Black & White Review

Black and White's strong strategy element is reflected in your struggle to expand your area of influence over the other gods. You devise different strategies of impressing your people and helping them grow in order to gain supremacy over the other contending gods. Oh yes, and another thing - you teach your creature to fight against other creatures. If he (it) wins a fight, it helps you to establish or strengthen your dominance over a given territory.

So Do All These Concepts Work?

Well, in a manner of speech, they do. The most important thing about this elaborate project is that it may put off many casual gamers by requiring them to spend some time on it before they become proficient, but once you familiarize yourself with the general concepts and the game's many subtle techniques, you'll become consumed and the notion of time and daily choirs will slowly start to lose their meaning. In other words, if you give it time Black and White will grow on you and you'll definitely become addicted. The designers have included so many delicate touches that you'll have a feeling you're still exploring all the options after five days of heavy-duty playing time.

About the only drawback, which stays with you even after many hours of gameplay is the fact that there just aren't enough things to build in the village. As I have mentioned earlier, helping your village expand and thrive is an important factor of the game because it helps further your spiritual reach over the land. It probably would've been a tad overwhelming to have more different types of structures to build, but it would still be nice to have some really, really wacky and unique structures to play around with, too.

In addition, certain micro-management issues arise during gameplay - like why doesn't The Creature eat food on his own when he's hungry (like he's supposed to), or why doesn't he rest when his tiredness is at about 70%, instead of waiting to just slam on the ground when his level of tiredness reaches 100%.

As is the case with The Sims, some gamers might complain that you spend an awful lot of time in the game chopping down trees and building houses for the little guys. Micro-management is a touchy subject really. If there is indeed a basis for such remarks, then it doesn't have to do as much with micro-managing your citizens' lives, as it does with the fact that you just don't have enough time in the game to teach, cuddle or slap your Creature, and pay close attention to your villagers at the same time. This is the biggest gameplay trade-off in Black and White - one side is inevitably going to suffer because of the other. There just isn't enough time to micro-manage both the villagers and your Creature.

Bottom line though, and this is the most important thing really: Black and White is an addictive game, and that is all you really need to know anyway.

The Eye Candy and The Godly Sounds.

Black and White didn't get an Editor's Choice award for nothing. It is an amazing all-around effort, and that includes the fantastic work on both the visuals and the musical score and sound effects. The 3D engine works great - it provides tools for the artists to achieve the amazing effect of a personality-shaped, moody game world. Blood-red skies, vicious storms, and torn landscapes are what is left of a beautiful world if you happen to be an evil God. Kind of like if you were Dorian Gray, and you happened to own a portrait of yourself. Conversely, your face (the game world) will look like you're on some Loreal ad, if you happen to be more on the side of good.

The terrain is rich in detail (the landscape is full of lush forests, scattered rocks and numerous other decorations), and the Creatures have a very high poly count, making them full of character and very likeable. Oh, and did I mention that your Creature also visually and mentally reflects your style of play? Jesus (no pun intended), there are just too many things in this game that deserve a mention.

The incredible zooming capabilities of the 3D code are something that not only improves the game's WOW factor, but it is also very helpful if you need to get on the other side of the island in a hurry. The only thing that bothered me about the graphics is the floating texture effect, which I think occurs because of an otherwise efficient LOD (level of detail) system.

The musical score is monumental in a sense and it reminds me of that theme song in Gladiator - the one which plays during that scene when Maximus is walking through a crop field near his home (by Lisa Gerard from Dead Can Dance). The sound effects are also top-notch and they further enhance the incredibly atmospheric visual impression of the game.

Near the Finish Line.

In closing, let me just add that I've intentionally omitted to talk more about the game's story line.

Surely, you wouldn't want me to tell you everything there is about this game now would you. However, it doesn't hurt to reemphasize that Black and White actually features a solid plot, which is something that was usually missing from Peter's previous god-game efforts, or games like The Sims for instance. All the more reasons for you to run out and grab yourself a copy of Black and White. This reviewer says you won't regret that decision.