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Actually, it's more grey than you might think.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 17 / 18
Date: April 04, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I got to see Peter Molyneux demonstrate and explain Black and White in person at MIT in February of 2000. I was intrigued by the concept and what I saw looked great, so I've had nothing but positive vibes toward the game, and snapped it up the day it came out. However, I've got to be honest, this game isn't for everybody. This is the first 'god' or 'sim' type game I've actually ever owned, so perhaps if you're more inclined or experienced with this type of game, you might enjoy it more than I did. However, as an action and strategy gamer, I thought I was going to collapse across my desk and cry tears of boredom.

Giving B&W its due, you need only read the other reviews here. Yes, these graphics are amazing, as good as anything out there. The AI is at a whole new level, and there are things going on here that have never been seen before and it makes my head spin to think of how on earth they could have programmed them, like the gesture-recognition interface or the intriguing learning ability of the creatures. This is, no doubt, an amazing piece of art and technology.

That having been said, is it any fun to actually PLAY? For me, I'm afraid not. The game very quickly degenerates into an endless cycle of repetitive actions like moving trees and villagers around, all in the name of expanding your 'influence' to encompass other villages, at which point you have even more trees and villagers to move around. Add to this your basic lack of story (do this and this and this to defeat the bad guy!) or characters, and what you have is pretty much a colossal bore in the opinion of this gamer. It's far less Clash of the Titans than it is Competition of the Woodstackers. The micromanagement that you have to perform, and the complete lack of functions, interface, or information to make it any more reasonable, is just out of control. Literally. There are parts in the game where you can't even access the basic functions of saving and loading because those are in your 'temple', and sometimes you don't have a 'temple' yet. And this goes on for EVER, like hours and hours and hours. I read one forum post from an enthusiast who had spent (he said) about 20 HOURS of doing tasks like this to get through a level. And I'd have to say, embarassingly, my own experience is similar. He didn't spend 20 hours because he was a bad player; he spent 20 hours because the game is really that slow.

The whole Tamagotchi-meets-King-Kong aspect of the game, the Creature, is an interesting idea but ultimately fails to deliver. The Creature becomes yet another thing that's only partially under your control and which the game doesn't give you the tools to manage. Classic example: the Creature eats one of your villagers. This is generally a bad thing because you need those villagers to increase your 'influence', so you'd want to punish the Creature so that the behavior doesn't happen again. However, the game never says "Your Creature just chewed up a villager." Instead it says "Your Creature will eat that sort of thing more often." Oh really? WHAT sort of thing? And unless you were ignoring the other twenty things that need doing and happened to be zoomed in close enough to actually identify what the Creature was eating, guess what? Your Creature goes on scarfing up villagers. You get labelled by the game as siding with Evil and you suck, and none of it was your fault. Considering that there are only about ten possible things that the Creature can eat, including his own poop, you'd think that the game itself would be a little more informative, or warn you before it was about to happen.

Unfortunately, the game is just full of deliberate yet bad design decisions like this. You're informed of things happening only after it's too late to do anything about it. The concept that there is no interface, just a hand, sounds good on paper but is lousy in practice, depriving you of control and information. It's ridiculous that you have to move the camera for miles over to the correct place on the map and then hold the hand over the right building for a few seconds just to get the one piece of information that you want. Couldn't we have put that on the screen? It seems like some of the fixes to make this such a better game are entirely obvious, but were deliberately ignored. Even the game's manual is quite vague and seems to assume that the reader is already familiar with this kind of game, and omits a great deal of information that you'd have to be blind lucky to figure out.

Additionally, any claims that the game is some kind of psychological tool, or that your Creature comes out as a reflection of your personality, are just silly. The game basically makes its own call as to what's good and what's evil, and your own intentions aren't figured in at all. In some cases even your actions don't seem to be figured in to that judgment. There's some hype that this is a game of moral and ethical choices, and that is just not so. This game may be a first step in that direction, but this is simply a game of micromanagement; in some senses, it's almost kind to call it a game, period.

