Black & White 2 Preview

Not many games nowadays can be considered imaginative or ground-breaking additions to their respective genres. Occasionally, we stumble upon a few exceptions to the rule. It wasn't in the least bit surprising when Lionhead Studios, the home-base of gaming wizard Peter Molyneux, announced the development of a sequel to their brilliant god-sim/strategy Black & White. Throughout the last year, Peter and Lionhead kept most of the project under a veil of secrecy. Although many issues are still being contemplated at this stage in the development cycle, the game's creative team was willing to let a few details slide.

Most of the new information has to do with the graphics and the new and improved physics model in the sequel. Just so you know Black & White 2 is being pushed for a release in Q4 2004. The main goal of the developers this time around was to focus on shortcomings and details that were omitted in the original. This was the goal of the design team when they began working on the follow-up. Expanding on new ideas and throwing in several suggestions accumulated from chat sessions and community board discussions, Lionhead opts to go further with their popular strategy game.

The key aspect of the gameplay in Black & White 2 is to make gamers truly feel like they are gods, controlling the course of many lives, shifting the tides of war, and so on. Being a deity involves numerous duties and plenty of responsibilities towards loyal followers. It's important to motivate the populace and nurture their faith. That only applies, however, to benevolent gods. Players with a mean streak in them can become the exact opposites of this. The whole concept of the game allows you to decide whether your inhabitants should fall under supreme control of an evil god or a merciful one. It's all up to you, and that's the beauty of the experience. Almost every action alters the shape of the world beneath you. But that's not all. People who live under your influence and power, represent the reflection of your deeds and attitude towards the world. So, if you are a good and compassionate god, most citizens are going to be productive, loyal, and good-mannered (plus, they'll be busy as beavers). A satisfied society is also sure to enrich the surroundings with sculpting statues, beautiful gardens, roads to ensure safer passage across the city, taverns for those who wish to enjoy a refreshing drink or a nourishing meal (beer comes in pints by the way). Gamers who appreciate a more wicked approach can set up torture champers, bars, and other business establishments for... err... grown-ups (Smap, you're too young, buddy!).

Those who have experienced Black & White before already know that the game features huge creatures which serve as some sort of a go-between for the player and the people. More or less, these creatures came as pets players would bring up and train throughout the course of the game. One of their weakest points, however, was the sudden outbreak of unexplainable behavior, which eventually lead to a few unwelcome events; for instance, the Creature would sometimes wander off and even get the urge to eat villagers every once in a while for no obvious reason. Players had the option to slap the poor Creature around for as much as they liked... Although it made you feel a little better, it certainly wasn't much of a challenge. Tweaking its AI, the development team made a variety of crucial changes in an attempt to improve the gameplay. Creatures are now able to gather and control armies in addition to employing dynamic strategies in various battle situations. Training them is also different than before. Players are now able to look directly into the Creature's brain, giving it more detailed instructions as to what it should be working on. For the most part, a Creature is an accurate embodiment of the way players perform generally. If a player resorts to aggressive tactics and violent behavior, the Creature would evolve accordingly. In time, it'll get used to your style of play, eventually altering its appearance and overall performance. It can grow hair, become fat or thin, strong, weak, etc. Again, a great deal depends on the choices you make during the game (personally, I plan to toss about as many innocent little humans as possible).

The technology behind Black & White 2 considerably improved since the original. For starters, the camera features solid movement scope, allowing you to view the action from a great height or way down in the midst of the battlefield. Every single detail in the environment was designed to appear convincing no matter which perspective you happen to be viewing the action from. The surroundings will change almost constantly, depending on how you play the game. The B&W 2 engine has enough muscle to render up to thousands of units on screen, diverse landscapes (which alter shape when players use their god-like powers), different weather conditions, various structures and objects, etc. One of the things we were rather pleased to hear, is that even with all the top-notch graphics and highly detailed surroundings, the programmers are toiling away to establish a reasonable frame-rate on both high-end and low-end systems.

Another significant change was incorporated into the game's physics. In the previous Black & White, each action would trigger a specific animation sequence, which would occur according to the situation. In the sequel, everything operates within the new physics engine. A diligent team of programmers, 3D animators and designers, are currently working on a system that's going to ensure a practically endless combination of animation sequences... depending on whatever takes place on screen. Objects, your Creature, and various units, will react just as you'd expect them to. As far as animation goes, no in-game model was left without a meticulous and delicate makeover. The Creature, for example, is composed out of 70 bones, almost a third of which has been placed on its face. Such an impressively designed skeleton was assembled to allow for a vast number of convincing facial expressions. As you can see, the Creature remains the focal point of the designing team.