EPT
When Black & White first came out like 6-7 years or so ago maybe it was quite a hit for a couple of reasons. First of all the concept - to be God. Second, the amazing control system- you only needed a mouse to play the game. Well it sounds tempting, but the game never lived up to its huge hype because of the complete lack of dept. To put it simple there wasn't much to do in this game, it was boring. And thats the last thing a "god simulator" should be. The developers tried to spice things up adding some new futures, a couple of creatures, but there was still this odd feeling that you somehow dont play a final product, it all seemed like a demo version to me, I've always expected more...
When B&W 2 came in the stores I bought it right away, without reading any feedback or critics in the net, I just wanted to explore the game on my own. I've actually found the game quite a good fun for the first 4-5 hours or so- they've added some armies and stuff, making the game somewhat full of different options. In the first game the best way to impress the other guy's villagers was to burn some of them with lightning and for that the rest of the village hailed you and loved you... In the second game you could either focus on the annihilation of the other folk, or on developing of your own city.
Sounds good as well, but, then again the combat system was poor, there were only like 2 types of soldiers and even the best platoon was still useless against well combattrained creature. If you decide to build up your city, be good, and therefore impress the other guys ppl, you are struggling to make anything special. I mean there is quite a small space for customization, there are not enough building types, only one type of road, the beatifications like gardens, statues etc. look absolutely dull and boring. You see, after playing for half a day you ask your self: Wtf? The armies are handicapped and boring, so nothing like AoE for example here. The city building is limited as well, so if you expect smth Caeserish or Pharaohnish you will be utterly disappointed. The creature is fun thou to some extend, but just like everything else in this game, it gets boring after 30 mins.
My verdict: This should have been one of the best games ever made. Its full of fresh ideas, the story is not so bad, the gfx are rather cool, the controls are very friendly, the atmosphere in the game is relaxing and unique. But all in all the game is very bad. Not that its terrible or smth, there are a lot of games worse than that, but this one makes the worst crime of all - it disappoints. All the cool ideas are not developed and you really get the feeling Lionhead just rushed to launch the game into selling... Why, ppl? Why not spending half a year or so to complete your hole product, to finalize all wonderful ideas, to create a real nirvana for every gamer, seeking unique and one of a kind gameplay experience?
I could write a hole textwall with my mixed feelings about Fable, but it would be pointless, because the game suffered from the same sickness as B&W. Don't get me wrong I absolutely love the games made by Lionhead studious. But not because they are good. Deep down in myself I believe the game developers in Lionhead are great professionals with amazing ideas and skills. I want to believe that for some odd reasons they just keep sneak peaking and that they are yet to create the perfect game. Playing their stuff is like watching a wonderful drawing halfway done, it seems so amazing but its still not finished.
