Black & White 2 - First Look Preview

With Black and White well and truly established as a brand title it has not taken long for rumours to start about the exact nature of the sequel. We take this opportunity to outline what we know about Black and White 2 so far.<br><br>With each new B&W title the team learns more and will continue to develop the community. In the original game you saw very primitive villagers and all they wanted was food and wood - their abilities were fairly simple and they did not interact with each other nor did towns interact. They farmed, reproduced and married around. Things have now moved on – they are self-sufficient and feel the pressure and influences of other towns and with this advancement and new technologies come the possibility of war. What changes, to the player, as a God, is that they are harder to please – they are interacting with each other – irrespective of your existence. Villagers are trading, warring, as one town becomes too dominant with the stealing of resources. They have built up armies and will defend their cities. Walls can be built around settlements in order to protect them from opposing warriors and the Creatures of rival Gods. There are now many strategic targets in a town whilst worshipping is now more localised. Instead of all moving out to a plot of land where the citadel is placed, and risking their lives, there are worshipping sites dotted around. A town can soon become a city with complex walls, lookout towers, etc.<br><br>The world now is much more chaotic and destructive – much like humans. A great deal of time is spent on understanding the influences of the towns and how they battle against each other – stopping or creating wars! You still, of course, have a creature but instead of becoming this ‘learning agent’ that does things for you, it is also your ultimate weapon. If you have this ‘King Kong’ creature going into a town – the villagers are going to be worried and feel threatened and shoot arrows at it. It could easily clear a town or if you wish be passionate and get them on your side. Basically the essence of B&W2 is the effect of War. This time more emphasis is put on the actual world itself than the actual creature you teach, depending on your choices your will embark on an adventure filled with war and death, or one with peace.<br><br>The AI now works in a far more effective way. The towns before had desires for food – needing to make new fields or fish, which is even more essential. Also you now have to encompass and work within a whole new military component, along with trading. Towns now hold opinions about other towns, about other creatures. The vast and extended complexities of the game, along with sophisticated AI, give more substance. The tribes having discovered technology are embracing the power it brings with a zeal bordering on the religious. The nature of mankind is such that he needs to compete. He needs to control and own, and he needs enemies to direct his anger towards. He needs to fight, and your people will do this in your name. The question is, do you want them to? As a God you can encourage the military might of your followers and rain supernatural hell on your foes. Your Creature can act as an unstoppable weapon, crushing fortifications, towers, people and resistance. But you can also use your might to ensure peace.<br><br>Black and White 2 may not sound that different in terms of a new concept but new improved AI and a fantastic amount of detail makes everything work differently, more effective, so the end results – game play - is vastly improved. Your creature is a leader of men now especially in the warring aspect. He can help with the building up of the military but the creature is so awe-inspiring they will even hide behind it when they attack other towns. The creature learns and builds up military mentalities and so it will put archers up hills, as the range of the weapons will be greater. It also knows about strategies so that it can go into attack and assimilate how much damage it can sustain and give the villagers an advantage when they attack. Every new addition that the developers have added to the game environment, the Creatures have to understand and be able to control themselves. The creature’s appearance is greatly improved with defined muscle tone, fur and hair, which offers a lot more detail and is now more convincing. Gone is the cutey look! Even the way they move has become more akin to what you would expect with creatures moving on all ‘fours’. Black & White 2 is about uniting those you can unite, and destroying those you can’t. It’s about whether you want people to kill for you or die for you. And as the fortunes of the tribes depends on their armies, walled cities and weapons, it’s about knowing when to let peace reign and when to go for it.<br><br>Within Black and White whatever action you did had a knock on effect be it good or bad. If you picked up a tree, it was slightly evil whereas planting a forest was good. At no time did the player get any visuals showing them the merits of their deeds/actions but now you will. Even the sound will help convey these facts. <br>Become totally evil and the dynamic sound will change and convey a darker mood!<br><br>Sound and FXs will also play a greater and more significant part. Right down to the sound of birds chirping away when all is well. The level of detail goes even further with an example of rabbits popping out of holes when there is peace – rats scuffling around when evil lurks! “It is not always down to you pertaining good or evil but that of the alignment of an area. Just like in Lord of the Rings you can see visually black, dark parts of the landscape which is bad!” With a 24 track mixing desk, all number of keyboards and gizmos, the person creating the soundtrack mentioned his inspiration as that of Braveheart. “With a more cinematic feel, the game is very frantic, we are looking to give convey an ‘epic’ quality. Along with cut scenes and stirring sounds it will generate more intensity. You will not see a single person coming out of a hut ready to go to war but dramatic and impressive war scenes. We are trying to add some emotional quality to the game with sound and music conveying the moods of the villagers.”