Peter Molyneux invented the 'god' game genre with the classic game Populous
and he now returns to his game designing roots with Black & White. This game
has been several years in the making and faces some pretty high expectations.
Has Molyneux done it again with Black & White, or should this game be
condemned to the bargain bin for all eternity?
Black & White places you in the role of a deity who has supernatural
powers. Your powers gain their strength through the prayers and worship of the
various peoples that inhabit the gameworld's islands. Before they will worship
you, though, they will need to be convinced of your existence. You accomplish
this by performing various miracles or acts of a divine nature. For example, you
can create a rainstorm to water their crops, harvest trees to create lumber for
the villagers, or toss a few things (or villagers) around. Once they believe in
you, they will begin to worship you and give you greater strength - as long as
you continue to protect and provide for them.
Your physical presence in the world is manifested in a creature - an animal
of great size and intelligence. You begin the game with a small creature
that doesn't even know how to feed itself. You'll have to train and
nurture it until it begins to learn things for itself. You can help the
learning process in two ways. The first is through the use of a 'leash of
learning'. Performing miracles and actions while the creature is leashed will
help the creature to learn to perform those same miracles and actions. The
second method is through praise and punishment. If your creature takes fish from
the sea to nourish itself, you can reward this action by petting and stroking
the creature. If it decides to snack on one of your villagers, however, you can
smack it around a little so that it knows that it's done a bad thing (evil gods
may want to reward this action, however. more on evil gods later...).
Eventually, your creature will learn how and when to perform various actions and
will become indispensable in helping you to maintain your village and convert
new ones.
Unfortunately, you are not alone in universe and must compete with rival gods
for control of the islands. To do so, you erode his/her powerbase by converting
away away his/her villages. Your rival won't stand still for this, of course,
and will fiercely protect his/her villages and also be after yours. Should your
creatures cross paths, they will begin to fight each other until one is
destroyed (creatures never really die in the game, they always regenerate).
Destroy your rival's temple, and you'll destroy his/her basis for power on the
island and banish him/her.
The game consists of a campaign which progresses across five islands. You
will need to convert and control these islands as you fight a rival god and his crony
gods. You'll also find scrolls on the islands which lead to quests. Completing
the quests will give you various rewards or advance the game's storyline. Of
course, there is almost always more than one way to complete these quests...
Black & White is so named because it is a game of choices between good and
evil, between black and white. There are several ways to solve each dilemma and
quest, and the way you decide to go affects the kind of god you become. Since
your creature learns from you, his alignment will also reflect your approach to
the game. Go good and he will help villagers harvest their food and build their
homes, choose evil and he will torture and torment them, preserving your power
through fear.
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