To wrap up, on the technical end I had no problems with this game on a 1Ghz PIII with 256MB RAM and a 32MB GeForce2. It has crashed once while I was multitasking, but other than that has been flawless, with some frame drop in extreme camera moves but overall seems well above 30fps.

Anyway, definitely put some thought in before diving in to Black and White. It's an interesting piece but it's not for everybody.

Great concept and great game=Great Fun!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 22 / 27
Date: April 27, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This is a great game. I found after only a little playing that the game is as capable as the player allows, which leads me to write this review.

I have read several of the earlier reviews and found my urge to write this review increasingly growing.

First off, the performance-issues. I have a Creative Labs Voodoo Banshee car 16 MB, 450 MHz PIII, 128 MB RAM. At first I got graphic glitches, so I installed a newer version of the driver. Problem gone. It still hangs occasionally, but I believe the upcoming patch should fix that. For such graphic quality I think the engine runs very smoothly on my system.

Now on to the game-play. I have found that this game has an awesome depth. Many reviewers say that it is limited and that there is too much micromanagement involved, but this is just not true. It comes down to being prejusticed in what is possible in this game. Think in terms of real life instead, and you will see that the villagers are getting lazy because you are serving everything to them on a silver plate. Put them to work instead and soon enough they will handle things themselves.

I have personally found this game constantly surprising me in how versatile it is. Most of the time the limits and restrictions are my own, because I was prejusticed as to what is possible to do in a game. Again I stress that if you think in terms of real life and drop the preconceptions about what is possible in a game, you will find that most of the time the limits stem from your own imagination. Experiment! This game is as immersive and fun as you let it be. Play it as if you've never played another game before, and you will see what I mean.

Graphically this game is astounding. As a programmer and dabbler in game-programming I can say that this is one hell of an engine. As a 3D-modeller I can only marvel at the mesh-animations of especially the creatures. How the logic of the code can handle movement, interaction, and the casting of miracles within the same input-medium (the mouse) so elegantly is beyond me.

Several reviewers have complained that the options don't permit changing the graphic configuration (color-depth, resolution, etc.). Again I must beg to differ. In the same program-menu as the shortcut to the game, there is another to a program called "Setup", wherein you can change everything about graphic quality. Check it out.

Which leads me to the interface. Two words: FULLY CUSTOMIZABLE! If you don't like the initial configuration, then change it. Simple as that.

Yes the forced tutorials can be bothersome, and yes there are still several bugs and system-hangers lurking in this game (which hopefully the patch will relieve), but hell(!) it's a great game. With all the hype this game has gotten there are bound to be disappointments (Star Wars, anyone?), cause in reality nothing ever meets up with everbody's expectations. I think this game delivers, and aside from the bugs (Please oh please let the patch fix them!!) it is as far away from a disaster such as Ultima IX as they come.

Five stars!

Excellent

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 20 / 24
Date: April 02, 2001
Author: Amazon User

This is a great game. I was expecting to be disappointed with all the hype surrounding it and the very long wait for its release, but I have to say I am suprised at how good this game is (so far).

Right off, the graphics are excellent. Sound and tutorial are excellent, and the touches of humor in the game have made me laugh out loud. Some people have complained of difficulty running the game, but I had no difficulty installing or running Black and White so far. I consider my PC only modest (550mHz, Geforce2) but I am very pleasantly suprised how well it runs and how playable this game is on my system (and grateful too, because I would upgrade for this game).

Some have also complained about the unintuitive camera control. I disagree. The default setup is to promote the feeling that you are a god looking into and manipulating this world, and that the cursor (a hand) is actually your hand in which you interact with the computer world. For instance, to move the view, your hand grabs the ground (complete with little puffs of dirt) and drags the view forward as you pull the mouse down. It works well. And if this doesn't work for you, you can always use the keyboard and hotkeys anyway.

It feels like this is the culmination of all of Bullfrog's/Peter Molyneux's "god" games...and that this is the final evolution of Populous, Dungeon Keeper, etc. All the good things are kept, and features that were not feasable previously are here.

