Blood Bowl review

The slippery Skaven are wickedly quick, but will be pummeled by the brutally powerful Dwarfs, while the Humans and Orcs are a well-balanced couple of beginner races with enough depth for experts to embrace. Rookies will endure an embarrassing amount of losses before they’re able to formulate a solid strategy with their preferred race, but it’s a gratifying feeling to finally score a touchdown, exploit a flaw in your opponent’s defenses, or expertly block the enemy ball carrier. And with so many different team possibilities, there is a lot to explore within each race.

Fortunately, Blood Bowl’s career campaign rewards you regardless of your success, so win or lose there’s always gold to spend on new gear, players, or power-ups. Players also earn experience points and level-ups, which grants you new skills and stat increases. With so many ability options for the different player types (throwers, blitzers, linemen, etc.) we spent a lot of time agonizing over which offensive, defensive or passive skill to apply. With usable upgrades always within reach, whether it’s earning cash for a new helmet, or boosting a player’s agility with a hardcore training session, the campaign is always giving you a reason to come back. All of these fantastic elements translate to the multiplayer mode as well. You can coach multiple new teams and start earning all over again as you climb public and private league ladders.

Online and off, we couldn’t stand the real-time version of Blood Bowl. It stripped away the excellent strategic angle and felt terrible. What was once a chess-like experience became a chaotic click-a-thon. Because the real-time game includes the strategy portions of Blood Bowl, like die rolls and tackle zones, it’s an awkward mess that aims to appease the Madden crowd but pleases nobody.

Blood Bowl’s soul lies in its tactics. It’s built for its existing fan-base, though anyone with a passing interest in strategy games can pick it up and get a lot of enjoyment from it. Yeah, the learning curve will be brutal for blind newcomers, but the gratification that comes with learning to properly place your players is matched only by the smartly doled-out loot.

Jul 23, 2009