God – A being
conceived as the perfect, omnipotent, omniscient originator and ruler of the
universe, the principal object of faith and worship in monotheistic religions.
This is the definition of a God according to the American Heritage Dictionary.
What relevance does this have to Black & White 2 – Battle of the Gods? Lionhead
Studios gives you the opportunity of becoming a god yourself and the power to
rule. Being a god couldn’t feel any better!
Battle of the Gods is a straight-forward expansion pack for Black & White 2.
Like every other expansion pack, it features new levels to play on, abilities to
mess around with and unit/building types to use. Typical and exhausted, Battle
of the Gods has the feeling of being forced upon the players. Just seven months
or less removed from the original Black & White 2, the expansion hopes to
capture any of those power-hungry players wanting more god-like abilities in
their games. I honestly don’t see this going overly well with the lack of
content and originality.
The storyline of
Battle of the Gods picks up a little after Black & White 2. Another god has
risen up to oppose the player and hopes to use his army of undead soldiers to
sway the masses into following him. The goal for Battle of the Gods is, of
course, to crush the opposition and build a civilization under your influence.
The choices are still open to the players to make; good or evil, peace or use of
military, conquer or use of diplomacy. The choices are all available to the
players like expected.
If you are a Black & White follower, the gameplay remains the same. The computer
A.I. will relentlessly send units at your choice of creature to be slaughtered
by it. The difficulty hasn’t risen at all, but the map sizes have. It will take
a few hours to finish for each assigned map that you play on. There are only a
few maps in the expansion, so it won’t take long to finish them all. The choice
is yours on how you want to play the game. Do you want to take the longest route
to winning and try to influence the other nation peacefully into merging with
your civilization? If that sounds long (and it is), then you could take the
other route – using militaristic actions to put fear into their civilians.
For those who
put countless hours into the original, don’t worry about the content, you can
import some of it into the expansion. You can import your creature that you
created in the original straight into Battle of the Gods. The expansion only
adds two new creatures, evening its roster number up to six. The biggest
addition I must say for Battle of the Gods is that Lionhead Studios added tons
of mini-game challenges. If you are new to Black & White, these mini-game
challenges allow you to unlock new buildings and powers. A nice diversion, but
alas, it isn’t nearly anything worthy of picking up the expansion solely for.
The graphical and audio production remains the same. You’d be hard pressed to
point out the difference between the expansion and the original. It is more of
the same, which in theory shouldn’t be that bad for avid fans. If you were a fan
of the original, you’ll enjoy the spunky character designs. Other than that, not
too much here to comment on the little they improved graphically and with the
sound.
While it is a
must-have for the fans of Black & White, the content within isn’t exactly a must
have. Lionhead could have easily put this all into the original from the
beginning. Maybe they were crunching time and couldn’t fit it all in, maybe they
just couldn’t figure it all out at the start, but, all the content should have
been included in the original. Not much here that should demand players to go
out and buy this expansion to Black & White 2. I’d only recommend it to the
hardcore Black & White fans and people with a god complex. Having full control
of cities, units and creatures all in a game will always be a one of a kind
experience.
Operating System:
Windows 2000/XP
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 or equivalent 1.6 GHz
RAM: 512MB RAM
Hard Disk Space: 3.5GB
CD: DVD-ROM – 8 SPEED
VIDEO: 64MB with 1.1 Pixel Shader
SOUND: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
DirectX: Version 9.0c
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Gameplay: 7.5
If you have played Black & White 2, you’ll feel right at home. Not too much has
changed in terms of the core gameplay. Just a few new maps, units and creatures
added.
Graphics: 7.4
It isn’t exactly ugly. It isn’t exactly pretty either. What is it then? Well, it
falls right in the middle and with no visual improvements, it is just plain
average.
Sound: 7.4
This follows suit with the graphics. It is nothing extraordinary.
Difficulty: Easy / Medium
The computer A.I. is a cinch to overcome, although, the game will take some time
to adjust to if you have never played a Black & White game before.
Concept: 6.0
An expansion pack to a game? Not something I find hard to put on a drawing
board. The god-game concept is still a huge interest of mine I have to add.
Overall: 7.0
In the long-term, this is the only fix you’ll have to your Black & White needs.
With it being an expansion pack to Black & White 2, you’ll, of course, need the
original to play it. There are still some glitches and bugs, but, it’s nothing
heart-stopping that will take the pulse right out of the game. Good expansion,
just not good enough to buy both the original and expansion to play it. If you
have the original, go ahead and buy this. If you don’t, you are not missing out.
