Battle of the Gods is an expansion pack for Black & White 2, but it would be more appropriate to refer to it as an “extension” pack. You get new islands to conquer, new puzzles to solve, a couple of new creature types, and a few new buildings and spells, but the gameplay is pretty much the same as it was in the original game. Whether or not this is a good thing will largely depend on how much you enjoyed playing Black & White 2.

The first thing on just about all of your minds is probably the question of whether or not you can continue playing with your creature from the original game. It turns out that the answer to this question is up to you. You can continue to use the creature you worked so hard to train in the first game or you can start fresh with a brand new creature. I tried both and it doesn’t look like there’s much of a disadvantage to starting fresh other than the need to spend a little extra training time with your new creature.

Battle of the Gods means battle for the creatures too.

The biggest change in Battle of the Gods is that you are now faced with an active and very vocal adversary. It would seem that the Aztecs have brought an evil god into the world who has a strong death fetish and a penchant for all things undead. You’ll have to help your worshippers build a powerful civilization while protecting them from your rival god’s armies of skeletons and his incessant meddling. Even though your rival is decidedly evil, the game still leaves you free to follow your own path so you can make the struggle a battle of good versus evil or a clash of darkness.

When you first begin playing Battle of the Gods you’ll feel a degree of pressure completely absent from Black & White 2. The evil god will taunt you, make fun of your moves, and constantly threaten to unleash his armies. It is also unsettling to see the hand of the evil god outside of your village watching over things and tossing the occasional boulder at your people. Before too long though you’ll figure out that he’s mostly just a big blowhard. His boulder tosses and other direct actions are a minor nuisance at worst, and he seems to prefer to send his armies at you one at a time rather than mounting any kind of serious attack. For the majority of the game you’ll play Battle of the Gods pretty much the same way you played Black & White 2 – build, build, build, and send your creature out to stomp on the periodic army that comes your way. It would have been very interesting if more depth had been added to the military aspect of the game in this expansion, but instead you’re given more of the same gameplay.

There’s certainly plenty of new gameplay here. Even though the expansion only includes three new islands, each one is huge and packed with hours of gameplay. There are plenty of challenges on each island and new silver scrolls that kick off the usual logic puzzles and mini game challenges. If you enjoyed Black & White 2 you’ll appreciate and enjoy all of the new content and probably be perfectly happy with the fact that not a lot has changed in the game with the expansion. On the other side of the coin, this also means that if Black & White 2 didn’t do it for you, Battle of the Gods won’t change your mind about the game.

In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 77%.  Battle of the Gods is more of the same for fans of the original game – the rival god adds more character to the game but doesn’t have much of an impact on gameplay.