Haven't played the others, but Populous: the Beginning is fantastic.

I'd say go with Populous first.

The reason is because I would suggest you first take a good hard look at Pharaoh and Caesar III. It would be a pity to start of very late in the series and to miss the brilliance of the earlier titles. Caesar III might be a tad too old but it does have that Roman vibe of the Asterix and Obelix books going on :) But personally, if I wanted someone to get into the series I'd suggest to start with Pharaoh. You farm on the rich soil of the Nile's floodplains, fight off hippos, trade with far away nations and cities and construct massive pyramids,monuments and temples. By the way, I don't think that the series falls under RTS. It is more of a city-management-puzzle game.

Populous: The Beginning is more of an RTS god-game. It's awesome! and one of the few games (along with just about all the bullfrog titles) that is a timeless classic.

attached : Pharaoh pic

Why? The interface sucks, the graphics are terrible, the gameplay is simplistic and nothing unique anymore. Zeus on the other hand has beautiful graphics, a great interface and the gameplay hasn't been matched.

Simplistic gameplay? Not sure that I agree, but even if it could be argued to be simplistic, then Populous would still serve as a great example of why complex gameplay is not a required for a game to be oodles of fun.
Visuals are overly subjective: eg, to me this is absolutely gorgeous:

Uhm, yeah I sometimes forget that there were populous titles before Populous the beginning. I'm specifically referring to http://www.gog.com/game/populous_the_beginning
I managed to finish it sometime sometime last year :)

edit : technically its #3 (ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Populous_%28series%29 )

Welcome to the forum! I'm all for Populous myself as I've never played Zeus. Speaking of which, check your PM! :D

Thanks to everyone that replied, hopefully will get to play them both as time goes buy (though my gog catalogue is now 9 game, only 5 of them downloaded and only 4 given some sort of playtime, so who knows when!)

AND THE WINNER IS.....thanks to the kindness of both Telika and foxworks (+rep given in both cases, I think), Populous: The Beginning, which I will hopefully be able to d/l over night and get to play one of the games I missed when younger.

In the spirit of this community, the first person to reply to this message can have either Populous: The Beginning or Zeus + Poseidon as a gift from me, and get to experience something new with me if PtB, or write a review for Z+P!


Thanks for the notes about city-management for Z+P as opposed to RTS, I think I got confused as thought their was combat.

And thanks to s23021536 for the point about trying the older games in the series first....the thought had crossed my mind about playing Pharaoh, would rather just skip Caesar 3 as the mechanics are outdated by Pharaoh and Zeus right? But I will have a think about Pharaoh first.

The thing that makes Caesar 3 different from the later games is the lack of roadblocks, which really simplify some aspects of the game.

But Zeus is again different from the early games because you can shift labor abound without actually having any people living near a workplace. It's better in some ways (elite neighborhoods), and worse in others (less believable cities).

Pharaoh is right in the middle in this regard: has roadblocks, workplace must have access to labor.

Also - there is combat in Zeus, but like all other games from the City builder series it's very basic.

a bit yeah :P Like Titanium mentions, the lack of roadblocks is the first thing you notice. The thing I miss most though, is the building of massive temples, obelisks and pyramids. As for the gift, I already own the games, but +1 to you anyways :)

Have fun knocking people into water with fireballs in populous!

Caesar is harder/less convenient than Pharao and Pharao is harder/less convenient than Zeus.

But I can't bring myself to tell anyone to skip Caesar 3 because it's my favorite of the 3, primarily because of the setting. Zeus is more evolved as a game but the cartoonish look is a matter of taste, I prefer the more classy looking buildings in Caesar.
I just love those Roman villas, reminds me of vacationing in Italy.
I recommend getting Zeus and then if you are still hungry for more after that choose either Pharao or Caesar based on which setting you like more.

The lack of roadblocks as a means of dividing up the city is pretty much the biggest inconvenience in Caesar 3, but with good city management it can be solved. Also Caesar 3 is a bit harder than the latter two because especially on peaceful maps the prosperity requirements can be insanely high. Still one of my favorite games because I just love old Rome and nothing beats the feeling when you stand up to Hannibal's war elephants ;)

If the offer still stands (you already got a gift code that is) I would love to play Zeus + Poseidon. :)