Gaming gives players the chance to spend time fulfilling their wildest dreams, and perhaps no genre has ever embraced that more than the god game. The games were essentially simulations that allowed players to control the world with amazing powers. One of the most popular of its time was Peter Molyneux's Black & White, which was published by EA. However, the genre slowly faded from popularity, and most of the games became hard to obtain.
Black & White thrust players into the position of a new god of a small island. Players would need to slowly increase their influence via miracles and their creatures. This animal companion was an important aspect, and its design endeared it to players. While the game is, sadly, nearly impossible to access without owning an original disk, developers should consider reviving the series to give a new generation a way to play the game.
The Black & White series has a lot to offer modern gamers, and a full reboot would help improve some of the older game's more glaring issues. Gameplay could remain largely the same, but it would be advantageous to combine elements from both games. The game was build mainly for mouse controls, with the different miracles and spells being cast by drawing symbols with the mouse. The player uses these miracles to slowly expand their sphere of influence.
In the first game, this was mostly done by throwing rocks and fireballs into other areas in an attempt to convince them you exist. Black & White 2 changed this by implementing more combat elements similar to the Total War series, but they were simple in scope. Rebooting the series would allow developers to mix the two styles while making the overall experience deeper.
Modern technology would allow developers to add more complex tactics for the players to use. This could include allowing players to choose to use force, diplomacy or simply miracles to convince other villages to join them. The battles between villages would equally be more spectacular with modern graphics, especially when the animal companion gets involved. This would help to fix one of the issues with the original game, where it became somewhat same-y after while.
One of the most important aspects of the original Black & White was the creature the player chose to accompany them. This creature would start out as a small, weak being, but would eventually grow in size and power along with the player. The AI was impressive for the time, allowing the creature to learn from the player's actions and shaping its likes and dislikes based on what the player taught it. For example, if the player threw boulders in front of it, the creature would find that it enjoyed doing the same. The creature's appearance would also be a result of the players alignment.
A Black & White reboot would only need to recreate the magic of the originals to get fans interested, but it could expand the series' reach if it went above and beyond. It could go further in-depth in terms of the creature's reactions and personality. The creature could develop along more varied lines, eventually seeming like more of a real being. While it did learn in the original, it was easy to predict how the creature would develop, making it fairly easy for players to get the exact results they wanted. Making things more complex and unpredictable would increase replayability and enhance the player's connection to their unique creature.
Another important aspect of Black & White was its morality system. Players had the option to choose to be either a benevolent deity or a monster. When players chose how to react, it had an effect on the world. If the player was generally good, the world would turn into a utopia of healing and light. However, if the player performs evil acts, they would create a nightmarish land reminiscent of Mordor. Their monster's appearance would also be affected by the player's morality.
Modern systems would allow these changes to be more dramatic in appearance, but more importantly the developer could introduce more interesting and ethically complex options. The original games choices were simplistic with little nuance, which ultimately hampered its replayability.
Black & White is a series that many remember with fondness, which makes it disappointing that it has never been released to on digital platforms. While much of this likely relates to Lionhead Studios' 2016 closure, another of the developer's franchises, Fable, is more readily available. However, with a Fable reboot announced, Microsoft has shown that there's a way to bring back Lionhead's dormant IP, and Black & White should get the same treatment.
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