As a God, you reign with terror o benevolence among the people, but I was without purpose or direction to guide them.
You are a God. You gain power from your worshippers. When you perform miracles, be they good or bad for your population, you gain power. You will control a creature - an avatar - that will represent you corporeally, but it is not you. It's more like a really smart pet. Your goal is to gain the belief of the populace and force out the other deities.
Graphics: Outstanding graphics that were cutting edge when the game was released and still hold their own today, it's no wonder Nvidia used the game to highlight the capabilities of their top graphics cards at the time. Every aspect of the game, from the avatars to the water, was cutting-edge. The graphics programming for B&W is a foundation for many of today's best games.
Sound: I found the sound complemented the game, but did not jump out at the player. This is good, because when you notice the sound you're not immersed in the gameplay. Very good.
Gameplay: I found the game to be too nonlinear for my taste. I got tired of tooling around with my avatar, training my animal and coddling (even decimating) my worshipers. There was never a clear rhyme or reason for certain things to occur in the game, and potty-training my creature was just work. I would take a "click you units and send them there" game over this type of psychological interpretation, but this is a matter of preference. The gameplay is innovative and unique, but I was unable to get into it.
Lacking a clear direction and ease of acclimation, I cannot fully endorse this game despite a wide range of positive reviews and accolades from other fans. I fear that I just didn't get it, but some of you who want a clear direction in a game rather than a "tooling-around" game may get some value out of my advice to look to its predecessor instead. B&W 2 took everything from this game and improved upon it, and nearly every PC out today should be able to run it easily. You will not miss anything by picking up the sequel first.