Iain finds out if this is an evil or benevolent game.

To say that there is a certain amount of anticipation surrounding this game is somewhat of an understatement. Peter Molyneux has a habit of whipping up something of a maelstrom of interest around his titles, with promises of incredible gameplay features and a hitherto unseen quality of visuals. The downside of this is that seemingly no game can ever meet the expectations of the fans, and thus no matter how good the finished product actually is, it's always going to appear to be disappointing. After all, if you're expecting the perfect game, you're never going to be satisfied.

Black & White 2, it must be said, suffers from this. This is nothing new or particularly surprising (unfortunately) as the original, released in 2001, also had the same affliction. They both have their flaws, and no matter how well certain aspects work, the frustration from the imperfections will be amplified by unmet expectations. Tempers are lost, voices are raised, and sooner or later you find yourself taking it out on your lion as you start smacking him around (and usually inadvertently teaching him not to eat that nice grain, but to look for other sources of nourishment, like people). And then he looks at you, with those big watery eyes as if to say "What did I do to deserve this? Why do you beat me so?" and then you actually feel bad, because you're forced to reply "You…you…you're just not perfect enough".

Please, don't get me wrong. This is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a bad game. Indeed, it's an extremely good game, worthy of a place in anyone's collection, but like everything it does have its flaws. If you can accept that, and not enter into it expecting perfection, you'll be able to enjoy it a lot more.

The feature that has seen the most improvement over the original is the creature. The handling of this aspect in Black & White was always a little hit and miss, with you never being entirely sure what you're teaching your creature and left almost completely in the dark about what it was going to do. Now, with the very simple addition of "thought bubbles" to show how your pet is feeling and what it is planning to do, this is overcome. Also, the AI has been improved measurably, so if you teach him never to poo on your villagers, you can be pretty sure that he's not going to poo on your villagers. He's also more likely to do useful things, like gather grain and making sure that things are done on Earth as they are in Heaven / Hell, rather than wander around aimlessly occasionally snacking on your farmers. Of course, if you decide to choose the evil path that may be exactly what you want him to do, and you can be safe in the knowledge that he is adept at this when the situation requires.

Another thing that has been tweaked for the better is the building interface. Gone is the arduous process of creating a scaffold blueprint, and then placing it, and then hoping that someone gets round to building it. Now all you need to do is select the appropriate building from the handy new toolbar, find a good spot to stick it and away you go. This gives you the ability to quickly establish your village at the start of each land, and also to quickly address any building needs that your villagers have later on. And they will have building needs, because despite all the other things they can do for themselves, like gather resources and breed, they cannot build anything of their own accord. It seems they'd sooner die a very cold, very slow death than muster up the initiative to place a single housing foundation. This isn't really a negative point, but in the spirit of self-sufficiency it would have been nice for your villagers to be able to build a house in an emergency.

Crush your enemies

The only truly new addition to the fold is the military aspect. You can now build up "huge" armies to crush your enemies. This is something of a double-edged sword, and opens the door to some of the game's more serious annoyances. But on the whole, it works extremely well. The actual creation and deployment of troops is very simple, and very nicely handled, with garrisons being created and ordered by clicking and dragging flags around the landscape. And when opposing forces clash, the ruckus is suitably, pleasingly brutal.

But then there are the gripes. The most petty, but also the most annoying of these is your advisors. Although they'll pop into being occasionally to give you "helpful" hints and tips, as soon as you start waging a war against an aggressive opponent, you'll hear phrases like "We're being battered, boss!" and "Someone is killing our villagers!" every 30 seconds. These are annoying for three reasons, firstly and most obviously - the characters themselves are abrasive enough at the best of times, and secondly - they lie. When they say that we're being battered, or that the enemy is a hair's breadth from taking your city, what they actually mean is that an enemy army has entered your influence zone and is, nine times out of ten, just sat there not doing very much. Thirdly, the developers neglected to add an obvious way to zoom directly to the point of incursion, meaning that you have to zoom right out and try to spot a small red area moving through your territory.

Those may seem like small, very minor issues, and taken separately they are, but there's a few. There's no huge showstoppers, there's nothing catastrophic that will completely spoil your enjoyment of this game. But as I said at the beginning, the clutch of irritations that are there seem worse than they actually are, because this game above all others should have been perfect, the purest of the pure. But despite what the title implies, not everything is black and white. Not perfect by any means, but closer than most.

GAME's Verdict

• Looks gorgeous, but you knew that.
• Creature handling is great.
• Full of nice little touches that add to the experience.

• Doesn't feel as complete as it should.
• Some sections lack direction.
• Not perfect...

Review by: Iain Thomas
Review Published: 12.10.05