Black and White 2 - Battle of the Gods

[Skwee]

Anyone else think this game (BW2 on its own too) was a MASSIVE waste of potential?
Lionhead always make the press release MASSIVE, and when the games come out they have nice ideas and are good games, dont get me wrong, but (and this may be the evil EA's fault here) their games just feel half finished!

Like the vanilla Black and White 2. First couple of islands - detailed, lots of side quests, lots of little details that make Lionhead so good. BUT. last island - only ONE bloody scroll to do (and thats the main objective), NO side quests at ALL, hardly ANY villages, and a pretty boring map.

For Battle of the Gods they could have listened to the community and made the game a whole lot better - they had a gaping opportunity, but once again they blew it.
A sandbox mode for instace. Nearly everyone who has played this game has wished for a sandbox mode. How difficult would it honestly be to implement? I mean, sure, the islands are pretty detailed, so random maps may be too far, but a free mode? Whats the problem with putting that in, really?

The game is good; its probably the most intuitive UI (excluding the original BW that started it) out there, and city building is fun until youve exhausted the options. The problem is, the game is not GREAT. Combat doesn't have strategy to it so much as 'send your beefed up creature, a mass of men and throw fireballs and rocks', and it would be nice to start as someone other than the bloody Greeks.

Lionhead, while making a solid game, have once again talked the talk but not managed to walk the walk. The expansion could have fixed the game, but its just added a few new miracles, buildings and a new single player campaign (that is more fun than the original, to be fair, although too short.)

Any other views on this, cause I know the expansion didn't really sell all that well.

[Dr Phil]

i agree the last island is a let down.

[MasterMoogle]

I thought that they kind of ruined Black and White with the sequel. They have an obsession with making every game fit into 'genre'. The original Black and White wasn't really a strongly competitive game, and didn't have the standard RTS 'build a base and attack' format, so they 'streamlined' it and made it a strange mix of Total War and RTS.

[Skwee]

But, city building is quite fun if you have enough things to do. The combat thing has just been underworked.

And it would be nice playing as someone other than the Greeks.

[Pickle Face]

Black and White 2 was addictive, although I never did play the first one the second one sucked you into it as if you HAD to play it for the time being. I mean, it wasn't an amazing had-to-buy kinda game, but the graphics and storyline were pretty fair.

Sandbox Mode: I really hope they make a third and add Sandbox Mode to the game. I hate games where you cant go around and just do whatever the heck you want. I like The Sims 2 and Grand Theft Auto because you can do whatever and still follow a storyline, and they both have pretty good graphics.

Anyways, BW2 was a good game graphics-wise but options-wise it was garbage.