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Molyneux's Manichean masterpiece is here. Read our words, see the near-inevitable Direct Hit rating, then buy it like you were going to anyway. |
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Ever get the feeling that you've been had? You get that a couple of hours into Black & White; a vague feeling that you've fallen for the hype and that beneath the absolutely gorgeous graphics, it's actually a fairly standard God game. You begin to feel that you've been suckered into stumping up for yet another of those games where you spend most of your time managing resources to the best of your ability while, despite your best efforts, things spin wildly out of control anyway. It's a depressing realisation to come to after such a long wait. And it's also deeply wrong. Yes, I went through a phase of wondering whether Black & White was going to live up to my expectations. That was probably late on Friday. And then on Saturday my tiger, Jedburgh, started break-dancing to amuse the locals, and had an endearing go at casting a fireball spell that went horribly wrong and resulted in his setting himself on fire. And then he got kidnapped on Monday. Last night I was watching a news report on the USA/China spy plane fiasco, and there was a shot of the plane on the runway with a couple of palm trees in the foreground. My immediate thought was that I should grab them and drop them into a village store. Okay... Today, while not playing Black & White, I've found myself trying to scroll down web pages by grabbing the pages and dragging them upwards. So far I haven't attempted to draw squiggles in the air in order to chuck fireballs at people, but I can't help feeling that it's only a matter of time. I can only conclude that I've already acquired a Black & White addiction, and I've only been at it for a few days. That automatically makes it more addictive than heroin, you know. So then... It looks great, even on a rubbish old Voodoo 3. There's the occasional stutter when it's trying to draw a large area at once, but you can forgive that when you see the sheer detail that goes into every square foot of the landscape. Yes, Black & White might well be worth getting for looks alone, but you'd be radically underestimating its abilities. Y'see, once you've learned the mechanics of the game (merely getting around and interacting takes a few hours to master, learning how to throw fireballs effectively takes ages, and getting a handle on some of the more subtle aspects of how everything, you know, fits together, is an ongoing process) you can't help but feel that this is one game that honestly lives up to the hype. There are things that annoy me a little; or rather I get annoyed when my devoted little villagers lack common sense. "We need wood," they cry. Well, look. There are some trees over there. Why don't you take the initiative and bloody chop some down? Eh? But it appears that I'm quite a kindly god; odds are that I'll grab a few trees and hand them over on a plate. Perhaps if I were a little nastier they might think twice about bothering me when they can't be arsed to do something themselves. I can't do it, though. Apparently I'm a lot nicer than I thought I was. I might occasionally get cross and sling a villager off a mountain for the sake of it, but then I'll cock it up by being extra-nice for a bit to make up for it. I should probably cross 'Evil Dictator' off my list of potential future careers. The thing is, I don't really like god games. And so far Black & White has eaten half my week and looks set to devour most of my free time for the next few months. Yes, it's pretty much as good as they've all been saying; if you buy it and don't agree with me, try playing it a bit longer. And if you still don't agree with me, then sorry, but you're wrong. Get used to the idea, and maybe give up playing games. |
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