Official Description[]
Will you be an evil or benevolent deity?
That's the choice you must make, upon returning to a warring land, in Black & White 2. Like its wildly successful predecessor Black & White, the sequel is all about moral choices.
The land, however, has transformed itself. The inhabitants of this breathtaking 3D world have lost their innocence, and developed new weapons and technology. As you enter this warring world, will you make tribes coexist peacefully, encouraging villages and neighboring towns to grow into sprawling metropolises; or, will you prompt them to impose their will upon others, by creating and commanding large armies, that seek to dominate and conquer?
Creatures in the game have grown, too. They can learn strategies, master new abilities and skills, lead armies into battle, and perform as your most ultimate unit. Black & White 2 includes other new elements, such as improved graphics, and miracle effects such as rivers of fire, and earthquakes that yield massive destruction.
Every choice you make, will have an impact. Each action, and even your inaction, prompts obvious changes to buildings, flora and fauna within your influence, all morphing to reflect your personality.
The story continues further, in the Black & White 2: Battle of the Gods expansion. In it, you can even bring your Creatures from the base game, to the expansion, to maintain continuity.
Major Features[]
- Play as a Good God, or as a God of War. Wage massive wars, sieges and battles, or use your skill, power & influence to keep the peace, and foster it further throughout the lands.
- Discover and use new Epic Miracles, including the ground-ripping Earthquake, and volcanoes, which cause rivers of lava.
- Choose and customize the Creature that's right for you, from a selection of a Monkey, Cow, Lion, and Wolf; you can also select the tiger, if you own the collectors edition [or via other means, likewise for the Turtle].[c 1]
- Create and control settlements, that include planning the building of housing, farming, and many other structures; not only that, but embellishments for your settlements, like fountains and lush gardens (which sway your alignment towards goodness), or décor like spikes and torture pits (which sway your alignment towards Evil).[c 2]
- Weather systems, such as rain, snow, mists, and fog.[c 3]
- Journey through 9 lands, each serving as homes to yourself, and one of the four tribes.[c 4]
- Research and create new forms of weaponry, from swords, to bows, and even siege machines.[c 5]
- Build and design unique defensive gates, and walls.[c 6]
- Plot out expanses of buildings and pathways for your villagers, within your settlement's area of influence, to help guide them where you need them to be.
- Lead giant armies into battle.
Clarifications[]
- ↑ Unlike in the original game, you cannot tatoo your creature or customize it in other graphical ways. Its graphics will follow its alignment and you can change its behavior. Two further creatures can be unlocked in special ways: The turtle and the gorilla (though Gorilla will not change alignment).
- ↑ Actually, you can use both whether you are Good or Evil, they will just nudge your alignment.
- ↑ Weather systems are of uncertain effect in gameplay (other than possibly lightning).
- ↑ You can only use mainly one tribe, which is by default the Greeks. Mods exist to replace them for the Japanese or the Aztecs.
- ↑ You can "research" (buy with favor) each of the individual three buildings buildings to construct these (swordmen, bowmen and the single finished siege machine), but this is the extent of it as far as "research" goes.
- ↑ The planned tier system for walls and gates is incomplete.
Creatures[]
The primary creature choices include: the Monkey, Cow, Lion and Wolf. All of these are always available to choose from, except for the Tiger, which is only included with the pre-ordered or collector's/special edition of the game.
The Tiger is also available to you at any time, in the Battle of the Gods expansion pack.
The tiger is selectable (in the collector's/special edition of the base game, rather than the expansion) in the first tutorial land, spotted a bit to the left, behind the Ape and Lion, during creature selection.
Contrary to popular belief, the Tiger is always available, provided the player has used an unlocker provided in the collectors edition. See the Tiger's page to learn how you can select it, at any time!
Each creature is usually referred to as "he" - not only by fans, but the consciences as well.
Unlike in the original Black & White game, in which the creature had to be taught miracles through repetition, this sequel allows the player to 'buy' (and permanently teach Creatures to perform) Creatures Miracles, with a special 'Tribute' currency.
Additionally, Black & White 2 allows a player to revisit every behavioral guide they've taught their Creature, in order to alter and fine-tune it at any time; this contrasts how, in the original Black & White, Creature education was simulated in a differently realistic way, by only allowing changes to be made as the creature repeated an action.
Lands[]
- Land 1 (BW2)
- Land 2 (BW2)
- Land 3 (BW2)
- Land 4 (BW2)
- Land 5 (BW2)
- Land 6 (BW2)
- Land 7 (BW2)
- Land 8 (BW2)
- Land 9 (BW2)
Black & White 2's Recommended (and Minimum) System Requirements[]
- Processor: Pentium 4 or Athlon XP, 2.2 - 2.4 GHz (1.6 GHz)
- RAM: 1 - 1.5 GB (512 MB)
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce FX+ / ATI Radeon 9500+ or similar, 128 - 256 MB VRAM (NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti+ / ATI Radeon 8500+ or similar, 64 MB Vram)
- 3D video card, supporting Pixel & Vertex Shaders version 2.0, supporting DirectX version 9.0c or later (3D video card, supporting Pixel Shader version 1.1, supporting Direct version 9.0c or later, with hardware T&L [transforming and lighting])
- Definitively-Supported Operating Systems:
- Windows: 2000/XP
- Mac OS: 10.5
- Hard Disk Space: 3.5 - 5.1 GB
- Drive: DVD or CD-ROM
- Sound Card: Preferred
- Input: Multi-button Mouse
- This game does not support GMA graphics cards with shared RAM.
- Designed for Intel processors only.