Like Fools Gold, looks pretty, almost seems like the real thing .... but isnt!!!
I eagerly awaited the 2nd Black & White and got it as soon as it came out.
I had to endure the tutorial which was a pain but because of my excitement i wasnt too bothered. I just hoped they would bring out a patch to allow you to skip it when you restart. I chose the wolf as my creature and away i went.
The 1st thing i noticed were the outstanding graphics. They really have outdone themselves visually. i started turning my small villages into large cities with the easy to use and very satisfying building interface. Then from there things just went down hill. The fact that i had to be evil to take over another town started to irritate me but for the 1st few days i didnt mind because i enjoyed building up my city. But after that few days the city building became repetative even with the new buildings you can get from the new tribute system.
Which brings me to another huge dissapointment. The Tribute System. instead of gradually gaining new things and more importantly teaching your creature new things you have a ridiculous tribute system where when you earn enough Tribute (by doing silver scrolls or taking/impressing other villages) you can buy either buildings or miricales for yourself or your creature. In my opinion this is a masive step backwards.
The creature is another large letdown in the game. Gone are the immersive and humorous times of teaching your creature to do what you want. Instead you have a list of commands with a positive and negative slide bar. It feels like your programming a robot. It is still possible to get the Creature to have a personality but a very stiff one and with out much work. He also doesnt seem to grow to the same size as before and allin all is far less impressive despite the great graphics.
To summerise.
The Graphics are great
The building is great
The creature is toned down and in my opinion almost pointless.
The tribute system is a disaster.
Playing as good is fun for about three days and then its boring.
Playing as evil is fun for about 5 days and then gets boring.
This is a simplified and toned down version of the 1st one.
The game is a huge step backwards.