I have not got very far in the game, and even so I am very impressed. The interactivity with the game world is amazing. One of the first things I did was pick up a villager and accidentally threw him. He little kicking body flew out over the village and disappeared in the distance. Then far out a tree shuddered and slowly toppled. WOW! I bust out laughing, my 4 year old started laughing, kicked me off the computer and started trying to grab every villager he could while they started scattering.

God-like Micromanagement

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 20 / 24
Date: April 28, 2001
Author: Amazon User

After reading all of the previews and ad information for this game, I was convinced that it really was going to be a unique gaming experience. Black & White is unique, uniquely frustrating, uniquely cumbersome, and uniquely over-hyped.

I want to start by pointing out that if you have read the previews and even reviews for this game, you are being misled. The professional reviewers of this game base most of their opinions on the "stunning graphics" (that can burden even the best video cards) and the interesting God-game storyline. The graphics, while well made, are nothing unexpected, and at the close in zooms show quite a bit of blockiness for such a supposedly "revolutionary" game engine. As for the God-game storyline, this game differs little from your standard RTS (real-time strategy) game. Resource management, and a semblance of a "tech-tree", in the form of captured village centers that offer different miracles, lead you down the same path as any other game in the genre. Adding in the Creature makes the game a micro-management nightmare. The creature starts off dumb and greedy, and grows smart and aggressive even when you actively discourage that behavior.

The interface is an exercise in frustration. Attempting to navigate the map is like trying to drive a car with one steering wheel for each tire. Turning can lead to being stuck on the sides of mountains until you change your zoom to get around it. Moving through confined areas, like the mountain passes in the first map, can take a significant amount of time, zooming, turning, and tilting. All this adds together to completely prohibit quick movement on the map, a major problem for any RTS game.

The job of managing your villagers, in their various villages, means that you will spend the majority of your time tending to these lazy people. Instead of just providing their resources, you must begin construction on ALL of their structures. The will whine about everything, and do nothing to fulfill their own needs. This means that you will spend most of your time watering fields that your farmer disciples do nothing with. Making forester disciples means nothing unless the trees are right in front of these idiots. In fact, the only disciples, of the eight that you can create, that do their jobs well are the breeder and missionaries. In the end, you will have to do most things yourself and leave your followers to sit on their blocky behinds.

One last note, if you are really intent on buying this game, my recommendation is to get every help guide and walk through you can find. The manual provided is practically useless, and the in game help is more comic relief than help. Your best bet is to wait for this game to end up in the bargain basket, and at least save yourself some money.

New Era in Gaming

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 17 / 19
Date: March 29, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Take a Tamagochi, Populous 3, and Starcraft and throw them all into a 3D blender. You get Black and White. It's hard to call this software a game. It's more like an experience, or like having a small world in an aquarium and dipping in your hand to put things the way you want them. I have only played this game for two days, but I am going to put Diablo 2 and Starcraft on the shelf for a long while.

Basically you get to help the little people in these worlds in whatever manner you see fit. If they need wood for a project you can get them wood, or smash the project so they don't need wood any more. Either way, the game doesn't care. Good and evil choices are made clear through two spirits that are your conscience. Good and evil choices also produce different results. The landscape changes over time to match your personality as a god. To top this off, you must select a creature. The artificial intelligence in this thing is better than any I have ever seen. It may not seem that way on the first level (it's mostly tutorial) but the AI fully kicks in for the second. You can teach your creature to do anything from watering trees, to uprooting them, to setting them on fire. Anything you want.

This game is for anyone. It's entertaining and fun, and highly innovative. I can guarantee you have not played anything like it (although little bits of Populous and Dungeonkeeper do shine through) My computer does meet the recommended hardware, but that is by no means a supermachine these days, and it runs extremely well. So don't waste anytime, this thing is flying off the shelves. Good luck and have fun!

One word review= Overhype.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 26 / 35
Date: April 03, 2001
Author: Amazon User

...The game looks gorgeous. There are scarcely words in my arsenal to describe how absolutly stunning the graphics are. On my pathetic little system, it still runs with all the graphics on almost seamlessly. Even though my RAM rates below recommended, I can usually still pull off 11 fps. Not great, but not noticably slow. If I cared to kick the graphics back, I'm sure I'd do even better...

