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Blood Bowl Review for Xbox 360

Blood Bowl Review for Xbox 360

Break out your Shovel!

Blood Bowl has delighted strategy board gamers since the late 80s. This Games Workshop creation – the company responsible for the Warhammer IP – has seen a number of editions over the years, the latest now available in video game form for the Xbox 360. While board games to video game conversions usually lose a lot, Blood Bowl’s gameplay actually works quite well, giving up very little in translation. However, the extremely poor execution and lack of technical polish ends up hindering player enjoyment significantly. In fact, the appeal of the strategy-laden gameplay simply isn’t enough to overcome the lack of production value, and I can’t recommend picking this title up.

Blood Bowl screenshot

Blood Bowl can be thought of as fantasy football. Incorporating elements of the Warhammer fantasy world with rugby and American football, gamers will play in solo and two-player competitive matches that combine turn-based strategy with a sporting theme. In this blood-soaked contest, you’ll take your team through game after game, rising up in the league in order to face off in the Blood Bowl Cup to play for rights to be called champion. You’ll be able to choose from eight playable Warhammer races, including Humans, Orks, Skaven, Chaos, Dwarves, Elves, Lizardmen, and Goblins, improve their skills and abilities over time through experience accumulation, and acquire new recruits, staff, and even cheerleaders to give your team the edge.

For the most part, Blood Bowl plays like rugby (free-flowing, no line of scrimmage, no four down series, no first downs, etc.) with the big exception that you’ll be able to pass the ball forward as you can in football. Above all, Blood Bowl is a game of field position – an important factor in both sports. Through turn-based movement, players will try to push the opponent back, literally cracking skulls along the way, and score a touchdown in the opponent’s end zone. With every encounter, whether it’s a block, movement, or a pass, virtual dice are rolled to determine the outcome. If you drop the ball, fail to knock your opponent down, or get tripped, you’re turn will end and the other side gets to move. Through careful, strategic placement of your miniatures, you’ll be able to stack the odds in your favor, control the field, and tally tries.

Blood Bowl screenshot

The basis for the game is definitely sound; there is a lot of strategic fun to be found in Blood Bowl whether you’re playing against the computer, a friend, or online. Disappointingly, the AI is rather weak, so the game’s lengthy solo campaign is greatly handicapped. That being said, it does make it easy to learn the game and garner Ws along the way.

Where the game really shines, however, is when you take on a fellow gamer. On the Xbox 360, that means picking up a couple of controllers and having a go. On the PC, you’ll head online and challenge others through matchmaking. Regrettably, though the Xbox 360 also has online capability, literally no one is playing. Therefore, you’ll have to play over LIVE against a friend who owns a copy, or simply play together at home. If you get matched up, and are a patient gamer that doesn’t mind turn-based play, Blood Bowl has the potential to entertain you for hours.

Blood Bowl screenshot

Inexcusably, the presentation and production value of this title is so bad that it saps most of the fun out of the game. From terrible visuals to mediocre and repetitive sound, Blood Bowl is shambolic. Playing the game on Xbox 360, you’ll be “treated” to graphics not seen since the earlier lifecycle of the last generation of consoles. The game is blurry, it has awful animations, and it entirely lacks visual variety. Without a doubt, this is one of the worst looking video games I’ve ever played. Sounds are nearly as bad. The commentary can be mildly humorous, but after just one half of play, you’ll be reaching for the mute button. Sound effects are better, but they do little heighten the stodgy action on the field.

Blood Bowl screenshot

Controls are also a major bone of contention if you’re planning on playing the Xbox 360 version. Whereas executing commands via a mouse and keyboard is natural on PC, things get decidedly wonky when dealing with analog sticks and the facebuttons. Nowhere is this more apparent than when you take the game out of its traditional turn-based mode and play with the new semi-real-time mode. Successfully issuing strategies through the Xbox 360 controller without the turn-based cushion is so bad it’s practically broken. Keeping the game in turn-based mode is definitely the way to go, but controls still aren’t quite right.

Blood Bowl should have been released through digital delivery only for $10 to $15. If it were, this could have been an excellent addition to the XBLA. The fact that it is sold only via retail means you’ll shell out $49.99 for a game that’s uglier and less refined than most browser-based Flash games; that means finding online matches will always be a challenge.

If several more months were taken to polish the game, and if the “bargain” price were set at a far more realistic level, I would wholeheartedly recommend the title. As it stands, it’s little more than Xbox 360 shovelware that no one’s going to pick up. Do yourself a favor: If you absolutely must own Blood Bowl the video game, pick it up on PC. Not only will you save $10 bucks, you’ll get an extra playable race, better controls, and a more vibrant community.

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 1.0 Graphics
I haven’t seen visuals this bad since the early days of the PS2. 3.0 Control
Playing in turn-based mode is manageable. Shifting it into the real-time mode is essentially broken. 2.0 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
Commentary can be humorous, but the repetition is awful. 3.3 Play Value
The single-player campaign is hampered by weak AI, but there is a lot of fun to be had if you can play with another human. The lack of LIVE players negates multiplayer options. 2.8 Overall Rating – Average
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.

Game Features:

  • No holds barred: Bribe the referee, foul your opponent as they whimper on the ground, hurl devastating fireballs from the stands, or even sneak a chainsaw onto the field, whatever it takes to defeat your opponent … but don’t ever forget the ultimate purpose of the game — get the ball into the end zone and score touchdowns!
  • Two different game modes: Play the authentic, turn-based Blood Bowl experience or live the game in Real Time Mode. In the huge single player game, take part in a complete Blood Bowl campaign with 15 Championships and Cups or choose your own competition rules and create your own Championships.
  • Create your fantasy team: Develop your team by gaining new levels and pieces of performance-enhancing equipment. Export your own team from a championship and play it in One-off matches or in multiplayer!
  • Multiplayer mayhem: Play with your friends on the same console or challenge other players online from all around the world and climb the official ladder rankings!

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