Black and White

“If I was God, I would.”

The ‘god-game’ genre, in which players build cities and civilizations, is in no way new - but never before has it been taken so literally. Black & White allowed you to play god, actually to play as a god, striving to gain followers and defeat the other gods in competition with you. It was a unique and remarkably ambitious project which only partially justified its hype.
However the original idea has now been reworked and refined into a game which keeps the same precept but includes many major changes and improvements in gameplay. But can a game really teach us anything about godhood?

First things first, this game is stunningly beautiful. Each of the lands you strive to win over is rendered in immaculate detail, and the new engine is so robust that you can observe ants crawling among blades of grass and then zoom out to see the entire island - all smoothly and seamlessly and in a matter of seconds. In technological terms, Black & White 2 is a triumph and the artists at Lionhead have put the engine to extraordinary use. What other game allows you to reach up with your hand and pull the sun across the sky to bring on nightfall?

In the world of Black & White, there are four races: The Greeks, the Aztecs, the Norse and the Japanese. The story begins as the Aztecs invade the Greek homeland and begin a terrible slaughter, causing some Greek citizens to pray - an act which triggers the creation of a new god. As this new god you are charged with stewardship of the Greek survivors, and are destined to restore them to greatness. How you do that, however, is largely up to you. You can win lands over by raising an army and conquering each settlement, or you make your own city so impressive that everyone else will flock to join your nation. You’ll probably find yourself trying both strategies throughout the game, but you will never be forced to choose one course over the other. It is an excellent blend of City-building and Real-time strategy which could appeal to many players.

Your presence in the game is as a disembodied hand hovering over the landscape. The streamlined and intuitive interface (significantly improved from the previous game) lets you accomplish almost any task with just your hand. You can pick up objects, place them, throw them, break them etc. Boulders can be hurled at walls to smash them down, and trees can be replanted nearer to your city to make your foresters’ lives easier. The game has a deep and complex world engine which creates a wonderfully rich environment for the player to experiment with.

Every time you do something in the world, the word ‘good’ or ‘evil’ will appear above your hand to indicate the morality of your last action. This is where the title ‘Black & White’ comes from, as over time your actions will illustrate whether you are a good or evil entity. If you provide your followers with a beautiful city and plenty of food, and if you win over the opposition by impressing and wooing them, then your alignment will shift towards ‘good’. As a good god, your cities will start to radiate with glory, flowers will blossom in your fields and your followers will bounce merrily to and from their chores. However if you wage war, dominate your followers through fear and keep them in appalling living conditions, then your alignment will shift towards evil and the ground will start to crack, plants will die and the sounds of wailing will haunt your city.

This system is both intriguing and rewarding, but not without its limitations when it comes to understanding morality in a broader sense. In Black & White 2 it is possible to be regarded as a good god as long as you do enough good deeds to cover up your evil deeds. By this reasoning it is alright to set some of your followers on fire and to crush their homes with boulders, as long as you then go and build lots of pretty fountains for the survivors to enjoy. It is a morality where deliberate and malicious acts of evil can be overlooked in favour of good deeds - and it is sadly indicative of the values of Western Society where most people would say “I’m not perfect, but I’m good enough.”

In the Bible, however, we meet a God who is perfect, and who does not allow evil to go unpunished. A God who is not dependant on his followers, but who is all-powerful and extraordinarily generous with that power.

As a game Black & White 2 is successful: there is much fun to be had and it has overcome nearly all of the faults of its predecessor. As an examination of divinity, however, it reinforces the point that it is probably a very good thing that we are not gods.

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