Rating: 
Summary: It's as good as a game can get
Review: lack and White, it might not sound like a title for a strategy game, but well, it is a strategy game, and a great one at that. Black & White was probably one of 2001's most anticipated games. There was a lot of hype surrounding the game. But the best thing is, Black and White lives up to its hype and expectations. Though some aspects of the game might not appeal to the casual gamer, it's still one of the best out there. It is not perfect but hey! Nobody is perfect.
In Black and White, you play the role of God. And of course, God does not stand for Gathering Of Developers. You play the ordinary God with an extraordinary pet creature and ultra-stupid followers. After the opening cut scenes and a brief tutorial on how to move around the map, you are thrust right into the game. The first thing you will notice is that there are no icons! You will probably think "the hey! I am playing a strategy game, where are those icons, no buttons, no nothing at all! All you see is a disembodied hand. You control the whole world with this 'hand of god'. Lionhead wanted to create an interface free of icons in order to make it look more 'realistic'. However, they were partly successful in doing so. The interface is hard to control and difficult to adjust to. But once you get the hang of it, the game runs smoothly.
The other thing you will notice is the brilliant graphics. Lionhead really created a beauty of an engine for this game. The game looks terrific. The whole engine models day and night, rain and snow realistically. Even the game physics are highly accurate. The graphics are especially smooth. You can zoom in to see your followers faces and zoom out so that the whole island is visible as a tiny dot. Of course this means that you have to have a fast computer. But this isn't necessary. The game ran smoothly on my friend's celeron 433mhz computer. But to enjoy the full graphics, consider upgrading your video card and processor.
The third thing you will notice is a little red guy and a little old man darting about the screen. They are actually your conscience - a little red devil represents the evil conscience and a little old man represents the good conscience. They both not only guide you through the game but also bring much comic relief to the game. Their constant arguing and quarrelling will keep you interested for a long time.
Coming back to the game, the game's story isn't the work of a literary genius. You just play the role of a God who has to defeat the evil god Nemesis and unite all worlds and bring about peace. Doesn't sound very interesting, does it? Anyway, the story and plot don't matter as long as you get quality content, which Black & White certainly delivers.After completing the first gold story scroll, which is Black and White's way of advancing the plot, you get to choose your creature. The creature is probably the best part of the game. The creature is at first a small, frightened animal but good care and proper teaching would make it into a fine, huge, loyal beast. Improper teaching and care will on the other hand, will give you a lumbering behemoth with the brain the size of a nut. It's true, you can develop your creature into a loyal ally or an idiotic, blundering fool. You can teach your creature miracles. You can teach it to eat villagers and little kids. You can teach your creature to heal the sick, water the fields, put out fires etc.etc. In fact, your creature can be taught everything you do and mimic your every action. It's because of these factors that you get so attached to your creature. You start thinking of the creature as your other, virtual pet. This is the depth of Black and White.
The sound in Black & White is as good as the graphics. The music is quite good and contemplates the nature of the game. The sound of thunder after you cast a storm miracle or the screams of frightened villagers hit by lightening is extremely pleasing. The voiceovers are nice too. I particularly like the voice of the evil conscience. All in all, Black & White has great sound effects.
Unfortunately, Black & White isn't without its flaws. The game is quite buggy. I could write down at least 20 bugs right here, but why waste the space. But most of these bugs have been corrected by a patch, which you can find at any black and white site (my recommendation would be www.bandwzone.com or www.planetblackandwhite.com). Also, the biggest issue is the amount of micro-management needed for running villages. Your villagers will never construct buildings by themselves. You have to spoon-feed them. The villagers are ultra stupid to say the least. Even your worshippers at the worship site need a lot of micro management. You have to constantly feed them and heal them occasionally. Failure to do so results in your followers' death and your alignment takes a nosedive straight towards evil.
You will have to constantly baby-sit your villagers, which means that you will have less time for your creature. This takes the fun away from the game since the creature is the best part of the game. The abundance of sandbox mode maps on the Internet only proves this fact further.
Another issue is the steep learning curve and the amount of attention and time required to play this game. Casual players will be bogged down by the amount of micro-management. I wonder why Lionhead forgot to put a "Warning: not for newbies and casual players" sign on the game box.
The steep learning curve, the micro-management and your idiotic villagers make it impossible to play this game as good. Often you will get so frustrated that you will probably kill your villagers, sacrifice them or feed them to your creature (which is much more fun than playing as good). All these issues aside, Black and White is still a highly enjoyable, a highly creative, and a revolutionary game, which is recommended to anyone who enjoys and appreciates perfection. It's as good as a strategy game can get.
