Here we have a cartoonish take on the generic Judeo-Christian history: Good guys seen with clouds and rainbows take on bad guys characterized by fire and black clothing. The campaign (scenario and sandbox missions are also available) opens with the good side, including a nice series of missions that act as a tutorial. Once the good campaign is won, the evil campaign is unlocked.

Gameplay is actually fairly simple. Each side has a stable of prophets: the standard cranky old man, who converts followers with the use of miracles and sermons; the warrior, who can recruit or inspire foot soldiers; the trader, who opens trade routes that make other cities more susceptible to conversion; the trickster, who can thin out enemy troops; a spy; a builder, whose "amusement centers" lure neutrals and opponents to your side; and of course the Big Boss, a deity-level prophet with all sorts of neat miracles.

These prophets have one goal: Convert the populace. Each person has an individual starting point between good and evil. As that person's town is influenced in one direction, their basic alignment moves toward that of the masses. So that last person in town, with an individual alignment skewed toward that of his or her neighbors, is easier to convert than the first few. Most of this is done via miracles. Some are player-driven - you can fire off a lightning bolt or create a field of flowers without relying on a prophet. Most, though, do have to been channeled through prophets.

By the way, townspeople come in four types, but all that means is that some lean toward good or evil, and some are easier to convert than others.

God games can't really involve omnipotence, of course, so in HnH you're limited by that ubiquitous system of magic points, mana. Followers provide mana just by believing, but that's never enough. Followers' houses can also be converted to mana generators. And if you're the kind of deity who believes in literal sacrifice, followers and hermits (defeated enemies) can be sent to either Heaven or Hell in exchange for a nice mana boost.

Some tactics take adjusting. Foot soldiers, for example, beat up anyone who's not a devoted follower. This in theory raises the victim's affinity for you, but in reality it just prevents the victims from hearing sermons and joining your cause. After one annoying scenario coming to this realization, I let the warrior and his footsoldiers cool their heels outside each town while the cranky old man did his work.

You'll also have to plan for day and night. During the day, good has the sway - miracles cost less, basically. Same goes for evil at night. It's an interesting idea and does make for some strategic planning: Do you hope your warriors can hold off the evil deity's until daybreak, or do you suck it up, take the mana penalty and throw around a few miracles?

Graphics are colorful and, as is becoming the trend with God games, feature chubby character models in the vein of the Settlers series. The whole thing feels like a cartoon, albeit with some nice subtle touches like evil clowns or good Elvis loyalty enforcers. Even battles against enemy footsoldiers are obscured by cartoon dust clouds. In fact, everything here is fairly inoffensive in a sugary way, a far cry from the Biblical stories of rivers of blood and plagues of boils. That removes some of the thrill from casting miracles. I kept thinking, "Yeah, lightning may stun that baddie for a second, but I sure could use a giant anthropomorphic tiger."

Despite this bubble-gum approach to God sims, Heaven and Hell is an engaging game that makes for plenty of fun gameplay. It won't be spoken of with the awed reverence used to talk about Populous, but it's easily accessible and easy to dive into while you're waiting for Black & White 2.