So many different elements gel into an uncertain mix, and this game's hefty ambitions quickly become dull.
Some people will threaten to kick my @$$ for giving this game a relatively sub-par score. Well, they won't, seeing as GameSpot is simply a very good videogaming site that has barely any snippets related to violence. These get locked by moderators. But to me, Black & White is a woefully dull game. Peter Molyneux always has a massive ambition for every game, and sees them as the sun rising on the horizon. But, from my experience, these always backfire; Black & White is a mass of ideas that are stuck together and plonked onto a disc. And although GameSpot have said that these theoretically incompatible ideas do glue together to create an immersive experience, to me this blend of genres don't gel into each other, and in the end Black & White becomes an inexplicable mess of different styles.
One thing I'll give Black & White - it is wholly original and definitely new explores new territory for the fast-expanding industry. You play the messianic figure of God, and the game starts off on a striking note, where you save a clumsy child from the grasp of a hungry shark, and his distraught parents quickly warm to you and invite you into their village. There, you order them to build a grand temple, and from there, you will reprise your role as ruler of the region, and generally do all things a God would do.
There's no denying that Black & White has an almost staggering amount of depth. It's almost overwhelming. Everything on a God's agenda is somehow packed onto one disc of ideas. Expansion of belief, village micromanagement, viewing town statistics, sating their needs, helping stranded people from harm, freeing kids from the lair of a demented paedophile, and exploring new regions... all these things amount up into one hell of a task that is way too daunting. Some casual gamers might abandon the game right at the start - others will delve into the perplexing world of Black & White.
The gameplay in Black & White is an impressive feat, and an absorbing way to pass the time, but for me, there was a lacking fun factor in the game. Basically, you've got to get used to being an unmistakable floating hand. From this hand, you must forge the destiny of your people. You can be a good God; a loving, celestial being with an angelic soul, or an evil God; a hateful, fearsome old sod that nobody likes, but will never admit it. From your all-conquering hand, you can throw stuff, from rocks to innocent people, explore, grab, influence; you can almost drown in the unprecedented freedom that Black & White gives you. But there isn't no enjoyment in the gameplay, or not much of it; sure, it's mildly entertaining throwing a stereotypical villager into the ocean, but Black & White isn't very good at immersing you in the game. It won't carry your awe and chances are, you won't do that several times.
But the main quirk of Black & White is not the dull RTS/micromanagement explained above. Oddly, all Gods in this game [yes, there's not just you, you have friends and enemies] own their very own distinct Creature. At the start of the game you are bestowed with either a cow, a chimp, or a tiger; and this is where the true abnormality of the game comes into its own. Between keeping your creature out of mischief, telling the villagers to find their own food, and being trained by a gigantic lion, the game can become confusing and irritatingly complex. Just like this review.
The creature training has decent design, but regardless of what your trainer says, chances are you'll let it run riot anyways. You can stroke, slap, reward, punish, give food to, starve, let loose, take it for walks, let it faint; whatever you want. You can even train it to do specific jobs for the town, in which case it will become a mascot.
And what makes the game doubly perplexing is the control scheme. It's all done with the mouse; every action in the game is virtually done with the mouse. Sure, it's well-designed, but the view in the game can often go wonky and it takes precious seconds to right yourself. Before going haywire again. Maybe it's just my inability to use the control scheme, but I find the game irritating to play. When the view distorts, it infuriates.
And still, after all those paragraphs I've just wrote, I still don't know what genre is applied to this multiple personality disorder of a game. It's like an awkward Nintendogs, mixed with a dull Civilization, with a bit of Sim City thrown in for good measure. Or maybe it's Tamagotchi mixed with Rome: Total War mixed with Age of Empires. Is it a bird? A plane? A train? A fusion-powered BMW Williams F1? I still haven't figured it out. This game has so much dizzying depth it's nauseating.
Nevertheless, from an audiovisual viewpoint, it's not that bad. Black & White's landscapes are well-drawn, with some lovely detail and far draw distances. The character models are OK, the creatures are pretty good, and I've never found the back of a hand so enchanting.
The sound reaches similar heights. There's some stirring orchestral music in this game, along with some oh-so-professional voiceovers. Your creature's continual pines and grunts can get on your nerves though. Why does it have to be so infernally irritating?
So, all in all, I think I've covered the facts. Black & White fails to meet its own lofty ambitions, and for me, I didn't get much fun out of it. It's a frequently overwhelming tidal wave of different genres, and they melt into something that didn't sate my needs for a good game. Overrated.