Black and White 2 Review

[image:392 align=left hspace=10 vspace=10 size=medium]Black and White 2 puts the power into your hands--or rather, your hand. You play as a Greek god birthed to save the dying Greeks after severe punishment from the Aztecs. After fleeing your homeland during a massive Aztec attack, it is your goal to rebuild the Greek society, obtain the support of the Japanese and Norse people, and reclaim the land that is rightfully yours. Officially, one would call this a strategy game. But I've found that it has hit the spot for my action/adventure needs as well. Black and White 2 bundles epic warfare and a great story together into one hell of a game. Not to mention, you get to play god.

[image:393 align=left hspace=10 vspace=10 size=medium]The folks at Lionhead Studios have created a fantastic world within Black and White 2, where your actions can influence the land, teach your population, and affect the outcome of the game. You are given the choice of which path to take--evil or good (hence the name Black and White). The interface to the game is simple and similar to other real time strategy games. Your mouse pointer is a hand, which can be used to build buildings, gather resources, cast miracles, and interact with the environment. Grabbing objects within the world is an especially unique trait of Black and White 2. While most strategy games only allow you to influence the environment by moving troops and building structures, Black and White 2 allow you to pick up a huge boulder and throw at an attacking army, crushing them all.

[image:394 align=left hspace=10 vspace=10 size=medium]Similar to a traditional RTS, Black and White 2 starts you off with a simple town, defined by a green circle that surrounds it. This circle indicates your area of influence, and it grows as your town does. You can only control the actions within that area. You expand your town by creating workers called disciples, building impressive buildings, and raising huge armies to eventually win the land. Your population will increase as your people continue to breed and your once small settlement will shape into a grand Greek city.

After establishing a firm base, you can then choose the evil path, and send the men into huge armies to take over rival towns by force, or take the good route and build up your town until you impress your neighbors enough for them to join you. Regardless of which path you chose, the ultimate goal is to have control over the entire map. The game's campaign has nine scenarios in which you must accomplish this goal. At first, this may seem to be a difficult task, but you do have a secret weapon--your creature.

[image:395 align=left hspace=10 vspace=10 size=medium]One of the most fantastic things about Black and White 2 is the creature. Your creature aids you throughout the game by performing tasks, conquering towns, casting miracles, and defeating armies. You may chose which giant creature you'd like to befriend--a gorilla, a lion, a wolf, or a cow. Throughout the game, your creature will grow and learn from your actions. Eventually, he himself will become either good or evil, based on your influence. Training your creature is a task that takes patience. When your creature performs a task, you can either punish or reward him. For example, if your creature gathers grain from a field, and you approve of this behavior, simply praise him with a few mouse clicks and a thought bubble will appear over his head saying, "I will sometimes gather grain from the fields." If you want him to do it more often, you can pet him by moving your pointer over him. If you disapprove of a behavior, you can beat him by harshly move your pointer side to side over him. This system of discipline can apply to any action your creature takes, no matter how minuscule. When the game is finished, the file that governs your creature’s behavior can reach a size of 3.5 MB.

With the aid of a trained creature, you can become unstoppable in either building wonderful structures, or crushing opposing armies. Your power doesn’t stop at that though. The ability to cast miracles on your town, or throw them across your line of influence is a unique and essential part of the game. There are six miracles you can cast including fire, water, heal, shield, lightning, and meteor. All of these will prove vital in battle and town maintenance.

Black and White 2 adds epic miracles to the Black and White series. Earned through the completion of quests, epic miracles allow you to work through your disciples to perform amazing tasks like taking control of an opponent's population and spawning massive volcanoes that can obliterate entire towns. While it is indeed an impressive feat, these epic miracles take a lot of time to accumulate, and can use a lot of resources to build. Nevertheless, they make for an incredible addition to the game.

The only loss that I can find in this second game is the lack of any multiplayer support at all. The first Black and White game had a fun way to incorporate multiplayer gameplay; however this second game has no such support.
Aside from the lack of multiplayer, Black and White 2 is a definite recommendation for any strategy fan. The game is entertaining, gorgeous, and original. It takes a favorite genre to an entirely new depth.