Will you be an evil or benevolent deity? From the creative mind of God game developer Peter Molyneux comes Black & White 2. In this strategy sequel, you reprise your role as a powerful deity in search of a following and return to the once idyllic world of Eden, where the discovery of weaponry and warfare has tainted the beautiful landscape. With the help of your gigantic creature that you raise from infancy, you must earn the respect and worship of the natives. How you choose to do that, whether through nurturing them or terrorising them, is up to you.

The player will have many choices to make in Black & White 2. Once you and your creature have convinced the people that you are a God, you then have to decide if you are going to care for your believers, building them huge cities that are beautiful and safe, or if are you going to rule the land causing death and destruction by leading vast armies into battle.

You have a creature to do your bidding and train as you will, and you may rule over your people as you wish. This evolved creature can help you nurture their communities grow into huge, towering cities. Or you may use death, suffering, and fear. The creature has been massively advanced since the original Black & White, and now has a vital role as a military leader and command unit. He can learn strategies, lead armies into battle, and is the ultimate battlefield weapon himself, armed with many powerful new attacking and shielding Miracles.

Other strategy games can give you control of armies, countries and even whole planets but there’s only one that actually puts in the role of a god. Black & White 2 is the latest game from Peter Molyneux, creator of classics such as Populous and Dungeon Keeper, and once again it casts you as a god who draws power from the faith of your subjects in order to manipulate the world around you using various natural phenomena like lightning strikes and earthquakes.

The original Black & White was criticised for lacking structure and direction and for fumbling one of its key features: the gigantic AI-controlled monster that worked as your corporeal representative in the game world. For this sequel though all these problems have been solved and the creature is now far more intelligent and able to work a lot more autonomously, although you will still be able to train him in specific tasks – such as leading an army or constructing buildings.

The rather aimless structure of the first game has also been drastically improved upon, with a proper campaign mode with specific objectives. One area the original game never disappointed inn was the graphics, but Black & White 2 looks even more amazing than before, with hundreds of humans on screen at a time and amazing attention to detail such as your creature’s fur becoming matted and damp in the rain. One of the most ambitious strategy games ever created, for fans of the genre this is manna from heaven. --David Jenkins