Review: Blood Bowl, Let The Critical Mauling Begin

This week on our list of reviews, Blood Bowl.  American football in an all Warhammer world which on paper should be great, right?  Well let’s have a closer look shall we.  When I first heard the concept of this game I thought to myself “Wow, this is going to be awesome”.  I’m afraid to say I was sorely disappointed when it turned out that it wasn’t what I hoped for.

To fill you in Blood Bowl is an adaptation of the tabletop board game of the same name, and perhaps the reason I have not enjoyed this title is due to the fact that I’ve never played the board game.  Or perhaps it’s due to the fact that Cyanide Studios have stuck so rigidly to the formula of the source material when realistically there are differences between board and video games so it just doesn’t translate which is the same problem EA faced with Monopoly last October.

While the visuals are in keeping with the style and origins of the game, they are neither magical nor awe-inspiring; they are, in fact, incredibly average.  Sure the models are detailed and well coloured, but they to be honest look like well animated figurines rather than living, breathing creatures.  Considering the origin (the board game has figurines) this could be seen as a positive feature, but I’m sad to say that I was left unimpressed.  On closer inspection of the models it’s clear that there is plenty of texture and detail there but shortcuts have been made with regards to one major aspect of the visuals.  Blood.  This should be one area of the title that the developers would want to visually emphasize, after all…this is a game that’s really about causing as much damage as possible, so when blood appears as a red mist that would look shameful on an original Xbox title it breaks the disconnection for the player.  Despite this however, I did find myself fond of the animations and the several of the unit types, in particular the goblin holding a chainsaw made me laugh quite a bit.

Shifting focus now from visuals to audio, a department in which I found fewer flaws as the in-game sound was perfectly suitable for the title.  Appropriate noise you would associate with such a contact sport is made whilst running, throwing or tackling; and there is the lovely background noise of a raucous crowd to prevent those horrible silences from popping up…even the horn that sounds during a turnover is oddly pleasant.  However pleasing this audio is, the commentary isn’t and to be honest the only word to describe it is irritating.  Whilst at first it is witty and amusing, the six or seven phrases get old very quickly and become annoying enough for me to turn the sound off.   It sounds like an easy thing to sort but any of the settings I changed wouldn’t save forcing me to change them every time I loaded the game.  An earache it most definitely was.

Now let’s move onto gameplay shall we?  As I’ve previously mentioned this game is effectively a animated representation of the table top game Blood Bowl, and hence I feel it lacks the excitement that you’d expect an Xbox 360 title to have.  There are few tutorials available in order for you to learn how to play, but it seems thorough background knowledge of the source game is key to being successful in this game.  While the tutorials tell you how to interface, it does not delve into the mechanics of the game, making it a challenge for an inexperienced player to form strong gameplay.  The game offers you several game options, which do give a level of replay as well as a degree diversity, but these are all fairly similar.  You are given both turn based and real time options, both of which are fairly self explanatory.  Turn based is a direct translation of the table top, letting you play your rounds one at a time rather than the chaos that is real time.  At first I found real time to be the better version of the game but soon however I found that it’s incredibly hard to follow what is happening and inevitably I would find myself losing.  As well as your choice of strategy you are given the choice between ‘Classic’ mode and ‘Blitz’ mode.  Classic mode implements the exact rules of the Blood Bowl board game while Blitz allows you to change and add rules, customize equipment and negotiate contracts. Sounds impressive I’ll agree, however I found that there was actually not a huge difference between these two game styles.  In the local match option you have a choice between one-off matches, campaigns and competitions.  These concepts should be fairly self explanatory but hey, I’ll explain nonetheless.  In the one-off match you play a single game, either single or multiplayer, you’re players are predefined and you just go straight into the action.  In both campaign and competition there are games in which you can compete, level your characters and earn money for new units.

There is also the option of Xbox LIVE online play, but out of the fifty or so times I have tried to play against someone remotely I have not yet achieved to find a game to play on, which while unfortunate, I expect will change once…if….it grows in popularity.

Pluses

+        Wide selection of races, game types and matches

+        Accurate portrayal of the tabletop game

Minuses

-          Huge amount of texture fail

-          Slow paced and uneventful

-          Lack of interest on Xbox LIVE (no-one is playing)

-          All races seem to use the same AI

-          Extremely challenging even on easy setting

-          Unexplained game mechanics

To summarize what has been a challenge to will myself to write, there are several changes I would have like to see in this game – better AI, difficulty curve and presentation.  What should have been an action packed title is a fairly mediocre game which seems targeted a very niche market that seems to have little to no interest.  However, for those have experienced the board game, and want a digital form, would probably find this title a great play.