Rating: 
Summary: Slow and tedious
Review: Ok I was expecting alot at first cause I went to a friends house and watched him play it for awhile, it looked like lots of fun. So I installed it on my computer, which is more than adequate for any other game, but apperently not amazing enough for this game, everything went slow and even when I adjusted the picture "quality" nothing changed, the quality was the same and so was the slow speed. So I dealt with it and started playing. The tutorial was sooooo long and boring I wanted to die, but I knew soon I'd have a creature and it would be neat. So I get through the tutorial and have to find my creature, which takes about 8 hours cause the controls for this game are the most horrible and difficult controls ever. I mean all they had to do was have the mouse control where you're looking and then have the keyboard arrows zoom in and out, thats all, but no, it had to be impossible instead. I cant even tell you how many times I got stuck just trying to move a few feet. Then after I got my creature I started trying to be nice to villagers, but they're all lazy and dumb, they cant do anything on their own, I killed them just for being so stupid and demanding. Then I had problems with my creature cause the bugs in the game wouldnt allow me to pick up a horse to feed it after the horse had moved out of the animals range. It was just so frustrating and bad that I immediatly uninstalled the game and returned. Its not worth anyone's time, and what seems like it would be fun is really just tedious and boring.
Rating: 
Summary: How to Destroy a Game
Review: What a great concept. The ability to semi-conscously choose between good and evil was something that really drew me to this game. It doesn't start with a check-box asking which you wish to be. Your choices in the game (even the little ones) start adding up one way or the other. The tutorial (which can't be skipped even if this is the 5th time you've restarted the game) is intended for the most retarded (no offense to retarded people)gamer. Once all the training settles down you get to mess around in the first land taking as long as you want to complete objectives. Once all of the training is complete you move to a second land and this is where the game takes a severe drop on the entertain-o-meter. You have to micro-manage every single one of your 200+ villagers spanned over many villages all the while keeping an eye on the opposition. Your guides tell you some concerning things but don't tell you where they are happening. Building is definitely not as easy as the tiny manual suggests. It's a game in itself as possible building types flicker past and you try to click on the one you want. It's like a twisted wheel of fortune. The creature is supposedly trainable but it seems to learn on a scripted curve and when you smack it around for doing something wrong it just runs around eating villagers. I've tried everything from mild discipline to literally beating it do death (which is why this game got two stars from me instead of one) and it just will not respond. I've tried all of the creatures including the sheep.The multiplayer is just plain boring. It was so non-existent that I can't even bother to bash it beyond this point. Save your money and especially your time.
Rating: 
Summary: Black and White needs more color.
Review: Black and White is a fun game in the begining. The graphics are pretty good and the idea is ok but there is a factor of fun missing. The game is simply put, boring. After about 20 minutes you just want to shoot yourself. The game is really draged out. After the first level you feal like you wasted your money so let me tell you, you dont have to take my advice, you have your own opinion but this game is a waste of time and money. The creaters werent very creative. So go to the store and get something better. I'm done.
Rating:
Summary: All the game play excitement of an empty bag of rice cakes
Review: Not so much a game as an intelligence test (i.e., are you smart enough to figure out how to install it?), Black & White was something I longed to play -- and am still longing for. You have to question the common sense of the people behind this game -- my copy was shipped without the essential CD identification code necessary to install the program. After hours investigating online FAQs and making expensive long distance calls to technical support, I discovered that the game assumes you will be connected to the Internet and that, if you are not, a line must be added to the program shortcut just to get the program to run. And I don't have the space here to talk about the game's arthritic speed. In short, the chief fun behind this game will be ripping the box and documentation it came with into shreds and then burning it.
Rating:
Summary: Overhyped/Overpriced? You Betcha!
Review: I have to add myself to the list of people who were excited by the marketing and burned by the execution. I haven't experienced the technical problems expressed by most ... but I have to agree that the management of villages is overly cumbersome, and the supposedly amazing AI of the Creature is amazing only in how little it truly produces. Add to this an interface that's so intricate it makes hand-looming look simple, and you have the makings of a legendary waste of time and money. This one simply doesn't pay off for the gamer.
Rating:
Summary: Not a revolution - disappointing and boring
Review: I know Peter Molyneux and his games from the very start, and I more or less liked them all - especially the Populous series, from which Black & White's concept was obviously taken. But nonetheless, Black & White was a very big disappointement. First, one's amazed by the graphics, the freedom to look everywhere in the world, the details. The game's not that original for anyone who played Populous or Dungeon Keeper, but some sides of the game do catch your attention (the lovable creature, the magic gestures) and were probably feats to code. Then, the game appears to have plenty of bugs that make the game irritating. Arrived to level five, you discover that it's all over (yes, only FIVE levels, and they're not that long). Even more surprising, all the levels look the same - there's no different environments like deserts or icy landscapes, all levels are the same-looking green valleys, grey cliffs, and the same four tree species. "Oh well", you think, "I'll go for skirmish or multiplayer". This is where this 'game' appears to be a big joke. You have ONE level for two players, ONE for three players, and ONE for four players. That's all, and they're the same in skirmish and multiplayer... ... and if only what we had were FUN to play - but it's incredibly dull and boring. First you take care of the villagers, but they don't do anything interesting. Watch them for twenty minutes, and you've seen all their attitudes and actions. So you train your creature. But you soon realize that it's not that clever - it's even some hard work to make it sleep and eat so that it doesn't collapse. The AI isn't that great, I spent some long time trying to get it doing unusual things (expand forests for example), but it does it once or twice and stops. In fact, it can't do anything without you. And last but not least, why would we train our creature ? The AI of other Gods is totally uninteresting, and in multiplayer, it can be hours before you actually interact with the other Gods. The game is so sloooooooow to have anything done - you have to make the same repetitive actions again and again for hours before something actually happens. So there's hardly any reason to waste time making your pet smart or competitive. I mean, in the old Populous II for example, the players had PLENTY of FUN *spectacular* powers, like volcano or earthquakes, floods or diseases... one was able to shape the land, to start wars, to create heros. Here you can't change the land - and it's the same in every god-damn (pardon the pun) level ! I'm sorry Peter, but I don't have two hours to spend in front of my computer moving trees and rocks before having any actual interaction with my opponent. There isn't even any real strategy at all in your 'game', and it's boring to look at - so why should I play it again ? I just can't believe the 1989 Populous on my Amiga was funnier and more interesting to play. What a waste.
