"The good, the bad, and the beautiful"

Story 6/10
(Tiny lil spoilers!)

The story is quite basic, you control the Greeks. The Greeks wish to seek revenge on the Aztecs because they almost destroyed every one of them in a war. Other than the Greeks and Aztecs, there are the Norse and Japanese, both under Aztec control.

Gameplay 8/10

Black and White 2 has new, and different, features. You now must do quests/side-quests(silver scrolls) to gain tribute. This tribute is just like another currency, which you use to purchase new buildings, miracles, creature abilities etc. Unlike Black and white 1, your creature teaching is now much easier and much more straightforward. You can shape his personality very easily.

One of the main changes in Black and White 2 compared to the first 1 is war. You can now wage war on enemies using not only your creature, but also your own villagers. Every male villager can be put in the army, and gain experience by battling enemy armies. The more experience they gain, the better they are at destroying.

Unlike Black and White 1 your creature is no longer the omnipotent, 100 metre tall being that it used to be. Your creature now reaches a height of 11 metres, this may seem small, however he is still able to destroy entire armies with relative ease.

You're a God, and of course, you have powers. You're able to cast a number of miracles, good and bad. You have normal miracles such as fireball and heal, then you have a powerful miracle, meteor. Finally, by placing a Wonder you're able to cast one of the special epic miracles.

Graphics 9/10

The graphics, simply put, are amazing. I have a mediocre machine with which to play Black and white 2 on and still the graphics are outstanding. By waving your hand around the land inside your influence you change the landscape into your alignment, i.e. if you're evil the land becomes cracked and scorched, and if you're good pretty little flowers appear! Your creature follows his own alignment. If you make him act evil, he looks evil.

You are able to zoom incredibly close or incredibly far away in Black and White 2. By zooming in far enough you're able to see individual blades of grass and even tiny ants moving around. When large armies clash together you can zoom in enough to see each individual slaying his (or her) foe.

This game has physics, i.e if you throw a rock at an army, anything hit by that rock will fall. It is also possible for your creature to pick up objects such as trees and rocks to hit villagers with.

Each miracle done by either you or your creature is visually spectacular. The fireball miracle, for example, when thrown lights up the sky. The epic miracles look the best. After casting Volcano, you see the volcano rise up and it begins to shoot lava out in all directions.

Sound 6/10

The music is quite basic, just a calm tune playing in the background. The enemies you're against talk as well. Their talk isn't anything TOO special, but they say sentences which reflect their alignment after you build a certain type of building or do a certain action.

Just like the first Black and White, there are various background noises, such as your creature, your army clashing with another army, your villagers, buildings etc.

Overall 8/10

The graphics and gameplay make this game truly amazing. However, there are a few downsides. The length of this game is relatively short, especially if you're Evil, because it's not too difficult if you have a creature and a large army to destroy anything in your path. Of course there are bugs, and various system difficulties, but i'm sure with time these will all be fixed in various patches.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/14/05