Black & White 2
Black & White 2
Sorti le 7 octobre 2005 sur PC (Microsoft Windows) et Mac, Black & White 2 est développé par Lionhead Studios et Robosoft Technologies, puis édité par Electronic Arts et Feral Interactive. Le titre s'inscrit à la croisée de plusieurs genres, mêlant aventure, simulation, stratégie, jeu de rôle et stratégie en temps réel.
Le joueur y incarne une divinité invoquée depuis le néant par une « prière pure » pour venir en aide à ses fidèles. Contrairement à une entité omnipotente, ce dieu voit sa puissance fluctuer en fonction de ses croyants et doit guider leur développement selon des penchants bons ou mauvais. Une créature, représentation physique du joueur dans le monde, accompagne cette démarche : elle prend la forme d'un singe anthropomorphe, d'un lion, d'un loup, d'une tortue, d'une vache ou d'un tigre, peut atteindre une taille immense et développe sa propre personnalité morale, distincte de celle du joueur, à travers un système de récompenses et de punitions. Aux éléments de simulation divine et de construction de cités hérités du premier opus s'ajoutent des mécaniques de stratégie en temps réel, notamment la gestion d'unités de combat contrôlables et la guerre.
L'intrigue débute par la destruction d'une cité grecque par une vaste armée aztèque. Après avoir sauvé un nombre suffisant d'habitants, le joueur est transporté dans une nouvelle contrée avec un groupe de réfugiés et doit y reconstruire une base de pouvoir pour vaincre l'empire aztèque. La campagne impose de soumettre les civilisations nordique, japonaise et aztèque, soit par la paix, soit par la force, le tout sous l'égide d'une prophétie annonçant qu'une tribu détruite par la plus grande puissance mondiale recevra un dieu qui la mènera à la gloire et à la domination.
Côté accueil, le jeu obtient une note moyenne de 75 sur Metacritic et un score agrégé de 74,68. La presse spécialisée a globalement salué la proposition : AceGamez y voit un « triomphe éclatant » qui rend la guerre amusante et la construction aisée, tandis que Gamer 2.0 juge l'expérience « encore plus unique, plus jouable et plus attachante » que son prédécesseur. Du côté des joueurs, les avis sont plus partagés. Certains apprécient le « mélange unique de stratégie, de construction de cités et de mécaniques de jeu de dieu » porté par un monde charmant et un système de créature impressionnant. D'autres regrettent en revanche que l'orientation vers les éléments de stratégie en temps réel et la guerre humaine se fasse au détriment des créatures et des pouvoirs divins, estimant que le titre « sacrifie trop de l'âme de la franchise ».
Le titre intègre la protection SafeDisc. Pour en voir le bout, il faut compter environ treize heures pour l'histoire principale et dix-neuf heures pour une complétion à cent pour cent.
Médias
Avis des critiques et joueurs
Critiques de la Presse (Metacritic)
« A shining triumph that looks and sounds as fantastic as it plays. It makes war fun, city building easy and your social life non-existent; but let's face it, do you really need friends when you're God? »
« Black & White 2 is even more unique, more playable, more endearing than its antecedent, and so full of provocative moments that you may find it difficult to tear yourself away. »
« With this effort, there's no doubt that Molyneux and his team have succeeded in surpassing their original efforts. Black & White 2 is a work of art, beautiful in both its stunning visuals and genius gameplay. [PC Zone] »
« There's a hell of a lot to do and it often feels daunting - like a big cross between Sim City and Total War. But it's well worth having a go if you think you're man - sorry, god - enough. [GamesMaster] »
« After countless days of sacrificing sleep to squeeze in a few more hours before finally taking a rest I can safely say it’s quite an addictive force once you get settled in. »
« The scope of this game is huge and there is so much to do it is baffling. »
« The game still suffers in gameplay because you’ve got to micromanage your population, telling people to go forth and do things one at a time, but at least your metropolis gets to be inhabited by a populous and intriguing people. »
« The greatly improved presentation is top-notch, sealing the game up very well. »
Avis des Joueurs (Metacritic)
« Black & White 2 offers a unique blend of strategy, city building, and god-game mechanics with a charming world and impressive creature system. While its ideas are creative and ambitious, repetitive objectives and limited depth prevent it from reaching its full potential. A fun and memorable experience with some great concepts. »
« In leaning away from the creatures and god powers in favor of human warfare RTS elements, it sacrifices too much of the soul of the franchise and ends up feeling underwhelming and unfinished. »
« Really pleasant game, I love it as a kid. I have re-played it quite recently, and it was still a lot of fun! »
« Unfortunately it's an average game that doesn't even comes close to the previous title. »
« Much better than the predecessor, but still an average game. The graphics are fine, and the gameplay is OK, but there is no much depth to it. »
« What a let down after the great first game, looking back at it now that I see the EA logo on the cover, I understand why. »
