The player is a demigod, one of Zeus's countless children with mortal women, and has to battle one Greek deity at a time until finally facing his father.

A Sega Mega Drive version was released as Two Tribes: Populous II in 1993 ported by PanelComp and published by Virgin Interactive.

The six categories are linked to a global "manna meter" which needs to be filled to a certain level to enable specific powers for usage.

Upon the successful completion of a map, the player will be awarded between one and five small experience points depending on scale of victory, number and types of powers used and length of battle which can then be used to boost capabilities in any of the six categories.

[2]: 76 Beside a new Japan inspired graphics style there is also a new play mode with 42 levels (challenges), slightly resembling a puzzle game.

[3] Finding gameplay roles for two Greek gods in particular was noted as a difficulty; Aphrodite and Dionysus, due to determining what their spheres would translate to in-game.

[3] Populous II incorporates a total of 35 effects, as Molyneux expresses that "People were always saving [resources] for a volcano or earthquake".

[3] Populous II's icon-based UI was changed due to the addition of new effects, and Molyneux states that "There just wasn't enough space on screen: at one point we had icons which were four pixels by eight wide - how do you distinguish a whirlpool from a whirlwind in that?

"[3] As a result, effects were split into five categories - earth, air, fire, water, and people, albeit Molyneux expresses his reluctance in doing so, stating that "That isn't my favorite option - because when you're playing a game, everything should be fully accessible all the time - but it was the best compromise we could come up with.

[10] Super Gamer gave the SNES version an overall score of 82% writing: "An attractive update of the original with a much smoother control system.