Spoil and pamper him, and you end up with a useless lump. As with Black & White, you can choose from a selection of animal archetypes, but what you end up with as your creature grows from childhood, through adolescence to his adult form, is up to you. The game’s other big moral barometer is your creature. After all, most evil deities aren’t too fussed about providing retirement homes, while just rulers don’t often hold with torture pits. And if you really want to push things either way, there are buildings you can add that directly affect your city’s balance. In true Black & White fashion, the path you take affects the landscape: it’s either sweet summer flowers or magma everywhere you look. The evil way, as promoted by the foul-looking fiend sitting on your other shoulder, is to raise enormous armies and crush your enemies. Add temples, lamps, universities, nurseries, graveyards, and other public amenities, and they’ll start looking on your people with envy.
The good way, as pushed by your friendly angelic advisor, is to build a culture so magnificent that your rival deity’s followers will up sticks and join you. In tune with the game’s moral focus, there are two core ways of doing this. You pop up with a scattering of people, there’s another god, and it’s your job to resolve the conflict. You see, this time the focus is very much on winning lands. It’s no wonder that Black & White 2 has had such a kicking in the specialist games press. The RTS elements are surprisingly basic, the creature-training has arguably been watered down, and a little of the magic has been lost. As a result, it’s actually a lot more conventional: a game that for much of the time plays like a fantasy spin on the ancient city-building sim. Clearly, a decision was made to make the Black & White sequel less frustrating and more accessible. Nor is it as visionary a game as the original. Sorry, but if you’re after a next-generation RTS, this isn’t it. After all, wasn’t that why they hired Blizzard-veteran Ron Millar? Admittedly, since Fable, the Lionhead hype machine has quietened down, but Black & White 2 still promised the perfect combination of creature-raising god game and RTS. Let’s get this out of the way: Black & White 2 is a disappointment.Ĭall it the Lionhead effect: the way previews, presentations and developer interviews promise the Earth, then the final game arrives and things don’t work out quite as everyone hoped.
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