You da boss!
You should know the basic setting for any Black and White game. You are a God, destined to make a great civilization out of a few people with the help of a giant animal. How you do this can be achieved in 2 ways. Either you build an attractive city, so that enemies will desert their own and come to you, or, you can conquer whoever stands in your way and force them to join you in your quest to become the ultimate civilization. Difficult, yes; supremely fun, hell yeah. As in Black and White 1, your conscious (which is composed of 2 opposite fellows) offers you advice on how to accomplish certain tasks, and what sort of outcomes will occur. Whether you want to take their advice is up to you....
When playing, all you can see is a hand, your hand to be specific. With this hand of Godliness, you can do all sorts of things. Toss people, toss rocks, toss cows, lay foundations to buildings, cast miracles, and order your fuzzy creature about. Everything that an aspiring God could want. Theres one catch though, you can only do these things within your ring of influence, a green ring that surrounds your village. You can expand this ring of influence by constructing buildings, and making your city attractive. However, a city doesn't function on aesthetics alone. You also have to create farms and factories from where food and goods can be produced, and feed your hungry citizens and creature. This is where things become in-depth. You can choose whether to starve your citizens or not. You can choose whether to make your city beautiful, attractive and make sure that everyone has what they want, or you could choose to focus primarily on producing wood and ore to make your city into a war powerhouse. The former is considered the good route, while the latter is seen as the evil route. Similarily, what actions and habits you teach your creature has different effects on the sorts of things he does, and his physical appearance. For example, if you teach your creature to lift trees (equivalent to lifting weights) he will become buff and strong. You can then use him to take down armies etc.. Or you could teach your creature to help collect resources. Of course, there are many different combinations you could choose, and this helps you to customize your creature, and village however you want.
If you buy Black and White 2, prepare yourself for a visual treat. Each land you travel to has different landscaping and looks. Many hours can be spent just exploring every nook and cranny. The developers really did a great job with this, as they did in Black and White 1. In Black and White 2, looking around and getting around is very similar to the first one. It is all mouse orientated. You can swivel around 360 degrees, zoom waaaay out, and zoom waaaay in. You can also change your view angle. All of this can be done with a few clicks of a mouse. Although its a bit difficult at first, you get used to it very quickly. Be prepared though, you have to have a pretty powerful computer to play this. Look up the requirements online first before buying.
The music is great. Its relaxing and surreal. However, I found thats its used in moderation. For long periods of time, there would be absolutely no music at all. But, the sounds of a bustling city and your creature grunting or snoring is enough to keep you amused for that 10 minute period of no music.
To any fans of city builders and God games, I recommend this game to you. Not only is fun the first time round, but you will be compelled to play it again and again due to the infinte number of paths you can take, and different creatures you can choose, and customize. This is my personal favorite PC game, and for good reason.