Black and White had potential, but it ultimately limits itself with its non-linear- yet- still linear gameplay.
Black and White's story is that your a god- suddenly created to save the child of a Viking couple from sharks. With your first good deed done- their village starts to worship you, and all seems fine- until Nemesis shows up and ruins your humble realm. After this, you just barely escape, and then start to seek a way to stop Nemesis from becoming the one and only god.
The basic gameplay generally has you looking about your land, looking for quests to undertake, and villages to convert. The game's seemingly non-linear gameplay shows quite plainly- yet it is also extremely limited by the game's structure. Thing is- the game is following a storyline, and it still feels as if your being pushed along this thin line. There are not nearly enough optional quests to undertake (even though there are still quite a few), so the game's single player mode ultimately feels too constrained to be fully satisfying. Fortunately, the game has a skirmish mode which fares much better than the storyline does.
One of the game's main focus points is the giant creature you get early on in the story. There are a large number of creatures available to you, though they all only fall into 3 seperate catagories essentially. There are creatures that are balanced for combat and peace and learn quickly, creatures that are effective in combat but learn very slowly, and then creatures who are better with peace, weak in combat, and learns at a pretty good rate. It is an absolute joy to tend to the creature and simply watch what it does thanks to its excellent and characterful AI. You can also use specific leashes to train your creature and influence how it acts. Ultimately, the creature alone almost completely makes up for the story mode's issues.
Graphically, Black and White is gorgeous. It is absolutely stunning to simply zoon out and see the sights. The world itself with all of its creatures and terrain looks fantastic. The villagers and buildings aren't quite as appealing- but you can't have everything... Sound wise, the game has some great voice acting from the other gods- and your comical advisors, who tend to steal the show a lot of the time. Ultimately, Black and White has some addicting gameplay as you watch over and expand your realm, along with simply letting your creature do its thing. In all reality- Black and White feels more like an interactive screen-saver at times, since sometimes there tend to be lulls in actual activites to undertake. Despite this however, Black and White is still recomendable for anyone looking for something that looks fantastic and is simply different from the pack.
Pros: There's nothing like this out in the market. The creature and advisors steal the show. Gorgeous graphics. Great AI for both the creatures and enemy gods.
Cons: Story mode does not bode well with the gameplay as there is not enough to do. From my experience, the Story mode can also be buggy at times, with profiles either suddenly losing or gaining progress.