Being god, abroad...the B&W way (Creature Isles (PC))

Member Name: Amateur Clown

Product:	Creature Isles (PC)
Date:	06/01/03 (65 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: You can improve your creature from B&W dramatically, Great Storyline

Disadvantages: It's fairly short, Once you've done the trials there's not really anything much to do

‘Find out who your creature really is’ read the subheading of the newest game I’d brought this year. I’d already been looking out for Peter Monyleux’s new release on a cloudy Tuesday, and whilst the weather worsened my heart soared when the beautifully designed green and black cover with the prominent Black and White emblem stood out from the crowd of lesser games, destined to be on my PC before nightfall. As some of you may know I loved the original game to this add-on, that is Black and White. And I’m awaiting the sequel just as eagerly as I was to get home and play this new adventure which I had bought it for a pretty reasonable £20, although that was when it first came out I might mention. Today by my reckoning I figure you’d be able to find to find it for probably £5 on budget, £10 at maximum.

First of all if you don’t have a clue what Black and White is then please don’t hesitate to pop along to see my premier opinion on it, it’s pretty much an overall introduction to the game. But anyway, time is the enemy as per usual. Hopefully through magical wizardry vocabulary, the ability to type faster than most people I know, and actually knowing what the product I’m talking to you is about; I should be able to give you an insight into the addition of 2001’s game of the year.

Welcome to Black and White: Creature Isle. (Which I’m going to refer to as CI, as I’ll refer to Black and White as B&W).

As in most stories, it’s always best to start at the beginning. And the start to this legend originates with those daft singing missionaries in their wooden ark from the first level or land in B&W. The Missionaries that you, as the kind and goodly, or evil and relentless god (like me), sent them cruising off into the deep blue seas in the first level in B&W. The missionaries embark upon the shores of a new godless land and make their way to a nearby Egyptian Vill
age. They sow the seeds of the legend that is you with a quite humourous cut-scene. And after a couple of decent yet pathetic attempts they believe and you arrive with your creature in one of those wonderful portals that you see a lot in B&W.

CI is dedicated to doing the trails that I felt I never really got to do in B&W. Many people like myself disliked the Village Management aspect which was a little demanding. With this weight removed in CI, (there are actually only 3 villages on the Isle: the Egyptian one you start with, a Japanese and a village), you’re pretty much free to go off and enjoy the creature side and bond a bit more with your faithful companion.

As soon as you arrive heavy hints nudge you to the gold reward scroll in the Dojo, a circular area with a slug shaped building where a group of animals called the Brotherhood have constructed as their sort of animal HQ. Rufus, a fairly giant lion offers your creature a position in the Brotherhood, with a chance to meet and perhaps get a bit more personal with one of the most rarest creatures who the Brotherhood guards with their lives, a female called Eve. To become part of the Brotherhood you and your creature must complete a series of trials, some which are pretty taxing and some which you ask yourself half way through if you’re doing the wrong thing because they’re so easy.

The amount of time it take to complete trials can vary between a couple of minutes of about thirty minutes at very maximum. The trials are all delightful, excelling with B&W’s outstanding physics. I had noticed as I began to finish CI that my beloved creature Mr. Bobo a pretty large, muscular yet playful gorilla, who was totally evil when I started out became neutral as I progressed - something which in B&W would have been almost impossible. You may be catching a whisper of a hint that the trials in CI aren’t very aggressive at all, and you’d be right. There are only really
3 trials that are aggressive and even then one of them doesn’t include your creature.

The first task of yours to complete is to incubate to catch and then raise an infant named Tyke. Heavy hints from your good and evil consciences point the way to a better place to hatch the giant egg. When Tyke has hatched from his egg he is literally a golden child, a golden gleaming bulging-eyed chick to be precise, that you must then raise through your creature, not by yourself.

This is because it’s a trial to see if your creature is a decent father, you have no direct control over him. Tyke learns by watching your creature not you, so really the only way you can help him learn actions by getting your creature to do the actions for you. This is a joyful experience, because in effect all the bringing up and training you’ve done with your creature, is put to the test and all the early magical moments are recaptured in Tyke’s actions such as his first miracle.

I suppose I should have said this at the start but you need to have bought B&W to be able to play CI. You don’t necessarily have to have acquired a creature before you play CI, because you can start with a completely new creature to play with. And although I haven’t tried it I’ve been told that the adolescent ape you begin with has a handful of miracles under his belt already.

After competing a trial in CI new ones open up which makes sense, after a while you’ll be coming familiar with such great ball games as Jango the Ape’s Marble game and Yax the Mardrill’s Football trial. These are ones you’ll keep coming back to even when you’ve completed them, well…maybe not Yax’s one, as that for me became incredibly annoying after the third time round. Ones who pass that trial one first time are truly gifted.

And so you go around the Isle completing the Trials. Along with the trials, CI presents to you two n
ew miracles never put in B&W, which I’m not going to reveal as finding them yourself is a lot more of a magical experience.

In my opinion CI is a worthy add-on to its predecessor but is a bit too short. After playing CI it seems to have been a little too easy, but then I really can’t see what they could have improved, or if they could have added new trials that would balance out the evil challenges from the good ones. But then again I suppose that giving you the chance to get your creature to become good may have been one of their goals with CI and it would have been a lot harder to accomplish than in B&W.

I’d still recommend CI to anyone who enjoyed having a creature in B&W though. But the add-on is specifically to do with your creature and only a couple of challenges are just for gods. CI is the answer to the hardcore B&W fans’ prayers. It’s no miracle, but a spell on CI is well worth it if you’re such a dedicated fan. Oh glorious puns…

B&W2 looks set to be a lot more violent, and for evil gods such as the glorious unlawful idol that is myself. It’s going to be a treat and every B&W fan knows it. Expect a review on it from me the month it’s released, unless I’m plagued by laziness…

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(Hopefully this is Black and White: Creature Isle, I have put this op in for, as I’ve looked for it everywhere and this is the nearest match I could find. If it isn’t let me know, do…)
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