Black & White 2 review

[Vandenh]

Eurogamer reviews (http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=61124) Black & White 2 and doesn't like it very much. Seems like the potential is there, but once again like the first game, it is not done right.

Much like Sid Meier's recent reinvention of Pirates!, huge numbers of ideas have been included at the sacrifice of any of them being particularly impressive. Jack of far too many trades, apprentice at only a few. If you're going to include RTS ideas such as the armies, then the sad fact is that these features need to be as good as a straight RTS. Raising your own Creature needs to be as agile and believable as Nintendogs. Building working towns needs to compare to Sim City. Because as unfair as that seems, that's where our expectations begin when we recognise such features in a game. Can't do that? Then make a game you can. Lionhead simply wasn't able to make this one.
Sadly the "god" game genre keeps on sliding.

[Qoz]

What a surprise! The whole concept is broken and I can't believe they made the same mistake twice. I applaud them for trying different things (with the first), but please just accept the fact that all these genres just doesn't mix very well.
They mixed milk and coca cola in the first one and then added a bit of lime to fix it in the second one - hey! it still sucks!

Lets hope The Movies is good.

[BleedTheFreak]

What a surprise! The whole concept is broken and I can't believe they made the same mistake twice. I applaud them for trying different things (with the first), but please just accept the fact that all these genres just doesn't mix very well.
They mixed milk and coca cola in the first one and then added a bit of lime to fix it in the second one - hey! it still sucks!

Lets hope The Movies is good.

IGN gave it an 8.8 and liked it a lot. This reviewer doesn't seem to like this type of game anyway, maybe he was a poor choice to review it. Also, I just don't think he understands the concept. Here is a quote I got from the official forms, in regards to this review, and I thought it was pretty good.

"I came away from this review with this...
A creature that you can somehow control or teach, for what reason I have no idea.
Possibly you also build cities? maybe this creature builds them?
Armies?
and evil was mentioned too.
oh and the reviewer didnt like it because it was over simple. So simple that he failed to explain anything except how he hated it."

[drakkarim]

anyone that consider nintendogs/sim city as pinnacles of anything is hardly in a position to be casting any stones, i think.

not that i bought B&W 1 or 2.

nothing will ever touch Populous (that's back when games were original for you kiddies)

[AntB]

Populous was the shiznats. Still dig it up once in a while.

[jwbxx]

"So in the last seven million years since the first game, the obvious thing to do would be to get all that stuff fixed, and release the game done proper. Which makes it an odd decision by Lionhead to choose to strip out almost all that made it interesting, and put its effort into making everything look very pretty, and implement an entirely broken combat system."

Thats what i thought would happen. Every time i saw a preview on the game peter would just go on and on about the new graphics. Nothing about changing the game play or anything.

[Librum]

anyone that consider nintendogs/sim city as pinnacles of anything is hardly in a position to be casting any stones, i think.

not that i bought B&W 1 or 2.

nothing will ever touch Populous (that's back when games were original for you kiddies)

Yeah, you'd think they could at least come close, though, with some of the same people involved. It was a classic, back in the day -

http://www.atarimagazines.com/startv4n6/forthefunofit.html

[Zurik]

Now I'm worried about playing the Movies. It seemed more about taking care of your sims and less about the actual ability to shoot movies any way you want.

[if76]

The freaking quote opens by bashing the new Pirates! It's hard to take the rest of the review seriously after that.

[RandomViolence]

Yeah, after knocking Pirates! this guy's word means shit to me.

[jwbxx]

IGN gave it an 8.8 and liked it a lot. This reviewer doesn't seem to like this type of game anyway, maybe he was a poor choice to review it. Also, I just don't think he understands the concept. Here is a quote I got from the official forms, in regards to this review, and I thought it was pretty good.Yeah and remember the same ign gave black and white 1 a 9.7. And remember how that game turned out? A buggy pile of shit? Now they give black and white 2 a 8.8. That just raises the red flag.

This guy who did the eurogamer review. Did a great review because he didnt sugar coat it with crap no one cares about. This guy has played the first version. He is just saying that why try to do everything when you do everything crappy.

He did a spot on review and it should be praised because he cut through the fog. He didnt sugar coat it and lie to people so they would waste their money on a sub par game.

"So in the last seven million years since the first game, the obvious thing to do would be to get all that stuff fixed, and release the game done proper. Which makes it an odd decision by Lionhead to choose to strip out almost all that made it interesting, and put its effort into making everything look very pretty, and implement an entirely broken combat system."


