Black & White 2
Black & White 2 is a computer game developed by Lionhead Studios and published by Electronic Arts. It is a real-time strategy god game that was released on October 7, 2005 as stated on the official Lionhead website. But to those who preordered, it arrived on October 5th from most sources. It is the sequel to 2001's Black & White. The game is the brainchild of Peter Molyneux and the lead designer is Ron Millar, who previously worked at Blizzard Entertainment on titles such as StarCraft and Warcraft 2.
Game Concept
The concept of the game is that you are a god. However, you are not an omnipotent monotheistic style god, but rather a god who rises and falls with his believers. You also have a creature, your physical representation in the world, who can grow to be a 11 meters tall and can also become evil or good. Creatures help you get more believers/influence.
Features
The only way you can interact with this world directly is through your hand, with which you can pick up people, trees, food and influence the ground. You can also cast miracles. However, a certain amount of Prayer Power from your believers is needed to do this.
One of this game's most promising features is its interface, which will be almost buttonless. All that will be on the screen is the world in the game and your hand. To do things such as cast spells, you move your hand in such a way to make a symbol on the ground, which is called a gesture. This activates the spell, and if you have enough prayer power, you have it in your hand ready to cast. Spells will have a variety of different uses. There will be 6 ordinary spells, which are fire, lightning, water, shield, heal and meteor (each of which can be thrown or poured), and 4 epic miracles, which are hurricane, siren, earthquake and volcano. The four epic miracles are meant to be game-enders.
Your creature will be able to do most things you can do, such as cast miracles. He will grow slowly for a long time, but can become very large. He is trained by you, and his personality can be whatever you make it. He may be an aide in supporting your kingdom or the ultimate soldier in your army.
There are three possible paths to take in this game: Good, Evil, or a more neutral combination of the two; although this decision is not discrete. The typical path of an evil god will be one of fear, torture, conquest and destruction using epic armies, while that of a good god will be one of benevolence, city building, and looking after the populace, particularly defending it from attack. Both of those require ore, of which there is a finite amount (and not enough to be used for both), making players choose a strategy - but there is plenty of slack in each.
The game will feature Norse, Aztec, Japanese and Greek races. Confirmed creatures are the lion, the wolf, the tiger, the cow, and the ape. Most of which are available to play, except for the tiger which is only included with the pre-ordered version of the game.
Game engine
One interesting aspect of the game is be the physics system. In an interview, Molyneux expressed his dismay at the physics engines found in most RTS games:
"In most RTS games you can get an archer with a wooden bow and arrow to fire at a brick wall and after like a minute, the wall will fall down"
....
"So the idea is why not introduce physics? You have walls made out of stone. How do you break stone down? You break it down with other stone, with catapults. You can't break it down with people with swords. It doesn't matter how long they stand there with a sword clunking at it, it's just not going to have an effect. And when that wall breaks down it doesn't suddenly disappear, you can form cracks in it: a little crack at the bottom, funnel your troops through, the other player can try to stop this gap up by building little boulders round the back. All of those things come from physics."
Public Reaction
The public response to Black and White 2 has been mixed, with powerful feelings on both sides; the supporters cite the obviously improved graphics, the grander scale of city building, the improved method of teaching and guiding the Creature, and the creation of armies. Those opposing the game note the somewhat limited (and at times schizophrenic) actions of the Creature, the poor pathfinding and enemy AI, the lack of packaged multiplayer and sandbox modes, and the feeling of being less of a god game, and more of a glorified city-management simulator, considering the lack of "divine" opponents, unlike the last game (however, this could be explained by the fact that they were all destroyed by the player). One of the biggest complaints stemmed from an attempt by Lionhead to correct some of the bugs and game crashes in their initial release; their 1.1 patch rendered previous saved games incompatable with the new version, forcing players to start over from the beginning.
Nonetheless, it is generally accepted by the gaming community that the creators are not entirely at fault; the producer of the game, Electronic Arts, pressed for an early release despite speculation that the game would take an additional year in order to be properly finished. Due to negative fan reaction, it is likely that an expansion pack to correct these errors will be released in the future, but nothing is confirmed as of yet.
References
"FAQ and Knowledge Repository". Thread on Lionhead Boards featuring useful links and collection of known information. September 10. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
External links
- Official Black & White 2 Site
- Planet Black & White Official Gamespy Fansite
- Developer's Diaries
- Video interview with Peter Molyneux and Ron Millar, March 11, 2005.
- B&W2 Trailer