes any artistic statement about religious intolerance, instead choosing to say, «look how fun it is to be Old Testament god!». You play as a demi-god whose mother was raped by Zeus (it’s in the manual!), and now his only way to enter the Pantheon is to defeat 32 gods and Zeus himself. Trails of Olympian Gods is a fairly univocal subtitle of the game. Borrowing heroes’ names from Hellenic myths is not accidental- Populous II embraces the setting of Ancient Greek mythology.