Innovation-wise, Black and White is right up there, in my opinion. Not to say that it's completely original ..., but it manages to pull the concept off well.

Now we get to the bad stuff.

The sound is passable, though it will wear on you. The constant whispers of 'death...', intended to show how poorly you're looking after your tribe, will get so annoying you'll be hurling boulders at the village (assuming that you can learn how to, that is) and drowning people for fun. Or maybe that's just me...Nonetheless, the sound is nothing great.

The greatest problem with the game is not sound, nor is it lack of originality. It is control and interface, the leak that can sink a great ship.

Or rather, a gaping hole in the side of said ship.

The designers of the game wanted to make a menuless interface. Everything is done with the mouse. That's where they messed up, big time. My feeling is that they got so wrapped up in being 'iconoclastic' and 'genre redefining' that they forgot that 'people' would be 'playing' their game. The result, in the end, is not a wonderfully different paradigm shift in the world of strategy gaming.

The result is a control interface so mind-numbingly poor that it renders the game unplayable. We're talking, here, about a camera zooming, selection, and movement system so unbelievably bad that it makes Star Wars: Force Commander's system look downright brilliant by comparison.

Finding and selecting your creature is an exercise in futility itself, but that's just the beginning. In addition to that difficulty, you're faced with a selection for casting miracles or putting new "leashes" on your creature that involves performing a sequence of Nasca-like characters, all of which look exactly alike and none of which are recognized by the computer. I'm absolutely serious. There have been (I could name, if I wished, that is) at least 2 dozen incidents where something bad has happened (like: losing a battle, having my creature eat a treasure box-thing, having my creature eat a villager, etc.) because I spent five or six abortive attempts to cast a spell or change something, only to have the computer not realize what exactly I am trying to do and losing the opportunity. C'est la vie...

The creature, by the way, is supposed to be the center of the game. You're supposed to teach it to do your bidding, and make it your right-hand man in ruling your little world. So the trailers say, that is.

My creature is, to say the least, stupid. I tried to teach it not to throw children, for example. So, I tried focusing it on a child, happily playing. The creature picked it up. He looked at me curiously. I tried to get him to play with it, or at least set it down unharmed. He started to do the latter--then he popped it into his mouth. Kiddy-kibble, so to speak. I punished him severely. Several times. Then I tried again. Again, he took the proferred 'snack'. So I beat him again. Yet he still ate the child. So, then, I decided to leave him at throwing them--at least it doesn't always kill them, I reasoned. Except that then my creature made small children its primary food. Nothing I could do would change that. The villagers feared me, but I wanted to be a benevolent and kind god--not the avatar of Frederik Nietzche!

For most of its problems, Black and White could be a stellar game. But the interface dooms it to sheer unplayability. I mean, the rest of the game is great. At times I feel as though I actually am a god, and though I started out with the intention of being ruthless, I found it increasingly difficult to kill the little people I reigned over. My benevolence was only hampered by my creature with insatiable bloodlust. By keeping it chained to a tree on the far side of the island (nothing the ASPCA would approve of, but then, the only solution I could find) I could lessen that, but inevitably I came back to having to try to navigate the game.

I gave up. Not immediately, rather, after 3 days with a total accumulation of perhaps 20 hours...For once, there is a game at the core of this (by comparison, many of the games I've bought before have had no substance but a beautiful exterior--graphics, controls, things like that) but it's destroyed by...the control system. That thing, that one thing, that ONE fly in the ointment...Is a fly carrying the electronic plague. If it were somehow revised out in a new release of the game, I'd recommend this game in a heartbeat. As it is, though, I can't bring myself to subject you to it.

Warning on system requirements

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 13 / 13
Date: March 10, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This is not so much a review, but simply information that I am suppying to those who may need it. I played this game a few years ago, and I liked it, although I didn't love it. Since then, I have gotten a new computer, which is a Dell with Windows XP. I decided I wanted to play again today, but found that I couldn't run the game. You must have your color palette set to 256 colors in order to run this game. In new computers like mine, you are not even given this option. To find out if this is a problem for you, go to the "Display" area of your "My Computer" file. Click on the "Settings" tab. If you are able to put your settings to 256 colors, you will see the option right there. If you can't find it anywhere, you are in the same boat as me, which means that your computer is too advanced to run this game.

