BLACK & WHITE 2

GAME DETAILS :-

Developer : Lionhead Studios

Publisher : EA Games

Engine : Not Revealed

Genre : Real-Time Strategy

Release Date : October 4 , 2005

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS :-

Operating System : Windows 2000 / Windows XP

CPU : AMD Athlon 2800+ / Intel Pentium 4 Processor

Memory (RAM) : 512 MB

Graphics Hardware : DirectX 9.0c Compatible Video Card with Memory 64 MB

[NVIDIA : GeForce FX 5750 Series
ATI : Radeon X1050 Series]

Hard Disk Space : 3.5 GB

GAME FEATURES :-

The player is called to the world from a "pure prayer" and thus comes upon a scene of a Greek city being devastated by a huge Aztec army. After the player saves a certain number of people, their people are transported to a new land with a handful of refugee worshipers, the player must re-establish a power base from which to eventually defeat the Aztec empire. To do so, the player must conquer the Norse, the Japanese and the Aztecs, either by peace or war. Throughout the game there is a theme of "The prophecy" which states that a tribe will be destroyed by the mightiest power in the world but will receive a god who will lead them to glory and dominance of the world. Black & White 2 combines distinctly different gaming genres into one game. You will construct sophisticated cities, raise armies and lead them into battle, and if that weren't enough, you get to interact with your giant creature, a sort of virtual pet that can also serve as your enforcer. There's so much in Black & White 2 that it's amazing it all blends together like it does. Though, it does go a bit overboard in some areas at times. Black & White 2 is considered a god game because you play, well, a god. Specifically, you happen to be god for the Greeks, though that's not to say that you're a Zeus or a Hera or one from the traditional pantheon. The setting is in a fantasy world that happens to be occupied by the Greeks, the Norsemen, the Japanese, and the Aztecs. The Aztecs begin the game by sacking the Grecian capital, but not before you manage to spirit away a handful of survivors to a faraway land to begin anew. This story is a huge improvement over the first game, because it offers a cause to see to the end, as well as a focused enemy to take down. With that said, it turns out that your primary job in Black & White 2 involves building cities. Indeed, the city-building constitutes a huge portion of the gameplay, and you can easily spend hours simply building up each city. There are two primary strategies, and both rely on building a formidable city. You can try to overwhelm your enemy peacefully by building a dazzling metropolis that causes his population to defect to your side, or you can create a huge city that supports a huge population, which supports a correspondingly large army, which you can then use to crush the other side.

The other route to victory, war, isn't much quicker, though. You need time to build up the infrastructure and the platoons, as well as to whittle down the enemy's defenses. The battles in Black & White 2 can be epic in size, as you can hurl hundreds of soldiers into the fray. However, the tactics available to you are fairly basic and combat has a few quirks to it. Swordsmen slam together in a wild melee and run around hacking at each other. And occasionally platoons have the abilities to run through your walls, which can be galling when it happens. Since the creature is powered by a sophisticated AI, it slowly develops its own personality over time, and it can become almost obsessive-compulsive in its behavior. Not only that, but the creature "morphs" its appearance depending on its experience and environment. The more "evil" a creature behaves, the darker and more sinister its appearance, and vice versa. Or if your creature is a glutton, it'll become fat. Likewise, if it's a workout fiend, it'll become buff. The creature can be trained to become a lethal killing machine, or it can become a caretaker for your people, helping them gather crops, construct buildings, and entertain them. It can also be endowed with magical abilities of its own, such as the ability to cast lightning bolts, or to magically water fields, or heal wounded units. Aside from the city-building, real-time strategy, and creature-wrangling, Black & White 2 also presents some interesting puzzles that you can solve for tribute, which can be used to purchase new powers and abilities. Some puzzles simply present you with a mystery that you must solve, such as a strange sundial that requires you to manipulate the time of day in order to unlock its secrets. Other puzzles are presented as an opportunity for divine intervention. Graphically, this is a rich game with an incredible sense of scale. You can zoom in close to the ground to see the individual blades of grass and insects crawling around, then pull the camera up to the stratosphere and look down on the land. The environments themselves are scenic and beautiful, and from afar they look like emerald jewels floating in sparkling blue oceans. Black & White 2 takes advantage of lots of fancy new graphical effects, such as depth of field, which blurs objects in the distance, as well as realistic fur on your creatures. Other than a few minor graphical artifacts, the game is pretty much blemish-free. And if you've never played Black & White, you'll find an original and refreshing strategy game with excellent production values and a fairly unique style of gameplay. Black & White 2 tinkers with the original's formula by adding more structure and story, though at the expense of its open-ended nature.

GAME REVIEW :-

8/10

Black & White 2 Trailer :-