Powermonger

The game features a three-dimensional game map, although camera movement is limited to rotating the map by 90 degrees or small discrete intervals and eight pre-defined levels of zoom. Only the map topography itself is three-dimensional; people, trees and other game objects are 2-dimensional sprites.

The game features a fairly advanced "artificial life" engine. Each person seems to have a mind of their own and will go about his or her job, fishing, farming, shepherding, collecting wood or making items without any input from the player. The player can also use a query tool to view the name, sex, age, allegiance, vital stats, hometown and equipment of any given individual. This aspect of the game has some clear resemblances (though less advanced) with the later Black & White game also designed by Peter Molyneux.

The Amiga and Atari ST versions of Powermonger cost £29.99 in 1990, and were released in October 1990; the version for IBM PC compatibles was released in 1991. Magazine advertisements for Powermonger quoted Peter Molyneux, who stated that the game is "Better than Populous". A 3DO version was planned but never released.

The game got 5 out of 5 stars in Dragon. Computer Gaming World in 1991 praised Powermonger as "simply superb ... a joy to play". Reviewing the Amiga version, CGW favorably cited its graphics and realism, but criticised its unusually strict copy protection and the need to load a saved game twice to return to the previous state. In a 1993 survey of strategy games set pre 20th-century, the magazine gave the game three stars out of five.

Reviewing the Sega CD version, GamePro criticised the graphics, particularly its pixelated maps that can make it difficult to see in-game, but they gave the game an overall recommendation based on its slow-paced strategy gameplay. Electronic Gaming Monthly gave Powermonger an overall score of 6.6 out of 10 from five reviewers, who praised the high detail of the simulation.