Rating:
Summary: God-like Micromanagement
Review: After reading all of the previews and ad information for this game, I was convinced that it really was going to be a unique gaming experience. Black & White is unique, uniquely frustrating, uniquely cumbersome, and uniquely over-hyped. I want to start by pointing out that if you have read the previews and even reviews for this game, you are being misled. The professional reviewers of this game base most of their opinions on the "stunning graphics" (that can burden even the best video cards) and the interesting God-game storyline. The graphics, while well made, are nothing unexpected, and at the close in zooms show quite a bit of blockiness for such a supposedly "revolutionary" game engine. As for the God-game storyline, this game differs little from your standard RTS (real-time strategy) game. Resource management, and a semblance of a "tech-tree", in the form of captured village centers that offer different miracles, lead you down the same path as any other game in the genre. Adding in the Creature makes the game a micro-management nightmare. The creature starts off dumb and greedy, and grows smart and aggressive even when you actively discourage that behavior. The interface is an exercise in frustration. Attempting to navigate the map is like trying to drive a car with one steering wheel for each tire. Turning can lead to being stuck on the sides of mountains until you change your zoom to get around it. Moving through confined areas, like the mountain passes in the first map, can take a significant amount of time, zooming, turning, and tilting. All this adds together to completely prohibit quick movement on the map, a major problem for any RTS game. The job of managing your villagers, in their various villages, means that you will spend the majority of your time tending to these lazy people. Instead of just providing their resources, you must begin construction on ALL of their structures. The will whine about everything, and do nothing to fulfill their own needs. This means that you will spend most of your time watering fields that your farmer disciples do nothing with. Making forester disciples means nothing unless the trees are right in front of these idiots. In fact, the only disciples, of the eight that you can create, that do their jobs well are the breeder and missionaries. In the end, you will have to do most things yourself and leave your followers to sit on their blocky behinds. One last note, if you are really intent on buying this game, my recommendation is to get every help guide and walk through you can find. The manual provided is practically useless, and the in game help is more comic relief than help. Your best bet is to wait for this game to end up in the bargain basket, and at least save yourself some money.
Rating:
Summary: should have listened
Review: I should have listened to the negative reviews this game recieved before i purchased it. this game is cool at first but very quickly becomes boring. ive only had it for about to weeks and i dont even play anymore. lots if bugs too watch out. hope i can help out someone from buying this subpar game.
Rating:
Summary: So much potential ... but it ends up being a shade of grey
Review: I had HUGE hopes for Black and White. I love moral discussions, and this game had some of the best advertising I'd seen. One ad said something like: (good) Your loving wife makes you breakfast in bed / (evil) You eat it with your mistress. It made it seem like you'd really have these sorts of decisions to make. Instead, when you play, you have a cutsie little angel and a cuddly little devil, both making fun comments. The devil's comments are always promptly slapped down by the angel. The "evil" you do is more like Dungeon Keeper than anything else - drop things on peoples' houses, bug them if they're not doing what you want to do. You only get to start with a choice of three 'creatures', and these creatures have got to be some of the slowest learners on the planet. You tell one to pick up a drowning person, and he pops the person in his mouth and starts eating him! Eventually when they DO learn something, half the time it's not what you had been training them to do. The graphics are GORGEOUS. The whole interface with the game is beautiful, and lots of fun. There was so much potential as to how the game could have played, but somewhere along the way I think they got swept away in the graphics and lost track of what they were doing. Now dumb sailors tell you one at a time the things they need, farmers lose their cows even though there are only 2 to watch, and game crashes mean even things that work aren't necessary going to last very long. If you're a Populous fan (like I am) I'd get it just to see how far they have come, but don't be expecting miracles.
Rating: 
Summary: *Drool*
Review: This game is simply amazing. It runs fine on my celeron 667mhz! I get low frame rates at times but graphics will blow you away. The game is extremely complex and requires hours of devotion. Once you get the hang of it, this game is awesome. Simcity, sims, any role playing game, and warcraft put together. I applaud Lionhead. So far I have only encountered one bug with villager singing[yes, they sing] but this occurs rarely. The game AI of the creature is insane. Get this game. That's the bottom line.
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