The original Black & White was released. I spent a lot of time playing games in high school. Peter Molyneux's masterpiece rejuvenated my love for the concept, just as I thought I was growing out of interest with the genre.

It doesn't feature giant apes or lions that you can raise to do your job on the planet, but it does give you the feeling of being an all-powerful god.

Black & White and similar games rely on gaining influence or raising an Earthly appointee to do your bidding, but Deisim gives you complete power over your creation from the start.

Simple roots

Official screenshots of the game Deisim for the Meta Quest 2

(Image credit: Myron Software)

It's a game that is best experienced when you want to relax and enjoy the slow life. In a way, it's not unlike taking care of bonsai.

It doesn't seem very deep at the beginning. There are many layers of complexity that have been added to the game over the past few years.

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In the past, Deisim was a kind of god game that let you build a world and watch the population grow. Modern and futuristic ages, kingdoms, army battles, and even aliens have been added during its development. When you want to relax and enjoy the slow life, you should play it. It's similar to taking care of a small plant.

The visuals aren't designed to impress you, but they are charming in their own way. The world is built with simple models and bright colors.

A certain type of civilization will be attracted to each of the biomes. Icy plains and cherry blossom forests have different cultures. It is possible to hang out in your favorite local as you watch the world develop.

The image is the first of three.

Official screenshots of the game Deisim for the Meta Quest 2
(Image credit: Myron Software)

Official screenshots of the game Deisim for the Meta Quest 2
(Image credit: Myron Software)

Official screenshots of the game Deisim for the Meta Quest 2
(Image credit: Myron Software)

Your inventory of abilities grows as your world and its civilizations develop.

The controls are easy to understand, and the main menu contains all the actions and miracles you can perform. A collection of world tiles, miracles, plagues, and even the ability to create individual hero units are all part of your inventory of abilities.

I didn't care for the locomotion in Deisim at first, but I realized that pressing and holding the controller gave me the ability to push and pull the entire world around, like standing at a globe and finding the next place. Smooth movement can be used instead of teleport.

It's possible to get down in with your people or better manage the world from a different perspective. Pressing and holding the triggers will scale the world to your liking.

Some of the actions could have been explained better, for example, how are you going to know your preferences if you don't try something.

Diving deeper

A screenshot of later cities in the game Deisim for the Meta Quest 2

(Image credit: Myron Software)

I love that Deisim gives you the feeling of being a powerful deity yet keeps human control confined to its own automated means.

The feeling of being a powerful deity with human control confined to its own automated means is something I like. It's not SimCity, and it's not Populism. It is both something in-between the two and outside of those things.

You can fashion the land by using a collection of simple tile-based tools that you can drop onto any empty square. If you want a bigger forest or larger body of water, you can put tiles in patches of six. You can't easily change the work you have done.

As you grow your world, you will see kingdoms grow in each area. As the rulers get more paranoid and angry, is one kingdom becoming unruly, spawning heretics and attacking other kingdoms? Send a plague of Locusts to teach them a lesson, or rain down from heaven.

You will need to inspire kingdoms to expand, regrowth forests that have been felled and drained of their precious resources, fashion mines hewn of rock, and even breed animals in a way only a god can do.

Unlike real humans, the humans in Deisim are not easy to understand. They can seem simple on the outside, but each has their own personality and culture that can affect those around it.

The denizens of your world might need to expand once you reach the kingdom age. Since this isn't a real time strategy game and you aren't commanding actual humans, you'll be interacting indirectly with them.

If you want to experience the wonders of artificial intelligence and a virtual world in a way that Virtual Reality can deliver, you need to experience Deisim over a long period of time. It's a god game for the new age and not filled with too much strategy.

If you can get it on sale or just enjoy toiling in a virtual world as you would a garden, Deisim is a gem that should be experienced by anyone who plays the game.