Rating: 
Summary: Good luck getting it to work
Review: This game was a huge disappointment. I have no idea what it's like to play because at about 10 minutes into it, everything froze and it had to be reinstalled. The patches were no help. You'd think for the price, the designers would have made sure all of the bugs were worked out. I'll never buy another game designed by this company. What a shame...it could have been fun.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best computer games of all time
Review: Black and White is incredible. ... It is very hard to get a 9 or 10 on the site unless the game is far and away unbelievable. To date, Black and White still remains at the top of the PC Games reviews with a 9.7!!! ... I have owned this game since its release and have spent lots of time and energy making my "god" and "creature" exactly the way I want them. There's hardly anything in this game that you cannot do. Missions flood the game: sub-games, silver scrolls, puzzles, not to mention building your creature's mind with miracles you want him to know and do things you want him to do. The creature will learn from you. If you slap him after he eats a guy, he will learn, if you stroke him and say nice boy, he gets that evil gleem in his eye and it is rather fun. Plus, as if thats not enough, the game is basically "The Sims" plus more functionality. You control your people and the idea is to please them so that they worship you more. Which means you must take care of them. Listen to them, they are your power. But this game. But it now. And clear your schedule for the next 6 months. You will be glued to your computer.
Rating:
Summary: Simulation, not fun
Review: There is no gameplay. Also the bugs make it nearly unplayable. It would be a nice simulation, except that it really doesn't do anything after a few minutes. Zero stars for this one, sorry.
Rating:
Summary: Get This!
Review: This game is no role playing game you play as god , you control your villages fate but beware the enemey god nemis is lurking around trying to be the only god. You can chosse to follow the evil path or good path to learn more I'll give you three sites to go to for downloads and info: planetblackandwhite.com,bwcenter.com,or bwgames.com. These are really good sites to learn about black and white and the two new black and whites coming out. But also to get rid of curtain bugs download the black and white pacth version 1.1
Rating: 
Summary: Fun, but semi-repetitive
Review: "Black and White" is a good game overall. You start out as a god who gets to control a creature to carry out tasks to the island you control. The people build things for you and worship you. The fun comes when you can be a good god or evil god, depending on your actions. Thi game is fun, but you'll probably forget about it in a couple months.
Rating:
Summary: Frustrating and Monotonous
Review: This game has many serious flaws which ultimately make it unplayable. What it comes down to is that the villagers are too stupid to take care of themselves, which makes it impossible to create a self-sustaining village. Therefore you have to spend enourmous amounts of time telling the villagers to do basic things like chop down trees, harvest grain, and reproduce. That's right. They won't reproduce unless you tell them to, which means that you must constantly match boys and girls together to keep the village from dying out. This distracts you from doing fun and interesting things, like training your creature to seek out and destroy the enemy. After 50+ hours playing this game and still feeling like I was getting nowhere, I gave up in frustration.
Rating:
Summary: I loved it but . . .
Review: This game was challenging, rewarding, original, and most importantly fun. I really enjoyed my creature, and working with him. After a while my villagers did become fairly annoying, but that was part of the challenge. However, I made it pretty well through world 4 before the game completely froze. I was operating well above the system requirements, but every time I loaded the game it would be frozen at my creature that couldn't move. Not wanting to start over, I unloaded the game. It truly is worth playing, just be sure you have a really nice machine.
Rating:
Summary: Black & White rules above all
Review: This is the most visually stunning game I've ever seen, and I have played in excess of 200 games, so thats saying something. The creatures are wonderfully portrayed at all sizes and the miracles are well, just plain stunning. The camera view can be a little annoying at first, but its learning curve is not very steep, maybe an hour and a half and you'll have it mastered. But above all else is the combonation of the (in my opinion) two best genres of computer games: Real Time Strategy, and Role Playing Game. The only major flaw in Black & White is that when you throw stuff, it doesn't always hit the intended target, but that can be easily corrected with some practice. Also, the insertion of the "Miracles" is a wonderful idea as it allows you to actually become part of the game temorarily. I say, if you like RTSs and you like RPGs, shell out the 20 bucks and buy Black & White. So to quote PCGamer "Buy it, Play it, Enjoy it, your welcome."
Rating:
Summary: unique
Review: I loved this game. I first played it in france and I thought they didn't sell it here, but when I found I was so excited and I bought it and it was so much fun. The only thing I don't like is slapping the animal. I seriously had to close my eyes I thought it was so mean. But other than that the graphics are great (besides in the people) The "god" play is so much fun, and being bad, is just plain evil.
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