The 98-yard football punt return that fell just short...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 16 / 18
Date: April 11, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I purchased Black and White because of the incredible hype around this game but this jewel is still in the rough... The game has some very excellent graphics and the ability to interact with almost everything in the game world, which is a huge plus. If you are a Populous fan then you will feel oddly at home with this game at least from the start. The game focus is not only on micromanagement of village's needs such as food, wood for construction, building new buildings, etc but also more global challenges such as converting other villages to believe in you, blocking the advancement of enemy gods into your realm, etc.

Not only are you faced with the normal challenges of this "God" game but you also have puzzles/quests to complete in the middle. Some of these are as simple as carrying wood to a group planning on building a boat, saving drowning fisherman, etc to musical stone puzzles. Most of these puzzles/quests are optional but the completion of them often makes each of the game challenges easier to complete.

The most popular aspect of this game and often the most frustrating is the "Creature" feature. After completing one of the initial quests you are presented with the option of selecting one of three Creatures (Ape, Tiger or Cow) that will become your pet and "helper" for the rest of the game. Lionhead Studios claims that these Creatures are an asset to you, helping you with mundane tasks such as micromanagement while you can spend your time handling more "godly" endeavors.

The Creature is a mixed blessing to say the least. A properly trained Creature can assist you in gathering resources for your followers, convert enemy villages and cast powerful miracles without any assistance from you. The catch is to properly train creature requires far more time "training" then it would be if you were to simply do the deeds yourself.

Not only does your Creature require insane amounts of time to properly train to your liking but also your Creature is extremely dull witted and often takes many repeated attempts to get even the most simple request completed. But I have to admit the crazy things your Creature will do will make your laugh in joy and cry in frustration.

The last aspect of the game is the promise of being able to complete the game through good or evil deeds. Though I tend to disagree with many of the so called "evil deeds" (for example feeding "meat" such as cows, horses, etc to your Creature is considered evil) being evil has as many benefits as being good. Being evil you are able to eradicate your enemies using lightning, fire, etc thus removing valuable followers from your rival god's population while the good approach is more difficult. But an evil god will often find his villages in poor condition while good god's towns are overflowing in vitality.

Another aspect of the game's good verses evil distinction is that often "incompetent" actions are considered evil actions. For example a fishermen's boat is overturned in a storm and you are asked by the villages to save the drowning men. Black and White doesn't seem to know the difference if you attempt to save the men but accidentally through some mishap or lack of Creature discipline kill them or not save them in time you are deemed an evil god. Perhaps from some lowly villager's point of view you are an uncaring god but evil is a bit harsh. This is just one example of many such frustrating circumstances you end up being faced with.

There are many rough edges to this game to say the very least. There are crash bugs, insanely long auto save times, Creature AI freezes, etc. My honest review of this game is a punt returned football player whom trips himself on the 2-yard line just after a 98-yard return. I would say that Black and White is a prime example of a developer who tried to incorporate too much but just fell short of their goal line. If Lionhead Studios is able to fix some of its most damaging flaws and add some essential features Black and White can go all the way.

Fun and Original!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 15
Date: July 01, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I had heard of this game, but I wasn't really interested. I don't like Sim-type games, at all....they just never hold my interest. So, when I saw B&W on display at a game store, I leisurely took the box down and inspected it. I was like..."Hey, this actually sounds fun." (I'm a sucker for pretty/interesting boxes.) So I bought it, although I still wasn't sure what to expect.

I was hooked from the start. The graphics are amazing. The gameplay is very fluent and easy to learn, and the controls are easy to use, especially if you have that wheel-thing on your mouse. I couldn't believe that you'd be able to zoom waaay into the air, then dive down close enough to see your villagers blink. The level of detail is very impressive, too - in one world, you could actually find: A barrel standing next to the Village Store. Look closer and you'll see an apple on this barrel. Look closer still, and you can see a little worm wiggling around a hole in that apple. Nice.

