And so the birth of the god game, well at least in the eyes of many.
Black & white was an interesting game, aiming to become one of the biggest games in the Strategy genre at the time. Developed by Lionhead studios and with the infamous Peter Molyneux the game was ambitious for its time. Aiming to literally become a god and control the world around you it was an interesting prospect that many met with mixed reviews.
The graphics for the time were rather standard for the time however the one thing it benefited from was a bright colour pallet, making all of the game look bright and beautiful. The music was decent but with no real standouts and the voice acting was supposedly stereotypical in a funny kind of way. I found it to still be playable by today’s standards even with the downgraded visuals.
The main aspect of Black & White that was viewed as ‘revolutionary’ for the time was choice. Good and Evil were the bread and butter of the game, and even the namesake of the actual game. You are a god who alters the world and interacts with various villages. It is up to you whether you want to be a kind and loving god who gifts the villagers with flowers and rainbows or an evil and tyrannical god who forces the villagers to worship them. it’s an interesting concept however it is done fairly poorly. The main reason for this is that it is almost impossible to be evil in this game without suffering yourself for it. This is due to the fact that in order to have energy to use your powers you have to get people to worship you however to become evil you have to force your villagers to die a lot, starve and generally have a terrible way of life, leading to you having less power due to less villagers. This also progresses into the creature system. At the start of the game you gain access to a giant creature who is your direct interaction with the villagers and is capable of acting outside of your sphere of influence. I chose a tiger, I like tigers. The creature will be good or evil too depending on your actions and you can raise it as if it was a pet of your own. This system however is fairly limited and only really jumps out in the multiplayer sections.
Another main problem with the game is the strange difficulty spikes at various points. Depending on the story (which I won’t spoil) there are various quests and side activities that can be difficult or downright impossible to complete depending on previous actions, this is also tied in with the huge inbalance between good and evil gods. There is one particular level in which you don’t have your creature due to the story. As a child this was impossible for me to complete and even now I only completed it due to an unforseen glitch. The game is punishing in the worst way as you have no idea what is going to happen before it is too late. Along with this you have two companions along the way being your conscience (do gods have those?). The good and evil conscience try to get you to complete tasks their way and on the whole their constant banter and arguments between each other can be funny if sometimes annoying (the tutorial at the start of the game is my particular pet peeve).
Overall however while it is a frustrating game with quite a few flaws I still enjoyed revisiting it. It’s a refreshing game and I think is the best adaptation of a literal god game that I have played. Just… try to ignore the accents.
Jinx The Game Critic (Archive) 