Black & White 2 E3 2004 Impressions

Famed designer Peter Molyneux was on hand at E3 2004 to give us an updated look at Black & White 2, the sequel to 2001's Black & White. But prior to seeing the new game in action, we had a brief talk about the original. As Molyneux explained to us, the reception to the original game was amazingly polarized--it was a love-it-or-hate-it game, and Lionhead was interested in finding out the reasons for the mixed reaction.

One of the interesting findings they came across in their research centered around a design decision they made with the game's creature avatar. For those unfamiliar with it, the original Black & White allowed you, as an omniscient but intangible god, to train a giant creature to serve as your corporeal representation in the game. You trained your creature by giving it positive or negative feedback on every action it did. The problem was that if you didn't give constant feedback on each thing your creature did, it would interpret "no reaction" as slightly positive feedback. The upshot of all this is that unless you provided 100 percent attention to your creature, he would slowly grow insane, the longer you kept him.

Getting back to Black & White 2, Molyneux explained that despite certain design gaffes in the original game, he felt it necessary to make the sequel even more ambitious than the first. So, of course, the creature training will remain, and this time around the developers will have the AI respond in a more intelligent fashion, and you will have the ability to apply positive or negative feedback to anything your creature has done in the past half-hour of play (rather than just in the last 10 or 15 seconds as in the original). But as in the original, the goal of the sequel will be to exert your influence over the world and convince the various cultures of humans who inhabit the world to worship you.

The goal of cultural domination can happen in a couple of ways; your choices will decide whether you are deemed an evil or a just god, and this will be reflected in the appearance of your animal avatar. Focus on building armies and attacking and forcefully assimilating other cultures, and your creature will take a dark, sinister look. The wolf used in our demonstration actually morphed into a wicked-looking werewolf, with dark, mangy fur and gigantic fangs that jutted out of his mouth. But it's also possible to take over cultures through peaceful means. Using the game's city-building aspects, if you can advance in technology and create a superior society, neighboring cultures may be impressed enough to begin immigrating to your city, first camping outside your walls and then formally asking for asylum. Sticking to peaceful means, our wolf god avatar had glowing white fur and a much more pleasant look, not unlike a husky puppy.

Our GDC preview already focused on Black & White 2's sophisticated real-time strategy (for battles and army building) and city-building aspects. In our brief time with the game at E3, we got a chance to get a closer look at the creatures and some of the graphical aspects. As before, you can choose from animals like a lion, a tiger, a wolf, a cow, an ape, and more. Molyneux claimed that they will have the ability to do sophisticated things, mostly anything you could do in the game yourself. Train your creature in the art of war, and you'll actually be able to have your creature lead armies into battle, and it will supposedly be smart enough to execute pincer maneuvers and coordinate with you on two-pronged attacks. If you're not the warmongering type, you will also be able to train your pet to manage your city like a benevolent governor, entertaining your citizens and building them necessary structures. Creatures will still be able to fight, but you'll no longer have the ability to direct each punch and swipe. Scars and wounds are easily visible on creatures' bodies after a fight.

Graphically the creatures of Black & White 2 are as impressive as ever. They're very expressive and can dance or make a variety of gestures. Extreme polygonal and texture detail have gone into their appearance, to the point where individual hairs on their fur coats are easily recognizable. What's even more amazing is that if it rains, you can see their fur turn dark from the water and become matted from the moisture.

Molyneux also talked a little bit about the game's "campaign" structure. While you may start off on a small island, worrying about just one or two neighboring cultures to dominate, there will be plenty of other land areas surrounding your starting point where later parts of the game will take place, inhabited by other cultures. These AI-controlled people will make simultaneous progress and advancement as you play, so when you're ready to expand and move to those other areas, you can do so seamlessly. Your original holdings will also continue to produce on their own, even as you direct attention away from them, meaning you can always draw on them for resources to help you in new areas.

There's no specific release date for Black & White 2 as of yet, so it's likely that we'll have a while to wait on the game, particularly with the number of other projects that Lionhead is working on. The game will ship for the PC when it's finished.