Black & White, Peter Molyneux's next game, has been in development for several years now, and this year marked its third public showing at the exposition. Indeed, Molyneux all but said that the game would be ready to ship sometime in late September, less than five months away - so it's safe to say that the game is nearly done.

But will Black & White be good? We had some doubts in the past because in general, lofty designs can lead to precipitous falls. Granted, Black & White represented a lot of great ideas from the beginning, but how would these ideas come together? Recently, we were shown exactly how these many parts would add up to a game that was bigger than the sum of its parts. Black & White has strategy elements akin to Populous, as you manipulate the environment and control the lives of worshippers. You begin as a fledgling god, with a small village before you. Your only representation in the world is a disembodied hand. But with this hand you can manipulate the game world to either help or harm your worshippers. Clear out trees with the swipe of a hand, move boulders, even pick up and juggle villagers. Do good deeds and your people will love you. Do evil deeds, and the people will fear you. Either way, you gain power through their worship. With this power, you gain new spells.

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There is an intricate spell system in the game that rewards you for mastering its gesturing system. Draw a circle with the fireball spell before releasing it, and you'll fire off three balls. Outline a pentagram, and you will achieve the ultimate fire spell, a veritable wave of flame. There are dozens upon dozens of spells, and each can become more grand and impressive with the gesture system. With these spells, you can heal your people, or oppress them. You can also use them to battle other players in multiplayer games. However, even these two complex gameplay mechanics are not the core of the game.

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Black & White certainly looks like a god game, but it also has a huge virtual-life component. In fact, it has always appeared as though the virtual life - the Titans - was the central element of the game. These Titans are anthropomorphic animals that you rear by example. They may become towering paragons of virtue or wicked incarnations of tyranny. Kill villagers capriciously, and your Titan will begin tearing into the houses of villagers with as much evil abandon as you taught it. Heal and help your villagers, and your Titan will become a roving good Samaritan. These Titans, which you gain in the beginning of the game after completing a quest, start small but grow and learn. Your every action influences them, and so you will in many ways play the role of parent, in addition to a god.

Despite the game's many strategic and virtual-life elements, Molyneux holds fast to his claim that this game is a role-playing game - it's just that you play the role of a god. The world of Black & White seems to have been created solely to facilitate this gameplay. There is a wide range of actions you can take to manipulate the world, your people, and your Titan, as you evolve from a small god into the supreme spiritual and temporal power of the game world. With a quest system that offers more than a hundred different events for you to encounter, Black & White presents many challenges for you to overcome. And how you tackle those issues, as a good or evil person, will affect the outcome of your entire game - the world, the subsequent quests, your Titan, and more.
 

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