  Plow those fields, minion! |
Lionhead continues their morality-influenced gaming in their real time strategy game Black and White 2. Building on their success with the prior edition, you again get to take on the role of a demigod guiding your people, the Greeks, whose civilization has been demolished by the invading Aztecs. Your goal is to reclaim your peoples territory, island by island. The big choice facing you is what type of god you wish to be, either a loving deity of peace of a vengeful god of war and evil. Helping you to choose which path to take are two imps who act as your conscience each trying to influence your path to either the path of good or evil and who teach you how to use the game.
In Black and White 2, you get to interact with the world via a disembodied hand floating above the landscape which you control using the mouse. With it you can do things such as ripping trees out of the ground to give to your denizens, grab a rock to fling at your enemies, or at your own people if you feel like being sinister. In addition, you get to choose a giant creature, such as a wolf, lion, ape, or even a giant bipedal cow, to help (or hinder) your people.
Your creature starts as a baby and grows into adulthood as you play the game. How you interact with it influences how it behaves. Your creature will have a thought bubble appear above its head indicating what it is thinking about doing, such as "I think I will poo on those trees". If this is something you want your creature to do, you can rub its belly which will train it that this is the sort of behaviour expected of it, and it will do it more often. On the other hand if your creature wants to do something you disagree with you can smack it silly, until it decides that it never wants to do that sort of thing again.
As you progress in the game your populace will indicate their needs through the dias in the centre of their village. This will help you decide what you want to build for them, be it more homes, resources, storage, etc. At the beginning of each island you will get list of objectives which as you perform them will garner you varying amounts of tribute which you can use to provide your people with some amusin extras such as an old age home, torture pit, flower shop, pub, etc.
One of the things which sets Black and White 2 apart from its predecessor is the combat system. You can conquer territory and other villages by creating an armoury with which you can raise an army from your surplus town population and send them to defeat your enemies. You are able to create units of swordsmen, archers or siege engine operators to do your bidding.
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The graphics in Black and White 2 are quite impressive in their detail. You can zoom out to see the island you're playing on as a whole, or zoom in to see an individual citizen in one of your towns going about their daily business. Your creature has a delightful range of expression and actions that really lets you feel a sense of connection with it. The scenery reflects the moral choices you make as you play the game. If you are a loving god, you are rewarded with pastoral scenery, on the other hand if you are a malevolent god the scenery takes on a much more ominous overtone. The sound scape as well provides a nice accompaniment to whats happening without being overbearing.
Overall I enjoyed playing god to several islands of people and I think that this game is suited to people who want a game which they can play over the span of several days and weeks.
Minimum Hardware Requirements
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent 1.6 GHz
OS: Windows 2000/XP
Memory: 512MB RAM
Diskspace: 3.5GB
DVD-ROM: 8 SPEED (PC CD-ROM version also available in USA)
Video: 64MB with 1.1 Pixel Shader*
Audio: DirectX 9.0c compatible
Controls: Keyboard, mouse