The gameplay is very fun. It has an interesting storyline, although I wasn't too impressed with the little "quests" you could go on. Well, actually, the quests themselves were quite fun and interesting, it was the rewards that turned me off. After working for OVER AN HOUR on one puzzle, my reward was a one-shot miracle!! Miracles are like spells, and some of them come in little "bubbles" that can only be used once. I just don't think those kind should be rewards for tough puzzles.

The world you play in is very, very, VERY interactive. You can literally do ANYTHING in it. I've been waiting for a game like this for a long, long time. This high level of complete "do-anything"ness is especially evident in your Creature.

The Creature is where the game really shines. Feeling mean and nasty? Beat your creature silly, throw rocks at it, cast fireballs at it. It will, in turn, interact with everything around it that way. It will crush houses, throw/eat villagers, and laugh as they run from it in horror. It will also slowly develop huge fangs and horns. Feeling kind and generous? Pet your creature, teach it how to cast Healing miracles and collect food for the villagers. It will eventually gather the villagers around and dance with them, or just sit and tell them stories.

You can keep your creature on a short leash all day with a plentiful supply of food nearby. Just don't be surprised if you go to check up on it and find an enormously fat, ugly slob sitting there looking up at you. OR, you can give your creature a rock to hold, and make him run laps around your island. He'll get leaner, stronger, and faster. But remember: fat is good padding for the occasional fight your creature gets in. And of course, nothing is more thrilling then having your creature beat the pulp out of someone else's online.

All in all, B&W is an awesome game that I immensely enjoyed playing. Don't listen to the critics reviews. Don't worry about the hype. This game is lots of fun. I enjoyed it, and I'm sure you will to.

Good idea with bad design

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 18 / 22
Date: May 07, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I'm sure this has all been said before in previous reviews, but this is a good concept with bad execution.

The interface was obviously made for a 2D game. Rotation around a fixed point doesn't work in 3D, it makes it very hard to look around. Zoom is also a decidedly 2D feature. It should be replaced with an altitude control. And why, as a bodyless being, do I run into so many friggin' things? If I'm close enough to see the ground, I'll run into a mountain and get stuck. Let me fly through it, or automatically adjust my altitude or something. The whole dragging the ground with the hand is so awful I don't know where to begin... Tiring on the arm and wrist, difficult to go over mountains or other large objects, impossible to interact and move at the same time, the only way movement is even tolerable is to move entirely with the keyboard. As I said, all of these would work on a 2D game, but not here.

Boring as sin to train your creature. Even the ape has the IQ of pond scum. The AI likely could have been written by some drunken frat boys. There is no need to force the player to teach their creature to eat. WHAT to eat, sure, but my creature shouldn't starve because I leave it alone for 5 minutes. The leashes are either poorly coded or you have to teach your creature the difference between nice and mean, at which point the different leashes become useless. When I attach the nice leash to a person, my creature really shouldn't eat him.

As far as I can tell, the choice between good and evil is purely cosmetic. In other games, some people like to build armies, some like to focus on economy, some attack helpless workers, some don't. Ruling through fear or ruling through kindness is just a choice in playing style.

The tutorials wouldn't be so bad if you could skip them. They're very, umm... complete. About 2 minutes a pop worth of complete. There are about five of them in a row right at the beginning. They're obviously made for people who are just experiencing sight for the first time. "Here's how to zoom. Here's what it should look like." Most people can figure out if they're zooming or not, just give us the controls. Did I mention that you can't skip them?

There are a lot of things to interact with in this game, so long as you're satisfied by picking things up and putting them down again. I don't know about you, but if I were a god, I wouldn't spend the greater part of my time as a pack mule, which seems to be the most prominent incarnation of your godly powers.

Good graphics are about the only thing this game has going for it. Quite visually stunning except for the people, who all look exhausted or drunk. Despite being chunky with strange proportions to their body parts, when zoomed far enough away that you can't see their faces, the people look good too, with a wide range of movement. If you like graphics enough to overlook the rest of the game, go watch a Hollywood movie and don't encourage people to make games like this.

So unless you feel the need to practice coordinating the mentally challenged from an airplane with a drunken pilot, don't buy this game.

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