A bit of a grey area...
The essence of the original Black and White was to effectively manage your resources whilst completing various tasks. So in one respect it was a management sim of sorts, whilst the tasks part lent itself towards an RTS type of thing… all set within a free-form world where you could do pretty much anything you liked. Black and White 2 looks to build on that resource/RTS thing but it looks like Lionhead have toned down the free-form nature of the game somewhat in effort to bring more structure and less meandering gameplay to the gamer… and this works and fails in equal measure.
Click for larger imageAs with the first game, Black and White 2 sees you playing the part of a god who has a load of people worshipping (or fearing) him. You’re accompanied through the game by your conscience in the form of an Angel and Devil, both brought over from the original and given brilliant comedic voicing by the same guy as last time. The basic idea is to help your people take back what’s theirs after the mean and nasty Aztecs came along and wiped you and all your villagers out. And that, in a nutshell, is the story for the whole game.
Click for larger imageNow in the past you would recruit more followers by impressing them with miracles… not so here. It seems as though your followers have grown rather blasé with your acts of almighty power and are rather more materialistic. You can opt to either take a town by force or build such an impressive town or city that opposing villagers decide to come and live with you. So you start off with a few villagers and a few houses and from there start to build your empire. As the village grows into a town and then into a city what the villagers need is displayed in the town center by rising columns… so a quick hover of the godly hand and you can tell that your villagers would like more food, housing, wells or whatever and then react accordingly.
Click for larger imageOnce you’ve got the place planned out better than Milton Keynes, your area of influence grows and opposing villagers will come along and ask to be allowed to join your tribe. Now all this takes time, so you can if wish, build yourself and army and go and take other towns by force, first killing their soldiers and then converting their town center to one of yours… In practice you’ll need to a use a combination of both styles as some towns are just too far away to be influenced by even the largest city and at the same you might come under attack from the Aztec or their allies. Once you’ve conquered one island a portal opens up and you can do the usual chucking of stuff into it to move onto the next island and other than a few story scripts and side mission scrolls, that’s about it, simple, eh?