"Much like Sid Meier's recent reinvention of Pirates!, huge numbers of ideas have been included at the sacrifice of any of them being particularly impressive. Jack of far too many trades, apprentice at only a few. If you're going to include RTS ideas such as the armies, then the sad fact is that these features need to be as good as a straight RTS. Raising your own Creature needs to be as agile and believable as Nintendogs. Building working towns needs to compare to Sim City. Because as unfair as that seems, that's where our expectations begin when we recognise such features in a game. Can't do that? Then make a game you can. Lionhead simply wasn't able to make this one."

[Evil Avatar]

Now I'm worried about playing the Movies. It seemed more about taking care of your sims and less about the actual ability to shoot movies any way you want.

Reports are that The Movies is a title in terrible need of a roadmap - even the developers don't know if the game is about shooting movies or controlling characters aka, The Sims. I've heard that your options to create movies are very limited. All you really do is set up the sets and the Sims and then sit back and watch what they do.

You don't have much or any control over the movie itself or what the actors do.

[Varsity]

A wee bit too negative for my trust. I like this though:
pneumatic vagina of a very pregnant sheep

[Oversized Landmass]

Pirates is good, but it's got a serious lack of depth to it.

[KNOTE]

The everything-and-the-kitchen sink design philosophy of Lionhead has been proven to be a failure time and time again. The best you can achieve without focus is mediocrity. They obviously have talent there, but it is totally squandered with poor design choices. Sad that they have another high-profile failure because they do try to make different games over there.

[XxSATANxX]

So considering everything floating around this game a demo might be a good idea?

Quess not............

[Zurik]

Reports are that The Movies is a title in terrible need of a roadmap - even the developers don't know if the game is about shooting movies or controlling characters aka, The Sims. I've heard that your options to create movies are very limited. All you really do is set up the sets and the Sims and then sit back and watch what they do.

You don't have much or any control over the movie itself or what the actors do.

That's what I was afraid of after reading a preview in Electronic Gaming Monthly. They could have always left the sims part out, and let it be a fun movie making simulator.

[jwbxx]

So considering everything floating around this game a demo might be a good idea?

Quess not............Usually when they dont release a demo it raises the red flag on this game is probably crap.

[BigJonno]

Seemed like a pretty good review, though I think the last comment was a little unreasonable. "If you can't do something as well as the absolute best example of it, don't do it at all" is a pretty naive statement. The GTA series shows how well simple but solid "minigame" type additions can spice up a title.

[Magnanimous Gnome]

anyone that consider nintendogs/sim city as pinnacles of anything is hardly in a position to be casting any stones, i think.


Wha? Are you seriously that biased? Sim City is a classic - one of the best gaming series of all time. Nintendogs has also gotten excellent reviews, and many people love it. Pull off the blinders.

[GrinR]

The world grows and develops without you, but you have ultimate executive control (aka whoops a volcano just appeared) = god game

You have to build the world and manage its growth with your ultimate executive control = construction sim

[Ernst_Jager]

I HATED the first Black & White. I remember hearing so much about it and how awesome it was, so I bought it. Totally shit. I think I forced myself to play it for about an hour before I uninstalled it and threw it in a dark corner.

[DiBiddilyBop]

Am I the only one who loved the first B&W and had no problem whatsoever getting my pet the way I wanted him? Seriously... if you want a nice pet, use the fuzzy leash. If you want a mean pet, use the metal leash. There really wasn't much more to it...

I for one am excited to try this one and can't take a review seriously where the guy goes on and on about guides teaching you how to play a relatively unique style of game. Maybe that's just me.

[omnithrope]

The reviewer was extremely biased.
I don't think he was the man for the job.

Me? I just installed B&W2, so I'll get to see first hand... well... now.

[steve]

The review is kinda bad as the reviewer seems to have it written being pissed off by disappointment. However, Gamestar gave a similar rating and mentions similar points in their review. So, unfortunately, B&W2 seems to suck like it's precedessor :(

[BleedTheFreak]

The world grows and develops without you, but you have ultimate executive control (aka whoops a volcano just appeared) = god game

You have to build the world and manage its growth with your ultimate executive control = construction sim

I like that, good work. I just realized after reading it, I'd much rather play a "Contstruction Sim" than a God game. I don't spend 50 bucks to watch the AI play my game! I'd rather be in there doing things, building up cities, having a hands on approach. I don't care if I feel like a "mayor" rather than a God, what I care about is I feel like the Player, not an Observer. ;)