Introduction
Back in the now distant year of 2001, gamers were drawn closer to God than perhaps ever before with the release of Black & White from Lionhead Studios. It was released following the continued popularity of "God Sim" games that had seen continued success over a prolonged period of time, from games as far back as 1989 in the form of Populous for the PC, as well as multiple other formats.
Black & White was initially intended to bring the God Sim into the 21st Century, with a grander sense of scale, understanding and care entwined within every aspect of gameplay. This was physically and evidentially apparent with the introduction of the God's creature. A colossus in the form of a Tiger, or Cow, if you're that way inclined, to bring about God's will in the form of flesh and bone. Our will made manifest.
This thoughtful aspect of creature power, and creature care, became both the calling card and the backbone of the Black & White series. It is ultimately what truly separated Black & White from the crowd, especially that of The God Sims. It wasn't strategy, it wasn't simulation, it wasn't roleplaying. For all it's shades of grey, we could all agree that it was simply Black & White.
Playing God
Black & White, not unlike many other games at the time and certainly since, held a sense of moral guidance within every action and interaction you made within the game. From the destruction of entire cities by way of raining fire, to the simple watering of fields with the gentle godly act of soft rain, everything was noted by your followers, your creature and even other gods!
Where your moral chart was evident was in your loyal and faithful creature who, as stated earlier, acts as a physical embodiment of our will. If your mighty pet observes you throwing villagers against a cliff at break-neck speed for fun, then don't be overly surprised if you witness him partaking of very similar pleasures. That is, if he doesn't find out that your worshippers actually taste quite pleasant first!
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| The Effect of Godly Interaction: A Horse Tainted by Evil (Left) and Good (Right) |
The most poetic, and perhaps obvious, way I can describe the "feel" of Black & White is that of throwing a pebble in the water and watching the ripples move outward. Bouncing off every reed and resting at every shore. Even the smallest of actions that you take are noted and remembered, if not by your villagers then by your creature, if not by your creature then by your moral companions. You cannot escape your actions and the weight and responsibility that comes with them.
It is also perhaps the only game, aside from Metal Gear Solid V, that, to me at least, made me change my entire playstyle and make amends for my past actions simply by presenting me, in a truthful and unmolested way, with the repercussions of how I had behaved. I simply couldn't stand looking at my creature, a huge hulking Tiger, bent, crooked, bruised and tortured by the corruption of a life lived in the lap of evil.
It was more than enough for me to decide that I had to act as a God should, with the gentle outstretched hand and not the iron fist and the real power of this change of heart lied in the fact that it was for a reason greater than myself. Greater than a god. It was for my beloved creature. My companion. My pet. For he didn't deserve to suffer.
On the 7th of March 2016 Lionhead Studios was dissolved and with it's dissolution we saw the last glimmers of hope of another Black & White game, or potential remaster of the first entry, come to a definitive end.
God Is Dead
The famous words uttered by Friedrich Nietzsche, "God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him..." ring sorrowfully true in the case of Black & White and perhaps for God Sims as a whole. Times have changed dramatically and it seems it's not only within our collective realities that God seems to be absent, our video games too, also seem to be without the interactions of the divine and the graceful hand of God.
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