Black & White

"You love it, or you hate it, depends on your understanding. a fair review."

Introduction - I want to get one thing straight first. I read some of the other reviews which gave poor ratings. I noticed a common pattern between these reviewers, none of them truly understood the concept of this game. I'm not trying to insult them, but it's my belief that if you didn't like this game, then you probably looked at the lack of explosions and guns. This game is about having the freedom to make your own choices, in the only position which you could truly do this - you are a god. It's about morals, and about what choices you make when presented with tasks, problems, dilemma's and quests. What's more, you are to nurture a “creature” (which will be explained later) that will reflect you, and how you teach it.

Graphics (9)- I'll do the basic stuff first. Fantastic graphics for it's age, it allows you to see things from all angles, from the face of a child to miles of mountainous land. It also looks stunning. Things also change in appearance to reflect what kind of god you are, e.g. your temple will grow spikes, turn blood red, and curl grotesquely if you are evil, but will flourish a rainbow and look clean and sparkling if you are good. This is the same as your creature. If it was a cow for example, it would turn red and black, with evil curled horns for an evil cow, but would look like a black and white spotted cow for a good cow.

Sound (9)- original in every way, the sound is detailed and suits this game perfectly. There is a variety of music for every occasion, and the sound effects have been specialised to make this game sound like a brisk walk through the mountains, or a quiet stroll through the park. All the creatures have hundreds of noises as well.

Story (10)- this is where the game begins to pull out the stops. You are called from the God dimensions to what is presumably Earth, but for now is a moderate sized island. You save a child from a group of hungry shark. This is where you are confronted with the main concept of the game. Why did you do this? Was it necessary? Should you go out of your way to save lives, or become more efficient and not value single lives? Should you unleash your terrible wrath? Should you “do the right thing?” from then on you are transported to a village which you command. Your main goal at the end of the road is to conquer an evil god named Nemisis and save the people from evil domination. But along the road to this goal you can take any path you like, you are a god. You travel through 5 islands to get to Nemisis.

Concept (10)- Nothing ever like it has been done before. As a God, you can do just about anything, but it will have consequences on what people think of you, on what your temple looks like, on how your creature sees you, and on how the story unfolds. For example, a woman asks you to save her sick husband, to give you a special reward which you need to continue. Do you do the moral thing, and save the husband, or do you do the easy thing and trash her house, and get it anyway? Or do be really devious and kill the husband and bring his corpse to her? It's up to you. In fact, you can be anything. Not evil or good, but anything in between. You can even cast miracles, which will impress your townsfolk and help keep up supplies of food and water and wood. Other miracles such as healing and lighting bolt are there too, and how you use them will reflect whether you are good or evil. In fact there are loads of miracles to use, whether to rain your anger or shower your love is up to you.

What's more, is you have a creature. Ah you say, he's finally going to explain it. Your creature is essentially an animal-looking being, which stands upright and is extremely intelligent. Anything from an ape, to tiger, to cow, to sheep is at your command. Your creature will learn from you anything you teach it, or anything it sees you doing. It can even learn complex series of actions, such as picking up a specific rock and using it to destroy a specific building. It will have to sleep, eat, poo and exercise. It will be like a child which you nurture. It starts small, about twice the height of a man (which is small in this game) but can grow to around a hundred feet tall, like a building walking about in your town, where houses are like small mushrooms it can stand on. Your creature can learn miracles too, and use them to help, or burden your folk. There's nothing cooler than watching a 100ft ape cast a gigantic fireball which burns up a town. Your creature can also fight other creatures, dance, impress people and help the running of your town. Your creature will not necessarily be the same alignment as you (of goodness) but can be totally different. This game is like nothing done before. It also got a Guiness world record for the most complex game character, or the most intelligent game character, or the game character that can learn the most or something. Anyway its talking about the creature. The creature is more than half the game in my opinion. Bring your creature up to be the most powerful creature on Earth, whatever you want.

Controls(9)- you are a hand, (and incidentally, your hand changes form depending on your alignment)
And you move about by grasping the landscape and pulling. You use the mouse, with plenty of hotkeys that are easy to use. It hard to pick up, i.e. steep learning curve, but after that its easy. Helps to have a mouse wheel.

Gameplay (10)- most of this is described under concept. You can use loads of miracles. You have to gain belief from townsfolk to gain popularity and power, which gives you more space to roam. Where you can't roam, your creature can, and you can use him to get more towns. You have to get towns to eventually win. These towns open up more quests for you to do, etc. find out yourself.

Replayability (10) internet gaming, skirmishes, my favourite is experimenting on doing different things with different creatures. You can do anything you want remember.

Black and white. If you don't have it, then you should. But I'd wait for number two coming soon between October 2004 and January 2005.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 08/09/04