Many years ago, Games Workshop created Blood Bowl. A fun
table top game where the warring races of the Warhammer Fantasy world could
settle their differences with a simple football match. Only, it’s a football
match where brutally murdering the enemy team is a perfectly valid strategy!
Fast forward to 2010, developer Cyanide released the first version of Blood
Bowl on Xbox 360 and PC. A faithful recreation of the table top game, however
it was missing the expansion set content.
Cyanide has since created the Legendary Edition as a
follow-up title. It adds in all of the teams left out of the first edition, a
couple of game tweaks and a few extra stadiums to play in. A reasonable amount
of expansion content, if only it were priced like one. But no, instead you’re
expected to pay full price again for the same game. If you bought the first
edition like me, there was a very small discount offered. With the recent Steam
winter sale, the game finally reached a reasonable price, so I decided to pick
up and see if it was worth it.
Short answer, no. The first Blood Bowl was a good package. A
near perfect recreation of the table top experience, although it did have a few
problems. Most notable was the poor AI which was only capable of two different
tactics, which meant the randomness of the game was your greatest challenge. It
also lacks a soundtrack, which is a bit odd. Presumably Cyanide expected the
‘wacky’ commentators to keep you entertained through your matches. If only they
had enough dialogue to last more than one match without repetition.
The Legendary Edition was the perfect opportunity to fix all
the criticisms levelled at the first game, sadly it added to the list. Some
small tweaks have been made to the UI, but it really needs an overhaul. It took
me several matches just to work out how I could substitute players. The dice
rolls that are the core of the game are still only displayed as text in a chat
window, rather than being given a clear and visible display so you can see what
is happening.
Thankfully, the gameplay hasn’t been touched. The controls
work well allowing you to easily select players and give orders. It’s a reasonably
fast paced turn based strategy game. Turns are time limited, then again you’ll
easily finish with time to spare as the clock stops each time the dice are
rolled and the outcome played out. The animation quality is good, although
after a few matches, I found myself wishing for an option to turn off replays
as they kept breaking the flow of the action.
And you’ll be forced to watch a lot of replays. Each time a
player smashes another into an early grave or manages to complete the very
tricky task of throwing and catching the ball; the camera suddenly jumps to a
close up replay just so you can pointlessly watch it again! The various camera
angles already give you a good view of the pitch, allowing you to keep tabs on
what’s happening to every player on a turn.
Only a few extra rules are introduced with the new teams. It
takes the total rules in the game to a dizzying amount. If you haven’t played
Blood Bowl before, spending some time with the tutorial is definitely advised.
You’re unlikely to have a match where a lot of the rules come together in a complex
mess, but sometimes a player with an obscure special skill can really catch you
off-guard.
The bulk of the single player is coaching a team of your
choice through a series of tournaments. As you progress, your players gain
experience to put towards new skills, but can also pick up injuries or even
worse, be killed. With all the new teams that have been added, there’s plenty
of variety in matches. Although, the AI is once again the weakest part of the
game. They’re capable of a few new tricks, yet still lacking depth. A veteran
player’s biggest worry is still unlucky dice rolls. Multiplayer is also
included with a variety of game modes. It’s easy to set up a quick game with
pre-set teams or jump into the persistent multiplayer and coach a team to
glory.
If you haven’t played Blood Bowl and you’re looking for a
turn based game, I would recommend this version. There’s a good ten to twenty
hours play to be had with the AI and more with the multiplayer. However, if
you’re a veteran that’s put plenty of hours into the first title, there just
isn’t enough new content to justify the purchase.
