Black & White 2

Choice is very lifeblood of computer games--of all games really. The job of a computer game designer is all about finding ways to present the player with interesting choices that will affect how the game unfolds, which in turn will affect later sets of choices. A game without choices isn't a game at all, or at least a very bad one. Should you choose the dimly lit left corridor, or the right one that goes deeper into the dungeon? Should you send your armies to attack the vile aliens before they have time to gather their strength, or wait for them in ambush? Such are the burdens every gamer must bear.

Black & White 2 is a game that is all about choice. As the title implies, the situations often revolve around fundamental choices between good and evil, and about how you as a player will interact with the gameworld Peter Molyneux and crew have crafted. In Black & White 2 you play as a newly awakened god who must provide for the needs of the Greek people--your people. The people have many needs, and how you respond--or don't respond--to these needs will largely determine whether you are a good god or an evil god. Your people have been assaulted by the wicked Aztecs, and it is your job to lead them back to safety and prosperity, else they will fall under the eternal yoke of Aztec domination. They're counting on you!

The game starts off by introducing you to your conscience. Predictably, your conscience has two sides: good and evil. They take the form of tiny sprites who float around the screen and act as your spiritual advisors. They also serve as game guides who will lead you through the tutorial and teach you about the gameplay mechanics. You are free to ignore their advice, and they frequently provide completely opposing points of view on how you should proceed. Although they can be annoying at times, these advisors do provide helpful information about what you are supposed to be doing.

One of the first decisions you will be presented with is the choice of your "creature." Mysterious, magical beasts, creatures exist to do the bidding of their gods. The creature is more or less the player's avatar in the gameworld, and his appearance and actions are a big part of how a god wields power in the game. And although the creatures are devoted to the will of their master, they are intelligent and have their own personality. They learn as they go and must be nurtured in order to grow strong and powerful.

Like most real time strategy games, gathering and managing resources is integral to gameplay. Your people's needs will include building magnificent cities and planning for their defense. This means increasing the numbers of your followers and insuring they have places to live, shop, entertain themselves, and enough resources to survive. And survival is far from a sure thing, as each level of the game is also inhabited by another god who is intent on doing the same thing you are. They will not stand idly by and watch as your power swells and more and more people fall under your influence. They will take action using their own minions, including a creature of similar stature and power as yours.

All of this combines to create a fascinating gameworld in which the player can advance the plot in a number of ways, or simply tinker around and "play god," moving people and objects around. The player is faced with all sorts of choices and challenges that make for an interesting experience--at least in theory. Unfortunately, things simply don't work out that way in Black & White 2. In a nutshell, the gameplay just isn't much fun, nor are the challenges very rewarding. Worse, many of the challenges seem like something ripped out of one of my 9-year old child's Playstation titles. Some challenges are part of the main story, while others occur when the player clicks on magical silver scrolls that are located at various locations on each map.

Are the challenges really that bad? Yep.

For instance, in one of the challenges you must assist a frustrated villager who is being kept awake by a rooster that crows at sunrise. So you must use your godly powers and cause the sun to come up three times in a row so that the rooster will go hoarse and stop crowing (I think I remember this from second grade). In another, you must toss barrels of beer to drunken brothers located on several islands. Once you succeed in getting the barrels where they belong, the brothers will sing you a song and thank you for the beer. Other challenges are even more vapid. I don't know who's idea this stuff was, but almost none of it is either humorous or interesting and it adds virtually nothing to the game.

Even more disturbing, as the game progresses you may begin to suspect that you are the god of a people who, quite honestly, deserve to be extinct. Your followers are brain dead for the most part, and at times, I couldn't even muster the will to save them from their own stupidity. They will frequently whine that they don't have enough grain, even though their granary is full of the stuff and you have created fertile fields for them to harvest. At night, they will complain they "need sleep," even though you have built sturdy homes for them to live in. At other times they will mope around and snivel about not having enough babies or not having a mate. Perhaps I'm just an uncaring god, but I found it hard to relate to people who are too stupid to go to sleep at night or figure out how to have kids!

