Populous™: The Beginning
Real-time strategy across planets with spells and terrain-shaping battles
Bullfrog Productions · Published by Electronic Arts · Released Mar 7, 2024
- Reviews
- Very Positive
- 88% of 456
- Recent reviews
- Not enough recent
- Players
- 11
- daily peak, Nov 7, 2026
- Steam Deck
- Untested
- Last update on Steam
- 2 years ago
- Aug 1, 2024
What is Populous™: The Beginning?
This real-time strategy game takes place across a 3D star system, where you guide a shaman and her tribe in a quest to conquer 25 planets and become a god. You order followers to gather resources, build settlements, and attack rival tribes while casting spells and reshaping terrain.
For you if...
- +you like directing followers to gather, build, and fight
- +you enjoy using spells to reshape battlefields
Not for you if...
- −you prefer turn-based decisions over real-time battles
- −you want to build settlements without attacking other tribes
What players say
88% of 456 reviews are positive
Players praise the real-time strategy and spellcasting, and returning players say it remains fun to revisit. The most common complaint is that the game fails to launch or run properly on some modern PCs.
Screenshots and trailer
Populous™: The Beginning system requirements
Minimum: DirectX 7 GPU, 0.5 GB RAM, 0.4 GB of disk space.
As published by the developer.
Can my PC run Populous™: The Beginning?
Tell us your graphics card once and every game page will answer this for you.
Set up my PC →Minimum
- OS
- Windows 7 / 10
- Processor
- 1.8 GHz
- Graphics
- 3D graphics card compatible with DirectX 7 (compatible with DirectX 9 recommended)
- Memory
- 512 MB RAM
- Storage
- 400 MB available space
- DirectX
- Version 9.0
Recommended
- OS
- Windows 7 / 10
- Processor
- 1.8 GHz
- Graphics
- 3D graphics card compatible with DirectX 7 (compatible with DirectX 9 recommended)
- Memory
- 512 MB RAM
- Storage
- 400 MB available space
- DirectX
- Version 9.0
Does Populous™: The Beginning have co-op or multiplayer?
Yes: PvP LAN. It also has a single-player mode.
Does Populous™: The Beginning run on Steam Deck?
Untested Not yet tested by Valve on Steam Deck.
PC version details
- DRM
- None declared on Steam
- Controller
- Keyboard and mouse
- Platforms
- Windows
- Steam features
- Cloud saves, Family Sharing
- Languages
- Full audio: English.
Does Populous™: The Beginning use AI-generated content?
No AI-generated content is disclosed on the game's Steam page.
Self-reported by the developer under Steam rules: it covers AI content that ships in the game, not tools used to make it. Steam page checked on Oct 25, 2026. How to filter AI games on Steam