Black & White 2 [PC]

With classics like Populous, Syndicate and Dungeon Keeper under his belt, anything Peter Molyneux comes up with is bound to be highly anticipated. Black & White, his last big PC release, appeared in 2001 to a storm of critical acclaim, but thanks to balance problems and bugs it didn't stand the test of time as well as we all thought it would. Now that Black & White 2 is a few weeks from release, can he live up to our expectations this time?

If you're one of the many players of Black & White, you'll be right at home with Molyneux's new game. You're still a god, manipulating your worshippers and their world by way of a disembodied hand and a towering pet animal. Like before, you're trying to sway the inhabitants of an entire island to follow your godly leadership, while other gods are working to do the same thing.

Some aspects of the gameplay will be familiar, like the look of the world, the Molyneux-trademark idea that your actions change the world's character, and the infamous "creature" - a huge beast that can roam the map, imitating your actions and learning from your behavior. Others are new, like the greatly expanded range of buildings, RTS-like creation of military units, new miracles, and a more complicated resource system.

Quest scrolls still litter the island landscapes, highlighted with sparkly special effects. Their general structure, at least in the early levels, should be familiar to players of the first game. We played one example that involved throwing a keg from island to island, helping a group of brothers brew their special wine - and if you remember the ship-wrecked mariners from B&W 1, you'll smile (or possibly grimace) at the brewers' folksy song of thanks.

Completing these quests, and various other level objectives, rewards you with "tribute" - think of it as money, as it can be spent to buy anything from plans to new buildings to enhanced interface features, new creature skills and extra godly miracle powers. Returning powers include fire and rain spells, but there are plenty of new ones - like the awesome, earth-shattering volcano.

One criticism leveled at the original game was that when punishing your creature for doing something unpleasant, it was often hard to pin down the exact action you were disciplining him for. If you beat him for throwing stones at your buildings, for example, will that also make him less likely to attack enemy ones? B&W 2 gets all these behind-the-scenes mechanics out in the open, so when you discipline or reward your creature, you'll see exactly what you're discouraging or reinforcing, and the precise extent to which you're doing so. This is a great improvement.

You can also choose your creature's role from a list of presets, including builder, soldier, gatherer, entertainer and so on. It's very convenient to give your creature such precise instructions, especially as you can then indicate exactly where you want him to perform that task. Use them too much and your creature will start to lose his free will, eventually just turning into a robot with no spontaneity.

To enlarge your cities, you're still collecting the basic resources of wood, from trees, and food, from fields or cattle. Black & White 2 adds ore, which must be gathered from boulders or subterranean mines. Your creature can be taught to help your villagers with these tasks, yanking out trees by their roots and dropping them into the storehouse without prompting.

How about those new buildings? They're numerous, and mostly need to be purchased with tribute before being built. Resource collection can be improved by adding processing buildings like sawmills or higher-capacity fields. If your settlement is threatened by enemy armies, you'll be interested in the high and imposing walls, towers and gatehouses. Civic buildings like taverns and markets cause your population to appreciate you more, increasing your influence over nearby tribes.

Basic melee troops, archers and siege equipment can be built in various other structures. These all require another resource: men from your cities. You can't keep throwing troops at your enemies, or your settlements will end up like Dr. Phil's demographic - devoid of men altogether.

Your male population takes some time to recover after a heavy defeat, so attrition-type victories are one possibility if you outnumber your enemy. You can also win through cultural domination - constructing enough impressive buildings that neighboring tribes decide they're better off worshipping you. Thanks to the dramatic battle sequences, and the fun of taking a forty-yard high cow into the fray, we'd bet that most players will favor the new warlike path. Hopefully either will be viable alternatives for the less vicious player.

Black & White 2's interface moves away from the original game's famously icon-less approach. A more traditional toolbar holds controls for defining your pet's role, selecting buildings to construct, casting miracles and spending your tribute. Troop movement is a little...strange, requiring somewhat laborious dragging of icons around the map rather than a more traditional interface. RTS stalwarts might find it a bit of a shock.

Still, like the original, it's a stunning game to watch. The Lionhead team has gone overboard with the special effects, daubing the game's world with all manner of eye-popping eye candy. It can still pull off the trademark B&W trick of zooming all the way from an overview of the whole map to a close-up of a single person in a second or two. As for the sound, it's good to hear your angelic and demonic advisors are voiced by the same actors as last time, or their identical twins, at any rate.

Even with its faults, Black & White mustered a significant fanbase. With its sequel, Lionhead has clearly listened to some of the criticisms leveled at it (not all, as the unskippable and lengthy tutorial sequences demonstrate,) but every bit of the Black & White humor and character is still there. Can Lionhead please everybody this time? We'll find out on October 5.