Godus by Peter Molyneux and 22Cans is a very interesting game. And it couldn’t have been otherwise because, with a disastrous first release, a return to the drawing board and a second attempt at success, this version of Godus has a lot of work to do to rebuild trust.

Molyneux has a reputation for making decent god games like Populous and Black and White. Both were great concepts that performed well. Godus began as a concept, then evolved into a Kickstarter campaign to Steam Early Access and to iTunes. It’s now live and available for download.

The concept is simple. You’re a god and you need to nurture your followers, help them build a civilisation and generate more followers. It’s a simple premise that masks a complex mechanic: a speciality of Molyneux.

As your followers grow and develop, their needs become more complex, requiring more buildings, resources, research, and food. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy that takes gradually longer and longer to fulfil.

Godus is a freemium game, meaning that it’s free to download but you can drop cash to speed up building and gain other benefits. That’s the hook. You could wait an hour for your new building to appear or pay to have it instantly. It’s a tried and tested recipe that works well if tuned correctly.

Godus is a multiplayer game and the world you’re nurturing is also populated by other players. You’re given some time to develop your world before it joins others, and then you compete with other players to become ‘God of Gods’.

An attractive game with a lot of potential, Godus seems a million miles away from the original. Whether that will be enough to overcome the bad feeling generated by the original remains to be seen.

Jesmond Darmanin is a technology enthusiast who has his own blog at www.itnewsblog.com.