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Gods are funny old things. Take Zeus, for example: dashing around the world, getting up to all sorts with the mortal girlies. That's where you came from. A half-breed (part human, part god) you demand your place with the other gods atop Mount Olympus, but Zeus isn't going to just open the door at you.

Populous II follows on from the original hit game, with you taking on the ominous task of beating 32 other immortals across 1,000 worlds. After creating your own persona, launch your deity-destroying career and beat up those baddies using your divine skills. And a bit of brute force, of course...

There are two ways to play Populous II. In the Conquest game the aim is to take over a series of progressively more demanding worlds. Custom mode, on the other hand, lets the player compete in a random game using a variety of powers to suit the budding god.

As in the prequel, Populous II features the good and evil Papel Magnets. They come in very handy when you want to trash a baddy's sites, and they're so easy to use - just position the magnet somewhere around your opponent's domain then influence your followers to go toward it. They will do just that, beating up the nasties as they go!

Most games which allow you to create the looks of your character only give this option for purely cosmetic reasons, but in Populous II they have a direct effect on the way the game is played. Say, for instance, you select a scholar's hat - that makes you a thoughtful battle-planner. But plump for wild eyes and you'll be a mad, bad killing machine.

Oh my god! Actually, there are a few gods in Populous II, the sequel to one of the most successful Amiga games ever. What Bullfrog have done is took the basic nuggets of the original and bolted untold amounts of extras on, making one helluva powerful piece of software. Really, this is something special.

One look at the much improved graphics with far bigger characters doing their own thing tells you that this is going to be a bit of a cracker and indeed it is. I like the thought of the workings of the game being altered by the different features which you select for your deity, and with 1,000 worlds to conquer this isn't a game which you're going to finish in a fortnight - you'd have to be a bloody good god to finish it within a year!

A resounding "Hurray!" is what's called for here, because Populous II could have been just a rip-off of the original but instead it's a brill god-sim in its own right.