I'm willing to give this game a chance, because when you put the whole religious side of things in a box, the Old Testament - with its plagues and pestilence and pillars of salt - is pretty badass.

The Bible Online is a new massively-multiplayer online game from German outfit FiAA, and will - over the course of many chapters - give players the chance to re-enact certain parts of the Bible.

In the beginning, there was...Chapter 1, The Heroes, which will be the first release of the game, and sounds a lot like Age of Empires (it looks a lot like it too), as you control Abraham and his descendants on their journey to the promised land.

There's even a "hero" system for levelling up and transferring skills, as Abraham begets new characters like Isaac and Jacob.

The Bible Online is a browser-based game, and will kick off on September 6 (though they're also taking beta testers right now).

[The Bible Online]