- Publisher: EA Games
- Release Date: Mar 26, 2001
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
It's the sort of game that comes around once every few years and totally changes the gaming landscape.
-
After about 15-25 hours (Depending on the gamer) the game just seems to lose it’s fun factor. Sadly, many games released nowadays don’t even have 15 hours gameplay in them, let alone 15 hours of damn fun gameplay; Black and White does indeed have this.
-
Black & White miraculously pulls you in and doesn't let go until you've sacrificed many hours.
-
I strangely feel a very strong maternal instinct towards my monkey (don't tell my children). I find myself telling him out loud what a good boy he is while rubbing his belly or explaining why I have to spank him.
-
The scope of Black & White is so far in excess of a typical game design that it seems surprising that the finished product turned out so polished and so playable.
-
Spank!It's not the all-encompassing experience of godly power that was suggested. You have to play it in a fairly rigid and organised fashion.
-
Quite simply the most ingenious, addictive and meticulously-crafted and executed computer game of the year thus far.
-
Total Video GamesIf you’d like to keep your friends and job stay clear away from this game, if however you want to get sucked into a game that rarely let’s you leave, then you need to get this game, simple.
-
A truly miraculous "game." I call it a "game" because it's more of an experience.
-
With excellent online play, top-notch graphics, and a musical score that you'll find yourself just listening to, Black and White is a quality game all around.
-
Ground-breaking and very fascinating, but the game is hurt by an overemphasis on micromanagement. Improved village management and some poor level design kept this game from rating higher.
-
It's a brilliant toy but also a jumbled mishmash of original ideas and mundane gameplay that fails to deliver a cohesive single- or multiplayer experience.
-
A stunning achievement.
-
Black & White is one of the games you will remember 10 years from now as a turning curve for PC gaming. Thank you Peter Molyneux and Lionhead Studios, this game has certainly been something fresh and new.
-
To play this is to love it - there is so much to do, so much to learn and so much enjoyment to be had from this that I cannot see anyone failing to like it.
-
Think of this as a cake-baking contest, and Lionhead showed up with a cake mix still in the box. The final quality depends on how you mix it, bake it, and frost it.
-
Parts are a bit problematic, such as the combat, challenges, and village management, but most of what you experience is endlessly fascinating.
-
A heavenly refreshing virtual toy in which to lose oneself for hours on end.
-
PC GamerOne of the most innovative, creative, original, and awe-inspiring PC games ever. [June 2001, p.52]
-
Daily RadarOne of the most compelling, beautiful and impressive pieces of code we have played in a long, long time. It is also insanely addictive.
-
An incredible game that features great AI, music, graphics and story.
-
It has an innovative style, quality design and some elements that have never before been seen in gaming, like the alignment system. It's easily one of the most entertaining games I've played in a long time.
-
While the game is far from perfect -- some may bristle at the constant micromanagement and the often ambiguous objectives you are required to meet -- it is very approachable and addictive, an almost ideal virtual playground in which you can play god.
-
Believe the hype. The new Best Game Ever just rode into town, and it's going to be sticking around for a long time.
-
GamePowerI stand in awe of the vastness of its scope and the inventiveness of its design. However, it takes forever to learn, and one can't help getting frustrated along the way.
-
Mixing elements of empire building, resource management, life simulation, survival and brawling with complex strategies and tactics in a gorgeous fantasy setting seems too good to be true.
-
The musical score is monumental in a sense and it reminds me of that theme song in "Gladiator" - the one which plays during that scene when Maximus is walking through a crop field near his home.
-
GMR MagazineHighly conceptual "god-game" that has you ruling over mortals with a little help from a giant cow-monster. [Feb 2003, p.94]
-
Over the past 12 months, I have played some of the best games ever made and playing Black & White is just pure icing on the cake.
-
Though the plodding pace and cutesy atmosphere border on blasphemy, the game’s open-ended design lets you indulge your most megalomaniacal fantasies with ease.
-
One of the most unique -- and enjoyable -- strategy games we've seen this year.
-
Once I made it past that initial stage of astonishment, I made an unfortunate discovery: the single-player game, as designed, just isn't much fun in the long term.
-
It has a great concept, great innovations, but they should have spent more time refining the gameplay to be more rewarding. City building, fighting, and creature training are all too shallow.
-
Da GameboyzPlain and simple, Black and White is the most engrossing game I've seen in a while.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 258 out of 407
-
Mixed: 127 out of 407
-
Negative: 22 out of 407
-
NicholasS.Feb 23, 2002Totally awesome.
-
Sep 5, 2012
-
Mar 18, 2011