Black & White 2: Battle of the Gods [PC]

There are two key components to a kickass game: design and implementation. Peter Molyneux and Lionhead are masters of the first, but have been falling short on the second. Taken as a concept, Black and White 2 is utterly brilliant, yet the final product was less than stellar. After seeing how the team responded to user complaints about the first game we had high hopes that the Battle of the Gods expansion pack would correct many of the issues that plagued the game. Alas, what's here is little more than "more of the same."

After conquering the Aztec hordes and securing your freedom in Black and White 2, it was assumed that you could live in peace and harmony until the end of time. Of course, we all know what happens when you assume, and the Aztecs are a wily bunch. Instead of taking their beating and fading away, they started sacrificing dead bodies in the hopes of attracting a new god. What's that, you say? Gods only like living sacrifices? Guess again. The new Aztec god seems to love dead bodies; so much so that the almighty has fostered an army of the undead. And they're pissed.

Battle of the Gods assumes you have played the original, so the overly long tutorial that plagued the main game is no more. Instead, you are simply presented with a choice between good, custom (i.e. neutral), and evil alignments, and your choice of creature. The ape, lion, wolf, cow, and tiger make a return appearance along with the all-new turtle. If you have a creature you've already trained, you can load it from a Black and White 2 save game.

Choosing an initial alignment determines your starting assets, but otherwise has little effect on gameplay. Much like the base game, it's difficult to play as either good or evil as the logic judges you based on absolute actions rather than overall performance. As a result, many actions have both a good and evil component that cancel each other out. Unless you are an extreme micromanager, expect to end the game with a fairly neutral alignment. Kinda takes the fun out of it.