Black & White
by Electronic Arts

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Category: Video Games
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Product Summary

Video Game Reviews of Black & White

Customer Review: It's as good as a game can get
Summary: 5 Stars

After completing the first gold story scroll, which is Black and White's way of advancing the plot, you get to choose your creature. The creature is probably the best part of the game. The creature is at first a small, frightened animal but good care and proper teaching would make it into a fine, huge, loyal beast. Improper teaching and care will on the other hand, will give you a lumbering behemoth with the brain the size of a nut. It's true, you can develop your creature into a loyal ally or an idiotic, blundering fool. You can teach your creature miracles. You can teach it to eat villagers and little kids. You can teach your creature to heal the sick, water the fields, put out fires etc.etc. In fact, your creature can be taught everything you do and mimic your every action. It's because of these factors that you get so attached to your creature. You start thinking of the creature as your other, virtual pet. This is the depth of Black and White.
The sound in Black & White is as good as the graphics. The music is quite good and contemplates the nature of the game. The sound of thunder after you cast a storm miracle or the screams of frightened villagers hit by lightening is extremely pleasing. The voiceovers are nice too. I particularly like the voice of the evil conscience. All in all, Black & White has great sound effects.
Unfortunately, Black & White isn't without its flaws. The game is quite buggy. I could write down at least 20 bugs right here, but why waste the space. But most of these bugs have been corrected by a patch, which you can find at any black and white site (my recommendation would be www.bandwzone.com or www.planetblackandwhite.com). Also, the biggest issue is the amount of micro-management needed for running villages. Your villagers will never construct buildings by themselves. You have to spoon-feed them. The villagers are ultra stupid to say the least. Even your worshippers at the worship site need a lot of micro management. You have to constantly feed them and heal them occasionally. Failure to do so results in your followers' death and your alignment takes a nosedive straight towards evil.
You will have to constantly baby-sit your villagers, which means that you will have less time for your creature. This takes the fun away from the game since the creature is the best part of the game. The abundance of sandbox mode maps on the Internet only proves this fact further.
Another issue is the steep learning curve and the amount of attention and time required to play this game. Casual players will be bogged down by the amount of micro-management. I wonder why Lionhead forgot to put a "Warning: not for newbies and casual players" sign on the game box.
The steep learning curve, the micro-management and your idiotic villagers make it impossible to play this game as good. Often you will get so frustrated that you will probably kill your villagers, sacrifice them or feed them to your creature (which is much more fun than playing as good). All these issues aside, Black and White is still a highly enjoyable, a highly creative, and a revolutionary game, which is recommended to anyone who enjoys and appreciates perfection. It's as good as a strategy game can get.

Description of Black & White

The game gets off to a slow start, but things pick up once players get to choose their creatures. Creatures are giant animals that serve as your physical link to the mortal world, and they have a sophisticated artificial intelligence that lets players teach them how to act. In the beginning, there's only a cow, ape, and tiger from which to pick, but the choices expand as the game progresses. And for a limited time, Amazon.com customers can download a bonus creature--a magnificent horse. Click here for details.

Ultimately, creatures grow, and their appearance gradually changes to reflect both their tendency toward good or evil and the treatment they've received from the player. Deny the animal access to food and it will lose weight. Pet it each time it eats a villager and you'll soon have an evil juggernaut that strikes fear into people's hearts. Most of the game's fun comes from spending time teaching your creature and simply watching the crazy things it does of its own volition. Best of all, players and creatures don't have to have the same alignment, making it possible to be an evil god with a glowing, beloved, benevolent creature. It all depends on why you choose to reward or punish the creature.

Unfortunately, Black & White tries to be too many things at once, and there is rarely any real focus. It's difficult to enjoy training a creature when villages need protecting, villagers need direction, and buildings need to be built in order to expand the player's influence and ultimately win each level. It wouldn't be so bad if the villagers were half as smart as the game's creatures, but they require a lot of micromanagement to work efficiently. The single-player campaign gives players plenty of time in each mission to overcome these shortcomings, but prepare to spend many long hours administrating your holdings for every hour of pure joy that Black & White is capable of providing. --T. Byrl Baker

Pros:

• Great graphics and animations
• Exceptional creature artificial intelligence
• Plenty of keyboard shortcuts, greatly simplifying the complex camera controls

• Managing villagers and buildings can be a chore
• The manual is completely inadequate considering the complexity of the creature AI

Simulation Games

• Video Games > Categories > PC > Simulation
• Strategy
• Adventure