Black and White 2 Capitalizes on the success of the first game in great new ways!
The most noticable addition to the game seems to be the ability to now create armies. Players will spend their fair share of time gawking at the new UI as well as the glossed over and somewhat impressive 3D graphics, but it is time short spent. The new concept that a God would command an army to fight in his name is revolutionary to the Black and White series, and while it makes the game stand out over its predecessor in many ways, the story line that goes along with it tends to strangle some of the game's open endedness. That being said, the army feature is still a little choppy, and it could use some adjustments, such as certain able bodied men not reporting for duty when called upon due to the distance from the Armory, but all in all the feature is effective enough to warrant its use. Its frequent use.
Visually the game has taken on a more massive approach. The cities are now larger in scale, with the buildings, including the homes no longer limited to a Large or small building of the same design. With new offerings such as skyscrapers and mansions, the game has a certain appeal to those looking for a city builder as well. However, one of the more neat features of the game is the fact that the cities model themselves after your alignment.
See, Black and White is all about being good or evil as you move about in the world, just as the name suggests. It means this in such that, If you do evil things, like feeding your people to your pet creature, or simply dropping rather large rocks and fireballs on their house, they wont like you, and you will become evil, represented by your hand growing long clawlike nails, and the city looking sinister and worn down. On the other hand (no pun intended) if you are a good god, the people will worship you, and dance about and sing your name in praise. The city will be full of butterflies and other things associated with being good.
This adds a unique aspect to the game in that someone with moral values might find themselves being an Evil god after using that boulder to crush the enemy army. What you do to others also affects your alignment, and if you use your creature to smash down a wall and eat their citizens, that normally isnt considered nice.
The ultimate objective of the game is to conquer each land one way or another and move on to the next, defeating the maruading Aztecs that destroyed your homeland. This unfortunately limits the open endedness of the game somewhat, as it appears the skirmish mode is gone from the game, as well as the enemy once you either win over everyone on the island with your impressiveness (being good and making an awesome city) or your army (evil, of course.)
What makes the game truly unique is that, once you finally become evil, its entirely possible to switch back to being a good god. Thus allowing your to use the alignment to serve your interests, and not being stuck doing something the same way for the rest of the game just because of one bad choice.
Regardless, the game still capitalizes on its predecessors and doesnt lack most of what made the first game great. It even adds on to that, and still retains the same values that made the original fun.