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Black & White Review
Chris Leyton
00/12/0000
Black & White
Black & Whiteās only misgiving is itās own fault, the fact is this game is too good for your own personal health. The message is clear, if youād like to keep your friends and job stay clear away from this game, if however you want to get sucked into a game that rarely letās you leave, then you need to get this game, simple.
Basic premise is youāre a God, and to be the best youāve got to have respect, itās what all Godās crave and to get it you need villagers, whoās belief in you will make you more powerful. How you earn this respect is entirely up to you, and the game is structured in such a way that your underlying character will slowly emerge as you progress through the game, think idly throwing the occasional villager across the island into the sea isnāt going to do anything, think again youāre already on the path to the dark side.
So itās up to you to do whatever you want and hereās where it gets sticky to describe Black & White as a game, think of it as more of an experience, sure thereās a linear structure/story in there, but youāre free to leave that alone if thatās what you wish, itās entirely possible to just stay on the one world and get involved in some deep āman-managementā with your villagers, I think thatās one of the main reasons why Black & White appeals, even non-gamers in the office have been hooked, this really is not a video-game, and yet itās structure can be rooted right back to itās origins in games such as āPopulousā and āDungeon Keeperā, Black & White seems to be the perfect amalgamation of Peteās previous efforts and thankfully heās turned up trumps with Black & White..
Ultimately you want to take control of the whole island that youāre currently on, situated on this island will be several villages, some of which will have no allegiance to any god and ripe for moving in and showing of your skills, other villages may have belief in a god and will need some fighting with to gain control. How you get the villagers to believe in you is entirely up to you, shower them with food when theyāre hungry and theyāll thank you for your kindness, equally whip in a few fireballs to their wood store and theyāll worship you in supreme terror. Each village specializes in different miracles, and as theyāre worshipping increases youāll be able to cast these miracles, which help to win-over would-be worshippers.
The balance between what you do is handled perfectly, if youāve been annoyed at your villagers performance despite all your help, whip over a storm and theyāll realise that youāre not happy with their efforts. Just because youāre doing something ābadā doesnāt necessarily mean youāre evil.
Amidst all of the strategy work youāll also have a creature to look after, your pet is the physical embodiment of godly power, and can be taught to perform anything that you can do, be it cast miracles, help villagers to build places or just generally wreck havoc among the place. A lot of time was spent perfecting the AI behind the creature, and at times it really does feel as if youāre bringing up a living creature, Iāve seen grown men resort to talking to a computer screen as if it was a new-born child, only to see them cuddling up with theyāre creature. To encourage your pet you can give him pats and tickles when heās done something that you approve of, if however the pet does something you donāt like, give him a few whacks and thumps in the chest and heāll soon realise not to upset you again.
However be warned your creature is entirely independent, so despite me being the meanest guy since Darth Vader my pet is a rather charming cow, who likes nothing better then getting down and dancing with the villagers, Iām sure heās doing it just to make me look stupid at times!!!
Other Gods who populate the realms will also have creatures, and at times youāll just have to get dirty and have a great big scrap between the two giants, Godzilla style. Although the combat system isnāt nearly as complex as a console fighter, it works nicely in the game and allows you to link a few combos whilst also pulling out some special moves, one word of warning watch out for where the fights occur, having just captured a new village and raising it to the point of looking pretty special, my dumb ass creature decided to pick a fight right in the middle, all I could do was watch as each of them fell spectacularly into buildings crushing them to rubble and killing any villagers that were dumb enough to stand by and watch.
Thankfully enough time was spent producing a control system that works beautifully, everything can be performed with just your mouse, with the left button controlling movement and the right button assigned to your actions, miracles are cast by simply producing the right gesture with the mouse, for example producing a āwā shaped motion will conjure up the water miracle, and allow you to have an instant rain cloud to water crops or just comically place over one villagers head and bemuse him all day. After a few hours the hand on-screen literally becomes your hand, and if you canāt quite get used to it you can assign actions to the keyboard, though I do recommend getting used to the way it was intended to be played.
If the game sounds daunting, donāt be put off youāre led through the game on a perfectly balanced learning curve, helped out with the aid of your good conscience and bad conscience, at times these two guys can be hilarious, leave the game for a toilet break and youāll come back to the two arguing about something or one of them telling a joke to the other. Itās the little touches that help to gel this package into what it is, such things as interaction between the game and your Outlook application, mean the villagers will all be assigned as a contact in your address book so when youāve got new mail the villagers will tell you (Iām sure this was intended as a way of keeping you in touch with normality), other things include internet weather, so the in-games weather will represent whatās happening outside your window.
As you can see from the screenshots Black & White is a visual master-piece, at times youāll just sit there in awe at the beautifully crafted environments that you control, youāre free to move the camera where you want, zoom right up to cloud level and view the whole island and then instantly zoom straight into the worm peeking out of an apple on a barrel, add some eye candy in the form of beautiful lighting and stunning particle effects and youāve got quite possibly one of the most accomplished games from a graphical point of view. The creature models are excellently defined, and will morph to represent your creatures alignment, if youāve got a bad pet look out for fangs and general bad stuff if heās a good chap expect him to look quite cute and fluffy. The way these creatures have been animated also help to get across their charm and personality, the first time you have to discipline him Iām sure your heart strings will pull as his chin drops and he starts sobering.
Sound wise Black & White turns up trumps again, zoom in close to a villager and youāll hear what they want to prosper, although it can get annoying when youāve run out of wood and thereās hundreds of villagers screaming out āWe need Woodāā¦ The music hangs in the background, and suits perfectly to this style of game.
Comments
So there it is, Black & White the best game Iāve played, Iām sure itās not up to everybodyās taste and will disappoint a few, however for me it just doesnāt come any better then this and I urge you all to at least check it out and put some time in.
