Brutal Gamer

Blood Bowl (PC) Review

By Zeth - September 24, 2009 - 14:42 UTC

Get down and dirty in the PC version of the classic board game.

Man it has been YEARS since I last played Blood Bowl.  I mean we must be talking around 22 years ago!  The game was one of the few Games Workshop board games to actually drawn me in.  I never was a huge AD&D fan but this had something special about it.  The rules of a D & D title mixed with a seriously bloodthirsty version of Rugby/American football.

The game is a  brutal team sport unfolding in a parallel fantasy world based on Warhammer.  Blood Bowl invites gamers to form a team of players from races including: Orcs, Elves, Humans, Dwarfs and many other fantasy creatures, and launch themselves into battle in the bloodiest of arenas. This strategy sports game combines a fine balance of tactics and bone crunching action! The game offers two game modes real time and turn based.  The original rules have been faithfully reproduced, and it contains all of the devices, strategies, play and rhythm of the original table top game.

Graphically Blood Bowl is a mixed bag.  The minimum specs are pretty low for a modern PC title so the game runs incredibly well on my mid to higher end gaming ring.  That said the animations are not the most fluid and the fields of play are a little sparse for anyone reared on things like Fifa, Madden or Pro Evo.  With those tings said I have to admit that the game captures the stock look and feel of a the original Games Workshop title very well.  The stock enemies, Orcs, Elves, Ogres etc all look well made and ripped straight of a Games Workshop painting table – you can practically smell the water based paints.  The incidental animations, especially when your characters are getting a kicking , are well realised and great fun to watch.

Audio wise the game stacks up fairly well with good all round pitch and crowd noises offset by the clank and clang or armour and flesh going squelch.  The mock commentary is great fun, at least to start with.  As with every single game with commentary the phrases will grate after the 50th time of repeating – this is not a game fault just a down fall of commentary in games.  The score is suitable epic and sweeping with lots of deep battle drums and rough thuddings going on.

Now to the meat of the fight – the gameplay.  The game makes boast of the two game play methods real time and turn based.   Let’s attack real time for shall we.  This mode is a mild annoyance at best.  If you are still using this method after a couple of matches then you are most likely a masochist or just generally sick.  The promise of real time Blood Bowl action sounds great – hell we basically had it in Brutal Sports on the Amiga (grab the PC version here guys, it’s free!) !  In execution this mode just descends into an absolute mess of frustration.  Full marks for trying Cyanide, but it is just poorly done.  The problem is that a lot of the plays in Blood Bowl rely on that short gap between turns to come up with the best play.  Coupled with the fact that the controls are just no tup to the job in real time and you have a bad situation.

Now for the turn-based version.  Hell yes!  This is much better.  If you can make it past the completely vague tutorials and sink another hour or so in after you will move from being bemused, to frustrated, to having fun to totally addicted.  The tense strategy involved in building up and training the correct team, placing the correct “units” in the right locations at the start of matches, the sudden over thrown  of a match score by the simple introduction of an larger more brutish character – it all just gels so well!  This is what always made Blood Bowl fun as a board game title and it has been captured so very well here.  In the campaign mode yo guide your makeshift team through the leagues to take on all comers.  Slowly building up the players, leveling them up in a total MMO style.  The basic premise is still American football/Rugby – ie kick off, chase ball and try and score touchdowns/trys.  The difference is your not penalised if your Orc rips the head off a Dwarf as they make a play for the end zone.

Longevity is a huge plus in this title.  Games can sometimes take in excess of one hour to complete so you get an idea of how much playability there is here – especially if you keep going back and changing races to create your team from (there are 8 to choose from).  Once you’re done with the local games though you can take your skills online.  You can choose public or private league matches and these can be very intense and great fun.  The only real issue with the online play is that it can be a real bitch to connect to a friend.  You have to really drill through the team sin your league to find your mate – you’re screwed if they are not in your league.  The only alternative is to attach to a game on a host via the IP – a real throw back to the bad old days of PC multiplayer gaming and a real jar for anyone used to things like XBox Live or PSN.

Final Thoughts:

Blood Bowl is a great title.  Maybe a little niche and certain to get overlooked by many – which is a shame because at it’s heart is a addictive and satisfying RTS with a great twist.  The load times are incredibly annoying in this game, especially as the graphics are nothing to write home about.  Couple that with the broken real time mode and the lack luster first few hours you can see why the score is what it is.  An absolute gem of a game for any fan of Blood Bowl and a worthy pick up for anyone who is remotely interested in RTS games or looking for a fun diversion from the norm.

Tested on the following system :- Windows Vista (32bit), DX10, 2.4Ghz Intel Dual Core CPU, 4GB XTC Gold Edition Ram, GeForce 9600GT 512MB GFX Card, DX 10 5.1 soundcard, 7Mb DSL

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