Black and White 2?

[Carlos' Bitch1]

Just wondering if this game is any good? Post your impressions of it, and what made it a good/bad game.

 

[torpid]

The first game has a terrible reputation. I remember when it came out -- one of the first games that I can recall which was all hype: the reviewers were creaming themselves, "Molyneux does it again" and all that; then you read about how it actually played. Never tried either one of them.

 

[Berekän]

http://rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=55791

 

[Pussycat669]

Liked it overall, especially because they shifted the focus away from the creature. Now it is more of a very strong support unit with a few on/off switches for 'Should I eat people' and the like. Improvements for the creature (as well as new spells and buildings) are now bought with tribute points you get for solving scrolls which in my mind is a much better motivation than what you got when playing B&W 1.

I finished the game as a good god and the experience was a lot more rewarding since it (mostly) doesn't require the patience of a tree anymore. Creating a good layout for the city (that is no building built too close to each other so the inhabitants won't loose happiness and strategically placing the bonus buildings like temples and bars) was fun and thanks to the new quick built ability not as tedious to watch. Only problem is getting enough ore for your villas and temples to bring your opponent to his knees since mines are mostly located outside your influence field and often close to cities you would usually conquer. I ended up waiting for my population to grow until I got enough prestige for my enemy to give up, which was a bit annoying.

Other than that though, the game was a bit on the easy side and way too short. Bare the last two levels, I could easily fend off any hostile approaches with my creature alone (with some healing support from my side) and I never built barracks whatsoever except in two quest related instances.

Might be worth considering if you can get it for ten bucks or so and you have a weekend to waste.

 

[SoupNazi]

I found it incredibly fun to throw stones at enemy buildings with the hand of God. You normally can't use your powers in enemy territory but if your territory borders on it you can gather enough inertia so the stone just goes and demolishes everything in its way. It was very amusing to actually watch the buildings crumble because the physics were done so well.

 

[Raapys]

Didn't play the second game that much, but I seem to remember having more fun with the first game. The second became more of a regular RTS if I remember correctly.

 

[sser]

A fun city-builder that has no replay value. I bought it for $10 and felt like I got my money's worth.

 

[ortucis]

Having played all Black and White games (including expansions) I can tell you that the sequel has great graphics (the fur effects on creatures esp.) and nice little RTS ellements.

But here's the problem. I LOVED the original because of the difficulty of creature training. There was a mystery to what your creature would do next. Like a real person or animal you'd have to pet it or slap it around until your creature learned something you wanted it to or whenever it did anything bad/good. Basically, everything it did was a mystery and you'd never know what else it could do or learn.

The sequel ruins this sense of accomplishment and discovery by giving you thought bubbles in a menu at the bottom. You can see everything your creature can do and learn in a (sort of) chart and you can easily click on the items in chart to train your creature (incredibly easy compared to original). Gone is the lovable realistic creature that could do anything (since you didn't have a chart showing you AI limits). They turned the creature into a toy.

Basically, they did to Black and White what they did to Fable (not THAT stupid though). Make it retard friendly because of complaints by fuckwits called game journalists (I still remember how the original was destroyed by the reviewers when it was released back then for being difficult). I think this is how Peter Molyneux's love for making his games casual and and easy began, because I sure as hell don't remember him talking about making the game retard friendly in the previews.


Anyways, most prople hated the original so depends on the player in the end. BnW2 is still fun and one of the kind game which will probably have a sequel designed for consoles in the future the way Lionhead has gone down the shitter.

BnW - 9/10
BnW2 - 7/10

Expansion is good as well. Play it.

 

[Heresiarch]

I tried the game for several times before. Always got bored at the Japanese like stage, which was like stage 4 or 5.

The game concept is nice, but everything just feel so slow and boring. The miniquests and puzzles are nice, but sometimes VERY frustrating to solve.

But for me, the worst thing is how the boredom is. You build...you wait for prestige or something like that build up...you build moar...you cast some spells...you let your prestige or something slowly, slowly take over towns...you build moare...zzz