Black and White: Difference between revisions

A [[Simulation Game]] released by Peter Molyneux's Lionhead Studio in 2001. Sequel released in 2005. Much like the rest of Molyneux's offerings, this game scored superbly with mainstream critics, sold well [[Hype Backlash|and left an awful lot of gamers cold when they got their hands on it.]] The core concept of the game has you taking on the role of a god, represented by a disembodied hand, ruling over various tribes on various islands. You can pick things up and move them around, and cast miracles by [[Symbol-Drawing Interface|making gestures with the mouse]]. You also eventually acquire a Creature, a somewhat autonomous giant animal that can learn various tasks and spells from you.

 

 

And it is ''so'' [[Good Is Impotent|hard to be good.]]

 

 

The sequel, ''Black & White 2'', added a significant wargame element where players could decide if they wanted to be defensive or offensive rulers, defending their cities from oncoming attacks or taking the invading armies head-on, in lieu of the usual god-game elements. The sequel also addressed many of the most vocal complaints about its predecessor, such as the unwieldy building interface.

* [[But Thou Must!]]: Used numerous times in the tutorial, of both games. "[[Most Annoying Sound|No, let's try rotating first.]]"

* [[Can Not Tell a Lie]]: Explicitly stated in the manual - each adviser will try to persuade you to take a good or evil path, but they'll never deceive you in order to do so.

* [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard]]: Though for the most part the AI does play fair, barring scripted events, the one thing it absolutely cheats at is reaching past its influence. Each god has a sphere of influence determining how far they can reach. You can reach slightly further than that for a limited time, which is determined by how far away you try to reach. The computer can do this with precision no human could ever possibly match, across distances that are outright absurd (as in "can reach your temple across the map" absurd). The only thing that stops it from being a game breaker is the fact that the AI only ever does this to grab trees, but even that can be severely debilitating to your work.

** In the sequel, you can do the Burning Tree Trick <ref> Set a tree on fire, pick it up, then hold it over a building. Even in your hand, the game considers the tree a fire source, and will thus burn buildings.</ref> to take out enemy Wonders before they are charged enough enough to fire off their destructive Epic Miracles. In the game's final land, however, {{spoiler|the Volcano Miracle the Aztecs fire off, destroying most of your initial city is scripted}}, and the AI can fire it off even if the respective building is destroyed.

* [[Dummied Out]]: An [[Easter Egg]] that causes [[Doctor Who|phone booths]] to appear, but that don't do anything else.

** It was possible to play the audio files for the first game independantly, which revealed quite a lot of bits that never wound up in the final version of the game. For example, some sort of fountain of youth mishap that caused all your worshippers to become kids, some bits about collecting types of Creeds that didn't exist, and so on.

* [[Earn Your Happy Ending|Earn Your Good Alignment]] : As noted elsewhere, it's ''hard'' to be Good, and you'll have to work at it. It isn't impossible, though.

** Averted, again, in the sequel. Being good is by far the easiest (to the point where a [[Self-Imposed Challenge|self imposed challenge]] is to play as an evil god!

** Moreso in Black and White 2 as you can (and usually will) surround your dark land with imposing walls and black gates that would make Sauron proud.

* [[Pet Interface]]: Your Creature.

* [[Revive Kills Zombie]]: In the Black and White 2 expansion, performing a life miracle on undead characters will kill them.

* [[Satan Is Good]] (or [[Insane Troll Logic]]): If you become an evil deity, {{spoiler|Nemesis is the embodiment of Good, despite having killed all other Gods, cursed an island with disasters, and did things that don't seem that Good.}}

* [[Simulation Game]]

* [[Video Game Cruelty Potential]]: Incredible.

** A few examples (second game): Force people to live in cramped hovels, throw them into buildings, crush them with rocks, Roast them with lightning, or a fireball, offer no luxuries and keep them absolutely miserable, sacrifice them for mana, sacrifice them in a torture pit for no real reason, litter the ground with corpses, causes people to openly mourn, have your creature actively eat your people for sustenance, use them as weapons, set them on fire, poo on them, attack their homes. A bit more severe is the fact you can display severed heads on spikes everywhere, intimidating your people to work harder, or you will kill them, make them worship a giant monument to cause large scale devastation, pick up 50 of them and throw them all off a cliff into the ocean, where they drown, force them into the army, where they will probably all die and generally make their life suck. All of this is actually pretty fun to do, but your villagers will [[Most Annoying Sound|beg for mercy for like 10 minutes.]]

* [[You Will Be Assimilated]]: Partially invoked in the first game, where dropping people into a specific village made them change their clothes to fit the village. Played perfectly straight in the second, however, where the immigrants will maintain their own clothes but otherwise adopt the Greek civilization as their own - to the point where having their original civilization's buildings will cause serious unhappiness and makes you more evil!

* [[Walking Wasteland]]: Your creature corrupts the ground if it is evil.