Customer Reviews for Black & White

Black & White
by Electronic Arts

	Category: Video Games See more product details

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Video Game Reviews of Black & White

Customer Review: compelling and deep
Summary: 4 Stars

I just bought the game (aug 2003) and it's been out for quite a while now (B&W 2 is supposed to be coming out before long), however I found the game to still be solid, complex fun!

First off this game has you play the role of a God. You perform miracles and interact with the world to gain worshipers and do various missions and tasks. The real selling point of the game is it's open-endedness. The game certainly feels complex enough, while not being overly complex to play. There is a lot of depth and almost infinite number of ways to play. You can choose to be good and gain worshipers through acts of mercy and goodness, or you can reek havoc on the villagers and gain thier loyalty through fear. Either way... it's fun! You can even do a little of each as your own conscience permits.

The game really pulls this off well. I almost actually felt guilty when choosing to take a villager's sick brother and toss him into the ocean rather than heal him and answer her prayer to me. The game also has some really intricate AI. You get to have a pet of sorts in the form of a creature that allows you to further interact with the world and influence events. You dynamically train this creature by teaching him right from wrong and by him observing your behavior and learning. This is done very well and seems very sophisticated... it really feels like the creature develops a real and unique personality.

I've only been playing the game a day, but have run across only a few complaints. The controls can be a pain and you may want to tweak them (playing on a laptop with a touchpad is a real source of frustation). The graphics feel a bit antiquated as the game is beggining to visually show it's age - although they are still good, just not great - especially by today's (2003) standards.

All in all this game is original and offers a lot of fun. You will play and experiment for hours with this one and there is an infinite potential for replay value.

Customer Review: Ugggh, boring...
Summary: 2 Stars

Black & White in theory sounds like a really fun game and for some I guess it is. I found the game so tedius, repititious and devoid of fun that I never even bothered to finish the first level. The idea of the creature is interesting and the AI on it is impressive but that in itself could not hold the game together. The controls are awful. It is interesting that the developers spent so much time on the "feel" of the game and making it so it was like no other that it seems that they didn't stop to think at the cumbersomeness an impracticality of the vast array of controls. Another factor to this game is that if you are going to stick it out and play the entire thing you will definately need time for it takes for what seems an eternity to complete some of the tasks of the game. All in all, this game was not for me but I could see the ultimate attraction and some people who are willing to stick it out might enjoy it.

Customer Review: Awesome simulation....
Summary: 5 Stars

If you like simulations, this game is the best I've encountered so far. Combining nice graphics with great AI, fun surroundings, cool creatures, a fantastic plot, and groovy Easter-Eggs, this game deserves all 5 stars.

I can't wait to get Black & White II when it comes out!!!

Customer Review: Lots of bugs!
Summary: 2 Stars

Very Very interesting idea and one of the buggiest games I've ever played. The auto-save feature is necessary because of all of the crashes BUT after you've been playing awhile the auto-save can take up to several minutes per save, which can be very annoying when you are right in the middle of something interesting and then, bang, auto-save, go take a nap and come back. After looking at Lionhead's site on this software and seeing some of their comments about Quality Assurance (ie: they basically seem to think that it wouldn't be necessary if EA didn't make them do it), I know that I will not be paying full price for any more Lionhead games until they fire whoever is in charge of QA and actually put in place a real QA process. The idea is VERY interesting and that's why they get some points for originality (or at least an original spin on the populas model of games). But they really need a debugger. Quite frankly I'd be happy to play a FUN game with less then state of the art technology, if it is stable and fun. Bells and whistles are great but I'm looking to have fun not get frustrated. Also, the micromanagement required to keep your people alive is very excessive. It takes alot away from the fun of the game. ...

Buy The Longest Journey instead, if you are looking for a great (stable and visually appealing) game at an excellent price!