Black & White 2 (PC)

Graphics

You’re going to need a pretty souped-up machine to get the best out of Black and White 2; we’ll make no bones about this right here and now. I tested the game on an FX-5200 and even with that card it looked very good. When I put it on an ATI X800 however I was able to see the graphics at their very best.

The game features some jaw-dropping and impressive graphics using all the new eye candy special effects and twiddles you would expect from next-gen graphics. The islands themselves are gorgeously created and the water looks wonderful, reflecting the stars at night and the dance of the sun during the day. The buildings are nicely made and each tribe has its own distinctive style, with everything turned up full there are so many little touches you miss if you don’t have a powerful card.

You get fields and grass, fur on your creature and even tiny ants when you zoom in with the camera, which now zooms in and out further than before. The fields fill with crops and the whole game comes to life with vibrant colours.

The shadows and lighting in the game are another nice point, they really do enhance the world and the system can be seen at work when you alter the day/night as a god, the sweep of long shadows as night falls or the blaze of the sun across the sea in the morning is truly superb.

Animations

The creature steals the show with its animations, capable of many facial expressions and motions it comes to life before your eyes. It’s also a pretty good dancer and each creature has an individual way of doing things, which calls on the powerful animation engine. As for the rest of the world/units and other features, the animation is as we would expect from the developers – good stuff.

Level Design

The maps are all well put together, fairly big and some of the islands will take you a while to conquer. If you want to earn all the tribute and find all the secrets you should be spending quite a time on each island, since there are numerous Easter eggs hidden around on the levels.

Overall the level design is cohesive and effective. I am more than pleased with the challenges each one offers and the overall look is individual enough not to seem like a repeat of the last level.

AI

Villager AI is good enough for them to do the task they’re assigned, creature AI is still a bit ropey but a solid improvement upon the first game. Your creature actually seems to learn a lot better now and doesn’t have as many stupid moments, its also an engaging AI and capable of some nice little tricks, actions. Soldier AI is a little dumb and lets the game down in the wargame aspect to be honest, they could have spent some more time fine-tuning both the player’s soldiers’ AI and the enemy AI. I have seen enemy AI just sit there and leave a defenceless town alone while it let me build walls and fortifications.

When your creature learns about battle and the use of miracles, he will try his best to adapt to the current situation. He will cast offensive miracles and try to optimise his attacks onto the most dangerous units first, this behaviour is a vast improvement over the other game and while it still needs significant tweaking it certainly proves that Lionhead have been listening to their fans.

Sound

The sound in the game is great; the world comes alive with subtle ambient audio as well as the clash of steel in battles, the roar of flames from a fireball miracle and many other effects. Black and White 2 has no problems in the spot effects, ambient or the myriad of other audio effects in the game. It uses the latest in EAX technology and compliments the graphics completely.

Music

A nice score accompanies the game and that’s all I can really say, nothing truly stands out but its nice music to listen to.

Voice

Lionhead are more than willing to camp things up, if you ever saw the Boat Builders and their song in the first game, you’ll know what I mean. B&W 2 is no different and their voice actors are excellent, they bring to the table quirky characters and a myriad of accents. My only gripe is that I wish I could shut the Norse guy up, since as a god all I have to do is concentrate and I can hear his thoughts.

After several repeats of: I hate these Greeks or, who do these Greeks think they are? I wanted to kill him and raze his lands to ashes.

Apart from that the voice acting in the game is top notch.

Multiplayer?

Perhaps in a patch, but for now all that B&W 2 offers is Singleplayer and no skirmish/sandbox mode.

Gripes

Black and White 2 had several game disrupting bugs at release but Lionhead released a patch at launch, this patch was not compatible with previous save games but fixed a number of things that needed fixing. For a list of bugs and additions, find the patch on Lionhead’s Website

But my gripes are firmly focussed on the lack of Skirmish and MP modes, not to mention the poor RTS style game element and AI for the troops. You can often trick them by getting them stuck in walls for instance and then raining fire down on their heads, not really a good challenge. The official forums are full of threads like this, so it’s not just only me that thinks this way. Black and White 2 is still a good game and well worth getting if you liked the original or you want something a little different. I had a few problems with dodgy creature AI at one point but the AI in general is a lot better than the previous game so I am willing to let them off with that one.

Pros: Great graphics, comedy, expressive audio and excellent interface with good quality RTS style building. Better creature AI.

Cons: Singleplayer only, no Skirmish/Sandbox mode, poor RTS wargame element and ropey RTS AI. Opponent leader/god AI is poor. Limited creature choice.