Sub-par Black and White clone
This is a sort of humorous take on god-sims like Black & White or Populous but it offers little in the way of innovation to the genre and is only really worth seeking out for hardcore fans of this type of thing. Heaven and Hell plays out like a fairly typical real-time strategy game, with players taking on the role of either God or the Devil and with the broad aim of converting as many simple folk to your side of the cause and which is achieved by creating prophets and causing miracles to spread belief in your all-powerful nature. Of course, your rival isn't going to let you have everything your way and as your followers grow, so too will theirs and which inevitably results in a clash of armies. You can also manipulate the world around you, causing earthquakes or sending plagues of locusts to plague your foes, while once you have built up enough power you can unleash an immense flood or bring about the Apocalypse and turn the world into a literal Hell on Earth, depending on your alignment. There are some twenty or so missions to take part in but the problem is that there is little incentive to complete them all. The gameplay on display here is unfortunately rather stale and unimaginative, and while the humour is appreciated, it's not enough to save the game from being distinctly sub-par. There simply aren't enough options and units to make things interesting while the enemy AI never really puts up a challenge. The cartoon visuals suggest the game is targeted at younger audiences but it is likely to prove confusing for them to play thanks to a less than intuitive interface, leaving the game feeling a bit of a bland and simplistic mess which is best avoided.
