Black & White 2 review by Laurynas Stashys
Intro. You’ll back to the Eden but now not for family pray but Greeks will pray you to back in Eden because Aztecs have destroyed them village and they want to destroy other nations. First you’ll have to decide which creature to choose: ape, cow, lion or wolf. I think that in game course there will be more creatures available. After then you’ll have short tutorial but it is not required I thought. After it you’ll be throw out to empty field with town center with some followers and your creature of course. So you have to build your city to supply your army or impress enemy people to come from enemy’s city to yours.
City building and management. City building is very easy. You just have to select which building you want to build then select scaffold and place it everywhere you want. Scaffolds can be taken from city centre or from build menu. But there is one more way. If you have already existing building you tap on it and drag wherever you want. After you build new structure you’ll extend your influence. In game course you’ll unlock new buildings. I think that game developer could think about city building because whatever way you turn (good or evil) you’ll must to build huge cities. That is very big disadvantage of game. To build structure you can take a tree and supply it or you can create builder disciple. First way is faster but second requires less work. Very good new is roads. You can build them very easily like other structures. Just grab any existing road and then holding you can twist it however you want. Other very good new is fields. In original fields was developed with some mistakes. First they were very expensive and they gained very few food. Maybe now that mistake will be fixed. Fields are created like roads you just grab existing fields and holding it and you just have to make field on your own. Developers have invented new idea. From now you can fertilize fields with creature’s poo. I think it’s very funny idea.
War. So you want to war. It is very simple first you have to build armory. Then you click on the armory flag and decide how many soldiers will have battalion. To supply soldiers you’ll need food to give them provisions and ore to give weapons. Then you select battalion and send him to war. There was never been easier before. Amount of soldiers is countless in first missions hundred soldiers will be very big army but later one thousand soldiers is just scouting platoon. So you can make army thousands of soldiers. In war your soldiers gain experience and can handle better guns have more health and make better damage.
In game run you’ll be able to build new war machines such as trebuchets or rams. But in war you don’t need to have big army. You have to be smart and you’ll don’t need big army. You can take
Some rocks then put them on high mountain then fire them and when they roll they will crush enemy’s army.
Your world. Your world will depend from your alignment. If you are good god then your world will be green with flowers, beautiful gardens, fountains and much more. But if you are evil god then your world will be dark gallows, your followers will be like zombies and disorder will reign everywhere. Of course if you are evil and have that cit you won’t impress other god’s followers but then war will be only way to dominate in all world.
Creature. Now your creature is better helper in everywhere. You can command him to be builder, warrior, gatherer, entertainer of give him free will. When your creature is builder he can build whatever you want or if he (she) is well trained creature will build these building which your followers requires most. When warrior creature will command your armies to war of he will go alone. When your creature’s fight head-to-head with other creature you can see amazing challenge. Your creature can strike deadly stroke and defeat opponent. But your creature can be defeated too. But he will respawn within 5 minutes. If you’ll select your creature to be gatherer he will gather food from fields or trees from forests but about ore I don’t know. And finally when on free will he’ll do whatever he wants but then he will decide himself what to do. So he can be good or evil without your choice. Like developers said creature will have impressive AI. So he will decide what to do in various situations.
Miracles. Sequel can’t be imagining without miracles which was very powerful tool in original. From now miracles is separate into two parts: everyday and epic miracles. Everyday miracles are wind, water, meteor, wind, air, fire, and lightning. But I miss food and wood miracles. Why developers didn’t include these miracles? Otherwise it makes game much harder and more interesting. And epic miracles: volcano, earthquake and etc. .Everyday miracles can be cast in two ways. You can cast them like before you just holding action button and move to direction where you want to cast it. But there is another way you can throw your miracle and it will spread to all directions.
Graphics. Game graphics is totally improved. It is so amazing when you zoom out to stratosphere and it is amazing when you zoom to the ground. On ground you can see ant life. From now world is very detailed. Developers have invented so much new technologies such as distance hazing, dept of field, made creature’s fur much realistic. So maybe improve of graphics is best innovation in game. Maybe it’s right or maybe not. It’s your decision. Water is very amazing. When zoomed out to stratosphere you can see shores. One more innovation is mountains. But one minus is that in game could be fewer mountains because they hamper city development. One more good idea is opportunity to change time of day. You just click on sky and turn pointer to time of day which you want.
Interface. From now is much easier to manipulate with your godly hand. It is much more detailed. In game course you’ll be able to take not one but few objects in one time. All moving and turning with your hand is so easily that you don’t need to use keyboard. Like Peter Molineux said he developer this game not for gamers but for these who don’t play any games.
Outro. So it came. And it will be one of best strategy of year. I think that Black & White 2 is much better than Age of Empires III, Rome: Total War: Barbarian Invasion or other PC strategy games which will come this year. So it’s enough time for waiting. It’s time to play. No matter that game didn’t get very big ratings. But fans of this game will play it. Now we just have to wait other games from Black and White series because game developers have blurt out that there will be 5 Black & White games. Which will bring some big new to gaming world.
Thank you for reading
Laurynas Stashys