"A nice game with some flaws"

Black & White 2 is finally unveiled by Lionhead Studios after supposedly, 5 years in production. For a game that's been in production for so long, think you'll be seeing a masterpiece? Think again.

Story
Basically, after being asleep for a long time, you've been brought back to the mortal realms by a desperate prayer for help. Only to discover your people are being brought near to extinction by the Aztecs. And so the story goes...

Gameplay
The first thing you'll be able to do in the game is to choose your creature. You could train it to be an adorable pet or a terrifying monster. This time, the creature doesn't learn abilities from you unlike the previous game. Lessons learnt are in the form of a on/off switch and new abilities, like miracles have to be bought with tribute points. To gain tribute points, you have to complete a lists of tasks on every island. As well as building an impressive city or you could always be an evil god and wage war.

City building is tedious, you're more like a mayor than a god. Unfortunately, that's what you'll be doing all the time should you choose to be a good god. Just build, build, build until everyone joins you. Even as a so-called god, you'll be presented with a limited choice of buildings to build. For a wider selection of buildings, you would have to use tribute points to buy them. The same goes for miracles and mostly everything else! But that's not the worst part.. You have to babysit the needs of your people all the time, as well as the creature!

Graphics
Though the game lacks in the gameplay development, it certainly makes up over here. The graphics are what you'll expect for a game that has been made for a current high-end pc. The islands are very much well detailed and even the sky looks great.

Conclusion
Though it's a nice game, the major flaw is that you are less like a god as the islands progress. And being a god is pretty much the main point of the game.. still, get this game if you're looking for something new.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 10/11/05