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Very enjoyable strategy game, but not the best

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: November 16, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I love strategy games, especially those where you play an "all powerful" diety like Populous. Black and White was very enjoyable to play, but there are better games out there. It requires a lot of patience, so as other reviewers have mentioned, if you like quick results then look elsewhere. The creature AI is great if you have the patience to train him. If you enjoy games that require strategy but a finite set of tasks to perform like Mahjong or Solitaire, then you might find micromanaging the villages to be enjoyable. Otherwise, village management can get old.

I won't review the details of the game - other reviewers have done an excellent job below. I will, however, say that the game is possible (in fact, not too difficult) to complete if you have the right strategy and a ton of patience. If you don't care for spoilers, then read no further. After "winning" world four, you can start building Nordic wonders. Build about eight or ten of them in your largest village (the village should have about 2,500+ belief - don't build the wonders until you have a village that large) until you are able to produce about 50,000 or more wood with a single cast. Send about 1,000,000 or more wood through the vortex into world five. Also send through a lot of scaffolds for good measure. Set a 6-scaffold near the vortex (but not so near that it is dragged in). Your villagers will come to build it and when they do, they'll get sucked into the vortex. Recruit a ton of breeders and they'll produce a steady stream of villagers that walk into the vortex. When you finally go to world five, you should have plenty of resources to win. Build about twenty or more farms to ensure the villagers produce more food than they eat and zap the patooties out of the enemy creature every time he steps foot into your teritory. Ignore your creature and work the entire level as if you don't have one. If he gets in a fight with the enemy, let him loose. Hope this helps.

Buyer Beware!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: June 05, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Yes, the graphics are good. Yes, the AI is amazing. But no, the game is not worth the money. Why? Because the game is filled with bugs of varying degrees of severity. Some mearly slow game time down, causing you to repeat things in order to make them work. Others are disabling, such as the "creature curse bug," and cause gameplay to stop altogether.

I can see how this was "a labor of love," as it is a very ambitious product. However, like many ambitious goals, this game falls far short of its ideal.

These bugs would not be as much of a problem if the manufacturers were more supportive of their customers. At this date, more than two months after release, there are no downloadable patches to fix ANY of these bugs, even the major ones. Also, several items described in the users manual are not present yet... no, your villiagers cannot play soccer, despite what the box says. Miracle dispensers do not yet work...

I could go on and on, but the basic message is this:

Buyer Beware

Boring Boring Boring

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: April 13, 2001
Author: Amazon User

When I first got this game I was impressed by the excellent graphics and what I thought was inteligent AI. After about three day I realized something. I hated this game. I also realized that the people who created this game lied for the most part in their adds. They say you have complete control over this island. If complete control meens lifting up a few rocks and trees then they are right. While the creature AI is good it is no were near as advanced as it is made out to be. The creature already knows everything it needs, it just needs to see you do it first for it to be unlocked. There is no way to actually teach it to do anything new that the designers havnt already thought up. The game play is slow without any real reward. Save your money on this game.

Good Idea, Poor Execution

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: June 02, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This game admirably breaks from a lot of the god games inspired by Sim City and Civilization. Unfortunately the game designers tried to do far too much with the way the player interfaces with the game universe, gave inadequate in game tutorials and made the manual almost entirely useless. After many hours of gameplay I couldn't figure out how to build a sustained civilization without giving it constant attention. I would like to say more, but I just wanted to register my frustration with this game and hopefully dissuade others from buying it.

So you wanna be god huh !!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: July 15, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Well here`s your chance to see just what god has to put up with . The fact is i first seen this game in P C GAMER Mag, I thought it would be a childs game, playing with an animal as your side kick as a second god so to speak,.. Well im telling you that this is the best damned game i have ever played, interesting enough to keep you occupied for hours on end and then wondering where the time went, then wanting to have more time to play , but there`s always tomorrow. This game is a spectacular display of grafics for close up`s and distant shots, and eye to eye with your subjects. The story line is grand with feelings put into this game to make you feel >>>> well like a god, you actually feel for the people that you have worshipping you, give your special subjects names and take them along with you on your adventures if you like, or leave them behind and start with a new crew at every new world you go to. The creature that you pick in the begining of the game is an amazing thing that you have to teach certian things to in order for it or him to help you take care of your subjects, and help you influence other villiages for you to get more worshippers. Plus your creature can actually get believers where you cant, no matter what you try, so teach your creature everything you can and he will benefit you greatly ..... The Helps can be a pain in the rear tho , but you can go into the options and stop them almost completely so there is really no problem here,. There are a few places in this game that kinda leaves you wondering what to do next tho but this actually adds to the enjoyment of the game, it makes you use your brain to try to figure out what you have done and what you have`nt done in order to accomplish your goal in the game [and thats to be the supreme god], you`ll encounter beasts that kill and try to take over your villiage but this is where you send in your creature to fight for you, when he wins you feel on top of the world because you help him fight his battle, but he will loose plenty of fights also, but pet him let him know he serves you well , reward him often for the good he does and punish him for the destruction he does, after all your creature has a mind of his own, think im kidding, im not, just follow him around to see what he does on his own sometimes. Black and white is the most involving game i have ever played, it makes you stop and think of the real world on a personal basis, Ive played R P G`S, first person, action games, shooter games quake 1 thru 3. half life, heretic 2, etc none of these comes up or even matches Black and White. My suggestion is to get it, you`ll not be sorry you did, it will keep you up at night till wee hours of the morning then you`ll feelling just awful the next day, but you`ll do it all over again the next night and wonder why you cant leave this game alone. there is much more in this game than what i can tell you here , believe me its full of tricks and turns I just wished i could burn me a copy of this game for a back up cause ill wear it out from playing , Oh one more thing you`ll need a good pc to play this game right without slow downs it has a lot of video and memory hogging grafics but dont let that stop you from getting this game, it`ll still work on a 128 megs memory , im running 768 megs mem with a radeon 64 meg video card,plus a 52x cd rom, i have no problem at all but i built this pc strictly for gamming. GET THIS GAME TODAY AT THE GREAT PRICE AMAZON HAS IT FOR..

