Few games can combine such a range of gaming genres into a single storyline without becoming a muddled, confusing mess – or being accused of having multiple personality disorder. Black and White 2, though, manages to do this seamlessly. How many other games let you play god, build and maintain militias, construct whole cities from scratch, and play with your very own virtual pet? The brilliance of the game is the ability to combine all of these elements into the gameplay and still maintain a strong coherent storyline.

In Black and White 2, you play a god to your Greek worshippers, although not a traditional Greek god of mythology. The game starts with you trying to protect your worshippers from an invading Aztec army. After saving a handful of people, just enough to start a new civilization, you are whisked away to an island to begin anew. From this point on, the game consists of meeting mini-goals that guide you along the path of the storyline.

Part of what made the original Black & White so unique was its completely open-ended nature. Although there were quests to complete and goals to make, players could spend unlimited amounts of time at each stage of the game and branch out as they saw fit. Some gamers loved this, while others felt the game was too open-ended. Whether for good or bad, depending on your view of the original game, Black and White 2 is considerable more structured and has a much less meandering feel. It is far from a “game on rails�, but players are kept on a much closer rein this time around.

As a god, you develop a personal relationship with your worshippers. Players can choose to become an angelic god who strives to do good deeds for your people. They worship you for your kindness and mercy, and in turn, generate mana for you so that you may perform miracles. Or you can choose to become an evil god who commands with threats of sacrifice and war. In this case, you perform miracles by grabbing a terrified worshipper and flinging into the sacrificial pit. Black and White 2 does an excellent job at supporting both of these god options, as well as innumerable middle-ground stances, allowing the gamer to truly customize the experience.

A huge part
of the game consists of building cities and collecting resources. In fact, this is the central theme of the game since you need cities to house your worshippers and resources to maintain them in order to do anything else. The good news is that building a city is incredibly easy. Just click on the building you want to built, click on the location where you want it built, and viola! You have the makings of a city. When confronted with outside cities, it is up to the gamer to decide how to conquer them. You may either convince them to convert through acts of kindness and by trying to impress them with your power, or storm the city and forcefully taking them over with your militia. This is great fun at first, but the bad news is that this process is repeated over and over and over throughout the game. It’s fun to build the first two or three cities up and watch them grow, but the excitement factor begins to wear quickly. Later in the game, you will often find yourself waiting for building construction to be complete, or for resources to accumulate so you can launch another military attack so that you can progress to the next task. And it can take a long, long time to convert some stubborn cities.

The greatest feature of this game is, by far, your god’s creature, the ultimate virtual pet. Players select from a cow, lion, ape, or wolf (a tiger is a fifth option if you pre-ordered the game) and train it through a system of rewards and punishment. As your creature interacts with the environment and your worshippers, it will experiment with different behaviors. By either encouraging your creature with gentle pats or disciplining it with slaps, you can mold your creature’s behavior to do your bidding. The creature develops its own unique personality over time and even will take on the appearance suggestive of its behavior. Creatures that eat a lot become fat, while creatures that get a lot of exercise become lean and muscular. Similarly, “good� creatures take on an angelic glow while “bad� or evil creatures start to look darker and more menacing. When used to its full potential, your creature can make your job as god easier by assisting your military, gathering resources for your worshippers, constructing buildings, and even entertaining your people to keep them happy.

The one major departure from the original Black and White is that now your creature will let you know what it’s thinking ahead of time, so that you can reward or punish the behavior in advance. In the original game, you only knew that your creature was going to eat a worshipper, rip up a tree, or water the plants when the behavior happened, which added a fun spontaneous element to the game. The ability to “read� your creatures mind will appeal to gamers who like more structure, but will be a disappointing change to those gamers who liked the more free-form style of the original game.

Overall, Black and White 2 game is graphically beautiful, has a strong storyline, and is sheer fun to play. Ultimately those Black and White players who had hoped for a more linear, structured gameplay get their wish with this sequel, along with a much improved storyline and updated graphics. Those gamers who enjoyed the open-endedness of the original game may be disappointed that they are given more less leeway in the sequel, but other aspects of the game should more than make up for this change.

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