« In comparison to the original game, this follow up feels simplified. Sometimes it's for a good cause, but it often feels like content has been ripped away rather than refined. The graphics are stunning, even today. But the game feels like a cheap RTS with uninspiring gameplay. You may take over villages by impressing them (this is the good way), and you do this by hoarding up a bunch of stuff in your starting village. It's unclear whether a lot of the stuff actually has any function besides looking pwetty and cranking up your impressiveness-meter. To unlock such things, you'll have to buy them through tribute. Tribute are earned by doing different "quests", which seems more like boring achievements. Such as building 10 houses, getting your creature to harvest 5000 grain, or taking over two towns. You may also earn tribute through silver scroll quests, that are a lot like the one's from the original game; where you have to go through small challenges such as solving puzzles or just throwing barrels from island to island. Even though the structure are the same as in the original, the quests feels a lot more shallow as your reward will always be tribute. You'll never be surprised by getting a silly beach ball or a new pet. In some levels throughout the game, the tribute thing may become a problem. Either you'll get bored, as you've unlocked everything early on; or you'll find a level impossible to win as you haven't unlocked enough stuff; while the opponent is about to build an epic wonder that'll be more or less an instant win. It'll then be very tedious having to restart a map that you've played for hours. The creature aspect is another thing that has gotten revamped. You may choose from 4 pets at the very beginning of the game with no particular quest leading up to it. Then you'll be stuck with the same pet throughout the game, as there's no other ones to be earned. Your pet is easier to teach, as he will have a much clearer thought bubble over his head about exactly what you may praise or scold him about. You can also go back to any learned behavior via some menu clicks to re-scold or praise him again, should you change your mind. It becomes clear early on that the scold and praise thing is more of an on/off thing, than just directions. This makes the pet a lot easier to maintain, but it will also feel less like a pet, and more like a robot. If you want to play as an evil god, you may take towns by force. This is done by creating soldiers, and may be combined with having your creature help out. The system will sometimes make things a bit too easy, as neutral towns rarely pose any challenge. The enemy towns tend to have an extreme amount of soldiers from the beginning though while you have to wait for the breeders to give you new men; making your small legions useless if you aren't stashing up heaps of them during a long time. The creature cannot take over towns just kill enemy troops and buildings; and as the influence system has been replaced with the impressiveness system, there's seldom any point in bringing the creature over to an enemy's town for other reasons than fighting. Lastly, the tribute system also covers for the miracles and the skills of your pets. You will have to buy your miracles, as well as your creatures miracles; instead of teaching him them. You will also have to buy functions such as hand gestures and the possibility to force your hand through the influence radar; all through some uninteresting menus with boring descriptions. Black and White 2 obviously aims to ease things for the player, making the system clearer and refined. But it comes off as shallow and uninspiring, and more of a regular strategy game instead **** simulator. It's an okay game, but as the concept holds so much capacity; I must say I'm a bit disappointed. »
« Peter Molyneux really oversells a game and its "innovations" doesn't he? IGN quoted it as almost a game for non gamers and that's the biggest problem. Neither casual or hardcore fans are gonna enjoy it that much. Controlling your population/ civic stats and also troops for that matter, is a chore. The game makes it difficult to micro manage your troops and this will be a let down to hardcore rts players. But casuals are also not gonna enjoy it much because if without proper management of troops, resources and buildings (all of thing made hard by the design of the controls by the way) you become weak and vulnerable to enemy attacks. You can jump in the frey and do some of the resource gathering job for your civilization BUT its like a clerical job! I don't play games for that. And the pacing in this game! OMG its so slow! And not that's its supposed to, its because of the "innovative new user interface and experience lionhead is so proud of it'll infuriate any rts player. And finally, your creature control. Yeah, it was fun for a while but in the later levels it became a pain since i was trying to conquer an enemy city and my own creature was creating havoc at home! It quickly becomes into a pet you didn't want! All in all this game is pretentious, thinks too low of its audience and paces itselfs like a snail going forward on a backward conveyor belt. »
