Heaven & Hell

It��s been a long time since we��ve seen a really good Populous rip-off. Not that Heaven & Hell is a really good Populous rip-off. It��s actually a really bad one, as though the designers were trying to copy a game they watched someone else play for a few minutes. It makes you pine for Afterlife, and that��s just wrong.

Heaven & Hell is a tedious one-note god game with a religious theme and copious borrowings from Black & White and Populous. Though Good and Evil vie for control of the hearts and property of little people running around villages, there is little distinction between the two sides. Spells and units have different names for each side, but strategically they all do the same things. Baptisbon/ Baptismael enter a village, perform rituals to influence the people on a good/evil scale, and then convert them.

Once people are converted, their homes can produce mana or enforcers. The other units are warrior, merchant, builder, troublemaker, spy, and boss, each ultimately working to maintain influence. The developers didn��t even bother to give units distinct names��they just change the suffix to ��bon�� or ��mael.�� This has the effect of nullifying replay value, particularly since you can play the Evil side of the campaign game only after you win the Good side. The paucity of stand-alone, noncampaign maps and their nondescript design further hinder any chance of long-term enjoyment.

The game ultimately becomes little more than a highly irritating matter of constantly using the same few commands. Every single game devolves into dueling preachers, and since these preachers are just, well, preaching, instead of righteously smiting one another, it all becomes abstract and passive-aggressive. In the end, what the people do isn��t interesting, and it takes a lot of work to make them do it.

Rating: 1/5

Verdict: Witless, repetitive, and utterly devoid of interesting strategy elements.

Publisher: CDV

Developer: eigelb/Madcat

Genre: real-time strategy

ESRB Rating: everyone

Price: $49.99

Requirements: Pentium III 800, 64MB RAM, 950MB hard drive space

Recommended Requirements: Pentium III 1.5 GHz, 256MB RAM, 1.5GB hard

drive space Multiplayer Support: in-game lobby

(2-8 players)

Copyright © 2003 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in Computer Gaming World.