Balck & White 2 has gone alpha

Boltzmann said:

I never played the first Black & White, and never heard many good things about it... Let us see if this one fares better...

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om3gablue said:

It's about time! I've been waiting for this for a long time. Glad to see that it looks like it'll finally make it.

Is that a werewolf in the 3rd shot? It looks like the little guys are in a battle under him. I don't know what I like more, the werewolf or the little guys dressed Gladiator style going at it.

That makes 2 pc games to get this year. This and Fable. I just realized that PM is behind it, kinda worried now...

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Molyneux began his presentation by introducing Ron Millar, who joined the Lionhead team about a year ago. Millar, who is spearheading development of B&W2, has the perfect RTS pedigree, having worked at Blizzard on the Warcraft series and StarCraft. Molyneux said their marriage had a rocky beginning as they immediately began to say rather unflattering things about each other's games. However, from the discord, the two pulled out what they both disliked about the RTS genre and vowed to fix it in the current game.

Black & White 2 appears to be moving from "the god game with RTS elements" form of the original to an RTS with god-game elements, with more emphasis on RTS.

"I want big armies that give me the feelings that I can go out a really dominate and conquer," he said. "I want a physics engine that deforms buildings in a different way each time. I want to build a base with some strategy behind it and not because it has to be built in a certain location. We think we've created an innovative system for city building that allows players to build a unique city each time, and they can defend that city in different ways each time.".
"RTSs need simulation and a feeling that the base is a city full of life," Molyneux said. "No two cities will ever be the same." "We are going to create the best RTS game ever made," Molyneux said. "I know I'm laying my reputation on the line, but I don't care. This will redefine the genre.

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Didn't he learn from his Fable apology to fans, making verbal amends for not having everything that was talked about early on actually in the final game? The difference this time appears to be that his promises of gameplay elements are already in the game. We can attest to it. We saw it. And good stuff we got: huge armies rampaging across the countryside, massive city sieges, enormous creatures stomping on squads of soldiers, Godlike magic... Fire! Chaos! Screaming! Sex! Blood! All in a day's work when you run the world.

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kuaikukia said:

I think Molyneux is on the right this time. Here's another good one from gamespy.

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from gamespy staff said:

Over the years we've taken several close looks at the sequel to Black & White (see our most recent preview), so this time around when we sat down with Peter Molyneux to take a look at his strategy/God game.

Molyneux started the demo by busting out some massive armies. Recruiting in Black & White 2 is easy: you simply drag a flag from your barracks and plant it on the ground. Afterwards, you select an army size by drawing a large or small circle. Gradually, villagers will gather at the flag, dress up in their culture-specific army uniforms, and form up in a battle line. You can choose who to recruit by the way you position your flag, so if you plant it in a field of farmers those guys will be the first to set down their shovels and rush to join the military.

Interestingly, if your city has many different cultures living within it, your army will consist of mixed units. For example, our city had a large Norse community living there because they'd recently defected, so the army that formed around our flag was a mix of our own Greco-Roman soldiers and Vikings dressed in fur. Rawr!

One of the most important factors for any army is experience. If your guys have been soldiers for a long time and they've fought in several battles, then they'll be way better in combat than your freshly-recruited farmer: They'll have better equipment, they'll move faster, they'll stay in formation longer and everything.

Combat is a matter of simply dragging a "leash" around, telling your troops where to go. You have Godlike powers, but only within your range of influence (an area around your home city), so soldiers are one of the few ways to project your power beyond your walls. Watching armies clash is amazing. The engine can render thousands of individual guys, so things get pretty brutal on the battlefield.

POST 20 May 2005

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