Do NOT buy this game. The good and bad of Black and White

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 8 / 16
Date: April 02, 2001
Author: Amazon User

While Black and White stunned me visually right off the bat, Within a 24 hour period my friends and I were already through with it. Amazing graphics weren't enough to hold us in. The problem with Black and White is that they try and cram TOO much stuff in the game. You have a pokemon effect with your monster. Always having to try and teach it, feed it, poop it and so forth...but you also have to find a balance between your villagers breeding, and building houses for them. Not only do you have to supply EVERYTHING these lemming villagers need to live (such as their food, and tons of wood) so that they stop whining and complaining (not to mention so they still believe in you), you have to take care of your monster, as well as try and get the enemys villages to believe in you...which is no easy task. There is also the tasks of the silver scrolls. Which are optional, and just for rewards. While it may not seem like all that much to do written here, you will soon go mad in the game trying to get it all done. The game just stopped being fun, and becoming more of a chore. Again, the graphics are so dazzling that it draws you back into the game, the play is so bad that you quickly remember how much pain rather than fun playing it is.

A Typical Electronic Arts Pile o Crud

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 8 / 16
Date: June 01, 2001
Author: Amazon User

While graphically a very appealing game, it was forced out the door way too early by Electronic Arts in what has become their modus operandi.

There any many issues with this game, the most unacceptable of which are the presence of bugs which do not allow you to finish the game. Also occasionally, the game crashes. Basically, it is a late beta, not a release version.

Most companies would've released a couple of patches by now to deal with their customer's issues - but not Lionhead and EA. In the two months since release there have been ZERO gameplay/bug patches, with every promised date for a patch's release missed with excuses ranging from key personnel at E3 to waiting for quality control signoff from Electronic Arts.

Quality Control from EA. Now, that's funny.

Simply not fun.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: May 09, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game recieved a colossal amount of hype, and from all the hyperbole, was destined to be as large of a step forward in gaming as Populous, also created by Peter Molyneaux.

Instead, we have an orangutan flinging feces while peasants starve at the temple because you forgot to dump grain every 30 seconds.

I am a huge fan of open-architecture games. I am very excited about AI in gaming on a philosophical level. I was profoundly disappointed.

It is true, my animal learned. And my animal seemed to think. But, and this is the crux of it, my animal was EXTREMELY BORING.

city maintenance was the essence of tedium. picking up trees one by one and placing them into the lumber depot = not fun. Teaching my pet to do this for me = not fun. Fighting other creatures = not fun.

Additionally, encountering the level that reverese ALL THE TRAINING YOU HAVE DONE TO YOUR CREATURE = wiping it off my computer. I have heard that there was a patch to remedy that particular insult to injury, but I do not care. My creature was already damaged goods.

So. If you have a friend who wants to hand you a copy for free, give it a shot. Sometimes your pet will be interesting. Some of the spells are pretty. But honestly, this is not worth purchasing.

an aquired taste

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: September 05, 2005
Author: Amazon User

WARNING: NOT FOR EVERYBODY!! this game is geared towards a specific sect of gamers: people who 1. have alot of time (it took me 6 hours to get through the 1st 2 worlds), 2. like to micromanage complex systems of economies (each village has its own problems). Personaly I loved it and would recomend it to my friends. The creature AI was cool, you can let them wander and(if you teach them the right things) they will help your villages, lessening the load on you

Good concept, bad implementation, terrible support

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: June 02, 2001
Author: Amazon User

The concept of the game is good. The replayability of it is non-existant though. You _HAVE_ to go through the tutorial whether it is the first time you are playing the game or not. You have to listen to the stupid advisor's prattle about how to move.

The support is aweful. I called lionhead yesterday and they told me that there was nothing I could do about getting a refund. They have delayed the patch so many times that it has been more than 14 days since I purchased the game, so my retail outlet won't take it back. The excuses that they have used time and time again for delaying the patch have been pathetic. Our developers are at E3. Some Dutch players won't be able to play over the internet. We have to QA it.

....

I will never buy another product from LionHead studios.

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