Black & White 2
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| Black & White 2 | |
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| Developer(s) | Lionhead Studios |
| Publisher(s) | EA Games |
| Designer(s) | Peter Molyneux, Ron Millar |
| Release date(s) | October 7, 2005 |
| Genre(s) | Strategy game |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: T , ELSPA: 12+ |
| Platform(s) | Windows XP and Mac OS X (in development) |
| System requirements | Windows 2000/XP, Intel-compatible 1.6 GHz CPU, 512MB RAM, 3.5GB hard drive space, 8x DVD-ROM, DirectX 9.0c compatible hardware, and a 64MB video card with 1.1 Pixel Shader support. Mac Requirements TBA. |
| Input | Mouse |
Black & White 2 is a video game developed by Lionhead Studios and published by Electronic Arts. It blends real-time strategy, city building and god game elements. It was released on October 7, 2005 as stated on the official Lionhead website, but to those who preordered it arrived on October 5, 2005 from most sources. It is the sequel to 2001s Black & White, also the brainchild of Peter Molyneux. The lead designer is Ron Millar, who previously worked at Blizzard Entertainment on titles such as StarCraft and Warcraft 2.
The game is currently being ported to Mac OS X by Feral Interactive.
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[edit] Game concept
The concept of the game is that the player is a god, called from the depths of space and time to help those who invoked the player. However, the player is not an omnipotent monotheistic style god, but rather a god who rises and falls with his believers and the player must help develop their nature according to the player's good or evil desires. The player also has a creature, the player's physical representation in the world, who takes the form of an anthropomorphic cow, lion, ape or wolf, and with a unlocker, a tiger. It can be 11 meters tall and can also become evil or good. Creatures help the player in most of the player's decisions and represent the player's god.
[edit] Features
The only way the player can interact with this world directly is through the player's hand, with which the player can pick up people, trees, food, and influence the ground. The player can also cast miracles. However, a certain amount of "Mana" (in essence, "Prayer Power") from the player's believers is needed to do this.
One of the game's most innovative features is that its user interface is almost buttonless. The player sees little else on the screen but the world and the player's hand. To do things such as cast miracles, the player moves the hand in such a way to make a symbol on the ground, which is called a gesture. This activates the miracle, and if the player has enough mana, it appears in the player's hand ready to cast. Miracles have a variety of different uses. There are 6 ordinary miracles: 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 less limited than the lesser miracles, and the player can cast them outside of the player's influence (the territory that the player cannot otherwise interact with), but NOT in the enemy's influence.
The player's creature can do most things the player can do, such as cast miracles. He will grow slowly for a long time, but can become very large. Since the player trains him, his personality can become whatever the player makes of it. He may be an aide in supporting the player's kingdom or the ultimate soldier in the player's 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 and building fearsome places, such as a pit of torture, while that of a good god will be one of benevolence, more positive city building, and lots of looking after the populace, particularly defending it from attack. Both of these require ore and wood, of which there is a finite amount (though some maps have bottomless mines), making players choose a strategy - but there is plenty of slack in each.
The game features Norse, Aztec, Japanese, and Greek tribes.
[edit] Creatures
The creature choices include the lion, wolf, cow, ape, and tiger. All of these are available to play, except for the tiger which is only included with the preordered or collector's/special edition of the game. The tiger is also available in the Battle of the gods expansion pack, as well as the new armour-plated turtle. The enemy's creature is an undead ape with rotting flesh, but on the Norse land he takes control of the Norse wolf. The creature starts from infancy then grows. You can buy skills for it (gathering, fighting, and more) with your tribute. Also, you can punish or reward it for doing good or bad. Your creature will start off neutral, like you, but the more you reward it for good (and punish it for bad) it will become more good, and the more you reward it for bad (and punish it for good) it will become more evil. Your creature is a strong weapon against the enemy. It can cast miracles, destroy the enemy's armies and raise your troops' morale. It can also knock down walls, and use the remains as weapons or projectiles (as can you, if it is in your border of influence). If your creature is killed, it will return after a while, as does the enemy's, but with half health. Some things will be too heavy for your creature to use, but if you train it (get it to grab something and then click 'work out') it will become stronger. The creature is usually referred to as "he" - not only by fans, but the consciences say it - indicating that the creature is a male or of neither gender.
[edit] Game engine
One interesting feature of the game is the physics system of the game engine. In an interview, Molyneux expressed his dismay at the physics engines found in most RTS games:
"In most RTS games the player 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."
The same idea (regular units being unable to break down stone walls) was introduced in Stronghold 2.
[edit] 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 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 in the original game by the player).
The community has also been marked severely by users experiencing problems with playing the game, in the form of various bugs or crashes which practically rendered the game unplayable. The most vulnerable computer setup seems to be an AMD CPU chipset and NVIDIA motherboard and graphics card chipset. Another bug made it impossible to proceed beyond the tutorial unless the user has a mouse with a scroll wheel (and sometimes not even if they did). There was also discontent with the 1.1 patch, released by Lionhead to resolve some of the bugs as well as balancing, which rendered previous saved games incompatible with the new version, forcing players to start over from the beginning. Lionhead has made two patches so far, however, many users aren't satisfied with them. Mod tools were released in early 2006, and an expansion (Battle of the Gods) was announced soon after.
[edit] Expansion packs
The first and only expansion set released to date was Black & White 2: Battle of the Gods. It was released on April 28, 2006. It features a brand new creature (the armour plated turtle) and the tiger from the BAW2 Special Edition, three new lands, four new miracles, and all-new enemy, a god born of death.
The premise involved the player's return to Eden, where they discover that the Aztecs have raised their own evil deity, which must be confronted head-on for control of the land. The player has the freedom to choose how they will challenge this new god, either by countering the evil deity’s actions with good deeds, or attempting to defeat him with extreme evil. The players will have to watch out for two new enemy armies and the new enemy creature. Six new challenges and other new content are also available for players to explore.
[edit] References
FAQ and Knowledge Repository. Thread on Lionhead Boards featuring useful links and collection of information known prior to the game's release. Retrieved on May 7, 2006.
[edit] 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
- Official Black & White 2: Battle of the Gods Site
