I have got to say this is a great game. Sure, it didn't live up to all of the hype but that's because everyone put too much of their hopes on all the little details but it's still fulfilled a lot of its potential as a game.
Story: The story doesn't really lead off from the last game so if you haven't play Black and White you can still enjoy the story. It starts off with pray just like the last game though. The Greek capital is under attack by the Aztecs. You come to the rescue but not in time to save very many (you go from area to area grabbing people and putting them into a vortex). You save around 25 people if I remember. From there you go from island to island either defeating or impressing the Norse (1 island) and the Japanese (3 islands). You finally get to the Aztecs at the end and well... you can find out for yourself from there.
Gameplay: The game is based off of being a god and they surely pull it off with the gameplay. Even the slightest motion of your hand over the fields moves the individual stalks of wheat. You can collect up to 6 miracles (water, fire, heal, lightning, meteor, and shield) and up to four epic miracles (the siren, earthquake, hurricane, and awesome volcano) which are pretty much wonders and alters put into one if you played the last game. Almost anything is movable using your godly hand including huge rocks used for crushing people. Then there is your creature. He can do much of the stuff you can but outside of your influence (area where you can control things). He can act as an evil warrior, a peaceful gatherer or anything in between. You decide whether he is a mindless robot or a playful pet. Overall it is an incredible experience and if you don't enjoy it much the game is easily modded because of the generosity of Lionhead.
Graphics: Let me just say that the graphics are breathe taking in this game. The only downfall is that some major video cards (the 6800 is one) are a little laggy with the game. Like I said earlier though, you can move the crops by merely brushing your hand over them. The lava from the volcano is almost perfect as it flows from the volcano epic onto the opposing village. Even the creature you wield is graphically stunning as it changed from good to evil and even the hair on it changes.
Overall: Great game! It is a little less open-ended than Black and White 1 and has a couple of bugs with the starting copy that need fixed (pick up patch 1.1 to fix most of them). One more downfall is the lack of any kind of sandbox, multiplayer, or skirmish mode in the retail copy. They have said that they are making a patch to correct that soon though. Other than that I think it's great and the way they designed the game leaves it very easy to mod for people that don't like it quite as much as I do.
My Score: 9.0
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