Black & White 2: Battle of Gods Expansion Pack Review
As a fan of Black & White from the beginning, this was something I just had to have. The game plays pretty much like B&W2 except there is definitely a much darker feel to the expansion. A few new very cool miracles, and a few new cool buildings. About the buildings, you must be careful which ones you use as each has either a positive or negative effect on your alignment. For example, the hospital is a structure only a kind and caring god would build for his minions. It inevitably pulls your alignment toward the good and your villagers recover much quicker from fatigue, in turn giving you production boosts.
On the other hand, the abattoir is butcher's shop and helps to pull your alignment towards the darker end of the scale. For some reason the creators of the game felt that killing of animals for food was evil. I didn't get it. But anyway. If you build some of these, be sure to build a few animal pens close by for an unlimited source of meat for them to kill. Also, you must drop a few villagers in there. They will then become disciple butchers. Without butchers, a butcher shop has no production value whatsoever.
And while we are on the evil thing, let's talk about another new building: the blacksmith's. Thankfully, you do not have to drop villagers in a blacksmith shop to have disciple blacksmiths. The cool thing about them is the more you build (up to 10), the greater experience level each new army becomes. If I am playing with a more military approach, I like to build the armories, then go ahead and automatically drop 10 blacksmith foundations. Then each army is spawned with the highest experience rating. Unfortunately for good players, the blacksmith shops have a small draw on your alignment. I have noticed it's not too much to worry about. If you keep building wonderful things like signposts, flagpoles, hospitals, granaries, and dovecotes (a dove house in the middle of a village really helps boost happiness), your alignment will flow toward the good accordingly. But it you need super armies, who really cares about alignment, right?
I loved Black & White, I loved Black & White 2, and Battle of the Gods is the latest to make that very prestigious list. It does only offer three more lands to conquer, and one bonus level which I have yet to figure out how to access. It is well worth the money.
Black & White 2: Battle of Gods Expansion Pack Feature
- Become a nameless god whose very existence depends upon having devoted worshippers
- Go head-to-head against a new undead god, and battle an army of undead skeletons and an undead new creature
- Choose either good or evil, each of which will give you a variety of miracles and bonuses
- Train your creature to do what you want, from fertilizing fields with its manure to knocking down enemy walls
- Battle across new isles against an all new enemy AI using new miracles and new building units as support
Black & White 2: Battle of Gods Expansion Pack Overview
Expansion pack; requires Black and White 2
Black and White 2: Battle Of The Gods takes the player back to the world of Eden to face a host of new challenges in a much darker, more sinister game world. The Aztecs have not accepted defeat lightly -- by making a huge number of human sacrifices, they have managed to raise their own evil deity. Now the player must face this new foe & stop him from taking over the entire world. Call on 4 new miracles to boost your godly campaign Build up your villages - and alter your alignment - with three new player buildings
Black & White 2: Battle of Gods Expansion Pack Specifications
Who, if we are being honest, hasn't wanted to be a god now and again, if only for a little while? Black & White 2: Battle of the Gods once again makes you into a nameless god whose very existence depends upon having devoted worshippers. Predictably, Black & White 2 picks up after the events of the original Black & White. Just when you thought you had gotten Eden under control, the Aztecs raise a new undead god through huge numbers of human sacrifices, complete with an army of undead skeletons and an undead new creature to lead them.
 There are two new creatures to choose from, which brings the total number of creature options to six. View larger. |
 Send your creature into the fray to defeat the enemy god's undead creatures. View larger. |
 Who hasn't wanted to be a god now and again, if only for a little while? View larger. |
The core gameplay in this expansion remains pretty much unchanged from Black & White 2, though you do get a few new islands to battle it out on, some of which are actually huge when compared to those seen in the original. If you still have any old games saved, you can actually import your creature from Black & White 2. But don't fret if you either didn't play or didn't keep any old games on your hard-drive, as this expansion lets both old and new players hit the ground running. First, you select a starting package that is either good or evil, which will give you a variety of miracles and bonuses. You can also elect to start off as neutral and fine-tune your own starting package if you know specifically what kinds of things you want. There are two new creatures to choose from as well, which bring the total number of creature options to six. Whether you import an existing creature or start anew, you'll begin Battle of the Gods with a ton of tribute points that allow you to purchase the buildings and powers you will start with.
It is easy to improve the cities of your followers, as virtually the whole game can be played without messing with the keyboard. The mouse allows you to do pretty much everything, from laying out cities to picking up and dropping citizens around the map. The Battle of the Gods expansion includes a handful of new buildings that add a few more tactical options, such as a blacksmith that can upgrade your soldiers and hospitals, letting you save the manna you would normally spend on healing for use on other miracles. The mouse also allows you to punish or reward your creature for its behavior at the click of a button, so you can quickly train it to do what you want, from fertilizing fields with its manure to knocking down enemy walls.
It's possible in Black & White 2: Battle of the Gods to simply assimilate your enemies' followers peacefully by building a city of such grandeur that they want to defect. However, the sheer size of some of these maps can make this a long and drawn-out process, since you would require such a huge and impressive city. And besides, who really wants to be a completely peaceful and benevolent god? Instead you send your creature into the fray to defeat the enemy god's undead creature and crush the Aztec armies, thereby letting loose the platoons you have been building in order to seize and capture defenseless Aztec towns.
One other change is the addition of more mini-game challenges that you can pursue for additional tribute points, and which let you unlock new buildings and powers. These challenges provide short diversions from the main focus of the game, as you solve puzzles, participate in ice curling, target practice on zombies with lightning bolts, and more. Whether you pursue a peaceful or militaristic approach, you'll find that it'll take you hours of enjoyable gameplay to get through each map, and, especially for those of you who already loved the unique world and gameplay of Black & White 2, that is all that need be said.
Available at Amazon Check Price Now!
*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Nov 02, 2010 23:55:12
0 comments:
Post a Comment