For god's sake who are these people and how did I get stuck leading them?

Black & White 2 makes a half-hearted attempt to bridge the gap between a god game and a real time strategy game by introducing simplistic RTS elements. The problem is that it simply doesn't add up to an enjoyable experience. Although you are able to create a few different kinds of troops, there are no tactics to speak of. Combat consists of generating more troops and simply hurling them at the enemy formations. But this is hardly rewarding in most cases as your creature is far more powerful and can wreck havoc all by himself. In fact, if your creature is killed in battle he will magically re-appear a short while later in his pen. You can then simply throw him back into the fray and keep at it until the enemy forces are whittled down. And you needn't fear the enemy forces too much as they are almost as stupid as your own people! They will come charging toward your base ready to fight, only to wonder aimlessly around the walls until you finally decide to put them out of their misery.

The only bright spot in all of this is your creature. In contrast to the original Black & White, it is now much easier to get your creature to do your bidding. He can be a builder, a soldier, a gatherer, and accomplish other simple tasks you set for him. Your creature will occasionally do things like eating your own people, snacking on ore rocks, or taking a poop on your houses. However, there is a fairly simple way to correct this behavior: slap the crap out of him until he shapes up! This is by far the most amusing part of the game, but after a while it's the only part of the game that held the interest of this reviewer.

Another aspect of Black & White 2 that doesn't seem quite right is the effect of the choices you make on gameplay. In short, it really doesn't make much difference whether you choose to be a good god or an evil one as the basic game remains the same. If you tend toward the good side, your cities will have a wholesome appearance and your creature will more or less look happy and friendly. If you tend toward evil, your base will start to take on a dark and decrepit character and your creature will get more and more vicious in appearance. But the gameplay just doesn't seem to work well as the game handles everything in absolute terms of good and evil. For example, if another deity is attacking your people and you build some swordsmen to defend your base, this will be seen as an "evil" act. The only way to overcome your opponents using "good" is to gradually influence them by building up a magnificent civilization and stealing away followers. But it takes a ridiculously long time to do this, and it never really works quite right as you can't take over enemy settlements by influencing them. Instead, the inhabitants migrate into your own city, which doesn't do a whole lot to achieve your goals except to increase your population ("we need houses...").

In the end, I finally gave up and decided to be an evil god. Surprisingly, this makes the game much easier as it is a piece of cake to simply build up your forces and crush your opponent with brute force. By this time I was so annoyed with the silver scrolls and side quests ("there's a rock in my field, can you help me get it out?") that I elected to be 'really' evil just to spice the game up! People were complaining that they didn't have enough food, even though I had graciously taken time out of my busy schedule and watered their fields for them. To teach them a lesson they wouldn't soon forget, I burned some of their houses down and had the creature eat a few just for good measure. My creature spontaneously pooped on the old folks home, and I stroked his belly and gave him an old lady to snack on as a reward! Needless to say, I trampled the enemy swine into dust and wrecked havoc on their base. It's a shame that none of this really made the slightest difference to the way the game progressed.

The bottom line is that Black & White 2's gameplay has serious flaws on nearly every level.

Whatever shortcomings Black & White 2 has in the gameplay department, the same is most certainly not true of the graphical presentation. The game engine is a marvelous piece of programming and is truly a wonder to behold. You can zoom up close enough to watch your villagers go about their daily business, or effortlessly zoom way out to the point where the entire island is quite small. Graphical effects such as fire, water, and clouds look exceptionally good, if a bit on the cartoonish side. The creatures are, of course, one of the highlights in the game and look very nice. Even their fur looks convincing on higher settings, and animation is generally top notch. Overall, the production values here are excellent.

Sound effects in Black & White 2 are generally high quality, but a few (like some of the villagers singing) can be annoying. You will hear all sorts of little sounds as you move around the map including waterfalls, wind blowing, animal life, etc. The attention to detail here is admirable and adds significantly to the immersive feel of the environments.