Black & White 2

"The Gods have returned."

Five years after the award winning "Black & White," Lionhead Studios has presented the world with it's sequel, "Black & White 2." The original game holds a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for best game Artificial Intelligence. Does part two live up to it's predecessor?

Let's break it down and find out.

*The Story*

Yes, there is a story here and a much more direct one then the first game which was very open-ended. In part two, a time of peace has fallen over the world of Eden. Once, there were many gods who depended on worshipers for their strength. The gods grew in power and began to battle one another. Conflict was rampant but finally, peace settled across the land and all it's tribes. The gods found themselves no longer necessary and returned to the heavens and settled into a long sleep.

As time passed, the gods became a thing of legend. The four tribes of the world, the Greeks, the Japanese, the Norse, and the Aztecs lived without strife. Passed down by all of them was the prophecy: One tribe would face annihilation at the hands of the most powerful. This tribe would survive and come to dominate the globe. And they would be led to this victory by a god.

You are that god.

Summoned from your sleep by a pure prayer, you return to Eden to find the Greek civilization on the brink of destruction at the hands of the Aztecs. There is no time for questions as you manage to save a handful of survivors and help them rebuild. But will you take over the world as a god of peace or as a god of evil? The choice is yours.

"Black & White 2" adds many new concepts to the series. You can now build armies to conquer the world or even just to defend your towns. The people are less needing in the management area and a bit more environmentally friendly when it comes to gathering resources like wood (in the first game, the villagers would cut down every last tree and then whine for more.) Training your creature is now easier then ever with an all new training program.

*Graphics*

Make no mistake about it. This game is graphic intense. While low-end cards that meet the system requirements (and the manual stresses that you should) will run the game ok if you turn many of the options off, you cannot truly appreciate the extraordinary level of detail that has gone into the game. People are very detailed in outfits and faces. Buildings are beautifully detailed and change their overall look as you decide between good and evil. Green plant life and gurgling fountains appear if you follow the path of good while spikes and flaming torches decorate the land if you are evil. You can even zoom inside buildings to see people partying in the taverns or swimming in the elegant bath houses. And for you evil folk, people will hang off the punishment spikes or writhe in pain in the torture pit. The graphics truly make the game much more appealing.

*Sound*

The music for the game is very smooth and so is the voice work. Special buildings like the tavern or the torture pit have their own unique music. Zoom away and the music fades off. It's all done very well and a surround sound system would only make it better. I hooked a Boise up to my computer and the sound was amazing.

*Game play*

The game provides a complete in-game tutorial for the interface. If you download the patch (which was released three days after release,) there is an option to skip the tutorial and go right to the game but you lose out on tribute you could earn otherwise.

Aside from your city building, there is your avatar on Eden, the adorable (or evil) creature. Just like the first game, your creature requires training. But this time, your methods are a bit more straight forward. You pet or slap your creature to tell him if you want him to do certain tasks and he will ask you what you want him to do when he learns a new task. For example, do you want him to eat the villagers or dine on ever-bountiful grain? Will he entertain your villagers or lead your armies in battle? By punishing or rewarding, you determine whether or not or even how much your creature will do various tasks. You may also assign him to a specific role. You can have him constantly gather resources like grain, wood, or the new resource ore. You could have him be a consistent warrior (the most powerful one in the game.) But by keeping him in a certain role, your creature will become like a robot rather then a pet. But if you set him to be free willed, he'll decide what he wants to do. But you have to keep an eye on him and pet him to keep him happy. The less happy he is, the worse he performs. And even though you can train him to love trees, he may still rip up one you've placed in town to make it look better.

The method to train your creature now is less hit-and-miss then it was in the first game. You had to catch your creature in the act of doing something to reward or punish him. Sometimes, you might punish him and be telling him it is bad to pick up rocks rather then it being bad to throw them at buildings. Not so in this game. And now, the creature will automatically know how to cast miracles once you have bought them with tribute. But you must still tell him if and how often to use them. He'll also need to workout with rocks or trees to become stronger and don't forget to let him sleep. A tired creature is a weak creature.

Town building is important. You can make your city impressive looking and other tribes will abandon their own towns to live in yours. Or you can create a formidable army led by your creature to take them over. Perhaps you prefer a mix and care for your people while still using force to win people over. To impress people, connect roads to houses and build lamps and water wells to make them more appealing. Build an altar and generate mana to cast miracles that can heal your people or cast water on a field to increase it's grain yield. If you wish to be evil, you can even drop your villagers into your altar to generate mana. Children provide the most. Now that's evil!

By accomplishing certain requirements, you earn tribute which you can use to purchase advanced buildings or powers. There are also the optional Silver scrolls which give you a specific task to complete for a nice tribute bonus. Save up to advance your creature's skill as a gatherer or to build a Wonder which will allow you to cast Epic miracles like the new Siren Epic which converts soldier pounding at your gates to friendly followers. Or if you rather burn them alive with the Volcano epic miracle, you can do that too.

One last comment about building, the people will tell you if they need a certain kind of building. And unlike the first game, providing it will make the people happy. They won't constantly whine for something they already have in abundance.

The people are yours to command (or kill.) By picking them up, you can create Disciples which will work constantly on any task you set them. Builders build, Miner's mine, and Breeders, well, breed. Soldiers, which are of different types depending on what kind of armory you build, will train and level up as they fight. Keep them healed and a well-experience platoon could take out a city without your creature.

Keep in mind that every action you do is either good or evil. Ignoring the people's desires is evil. Even uprooting a tree for the heck of it is an evil act. Replanting it is good and will balance this out. Picking up a rock isn't evil but chucking it into a house sure is. Even if it's the other tribes! Defending yourself if you are attacked is not evil but marching pel-mel into another town is!

*Overall*

The game does suffer a little bit from it's intense graphics. The larger your town, eventually the slower the frame rate. It does take quite a bit for this to happen so don't panic. A quick save is often the cure for this. But one thing I have noticed is the game does take a great deal of time shutting down. It's not a major issue but one that does stand out a bit.

The game can be won rather quickly if you follow the path of evil or neutral. Getting to the last island in as few as ten hours of game play is not unreasonable. Being good will take you even longer as some tribes are not so easily impressed.

Fans of the first game will enjoy this one I think. Replay ability is pretty good depending on what kind of game play you choose. Even after that, it will always be a good game to come back to.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 10/10/05