Publisher: EA Black Box

Developer: Lionhead Studios

Category: Strategy

Release Dates

N Amer - 04/24/2006

Electronic - 04/24/2006

Official Game Website

Black & White 2: Battle of the Gods Review

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

Review Scoring Details for Black & White 2: Battle of the Gods

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.
 

GameZone Review Detail

7.0

GZ Rating

Gameplay7.5
Graphics7.4
Sound7.4
DifficultyEasy/Med
Concept6
Overall7.0

Do you have a god complex?  If so, Black & White may be the series you need to become addicted to

Reviewer: Dakota Grabowski

Review Date: 06/05/2006


Avg. Web Rating

7.3

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