Do hear it? The bone crushing, carnage and cheers of the crowd after a Dwarven lineman trucks a helpless Lizardman defender? Do you known what that means? It means that another Blood Bowl season is upon us and what better way ti kick off the season with a look at Blood Bowl II.
First and Blood
Main campaign teaches basics of Blood Bowl- The last time I tried to play Blood Bowl` was on the PSP. It kind of left a bad taste in my mouth so much that I refused to play the updated Chaos Edition on the PC. Fast forward to this year. To my surprise another Blood Bowl game was announced. I was skeptical at first but then decided to give it another shot. I’m glad that I did because Blood Bowl II is actually really fun. It also does something that the first game didn’t do too well: teach the basics of Blood Bowl. In Blood Bowl II’s campaign mode, you are introduced to the basics rules of the game as you play. As you play the first three matches m the game explains how rolls work, player skills, movement, special rolls, and some basic strategy.The game also teaches and explains how to build and maintain a team, hiring coaching staff and other aspects of team management. As you continue to win in the campaign, you will gain sponsors that will give you money to spend on improving the team, buying advance skill, maintaining your stadium and etc.
Better user interface- In addition of not teaching the basics of the game, the UI in the first Blood Bowl made it even harder to understand what was going on. You couldn’t tell if an action was going to be successful or would fail, and that’s just having one of the players move across the field. Blood Bowl II however improves on the UI. They did this by showing the percentage of success or failure each action has: passing, running, hand offs, dodges, etc.,all show the percentage of success or failure. The UI also shows stats of each of the team players, By showing these stats help players make safe calls or gamble big. Also when near a player from the other team, their player stat card is also revealed. Again this to help coaches see if their player is going to be able to make the hit or get hit.
Ability to setup console leagues- In the previous console version of Blood Bowl, you couldn’t set up leagues with friends. Leagues in Blood Bowl would be the equivalent of clans or conferences. In the console version of Blood Bowl II you finally are able to set up leagues with friends and customize seasons and tournament play.
More league options- In both console and PC versions of Blood Bowl II there additional league options for players to use to set up different matches. These matches include round robin, ladder and knockout, with knockout having players knock out from the rest of the competitions with one loss. League creators can also assign commissions and editors to help run the league and relay news to all teams participating. Yes this is a game about dwarves, elves and orks playing a brutal version of football, but there still has to be some sort of realism and this is it.
Flag on the play
AI can be cheap- In most games that have chance mechanics, the AI will always be cheap. You’ll be ahead by a few points, then for some reason and without warning, the AI will spike. From bribing the referee, having the crowd charge the field to getting impossible rolls, re-rolls and just plain cheating, this is what you can expect from the AI.
Blood Bowl II fixes a ton of issues that the first game had. The biggest two improvements that stands out are the improved UI and the fact that the game teaches some of the basics of Blood Bowl in the main campaign. Its also great that developer Cyanide made it easy for console players to form leagues. Though coaches my have a fighting chance when playing the AI this time around, the game’s AI is cheap and sometime will cheat you. Never the less Blood Bowl II is tons of fun for those who are looking to inject more fantasy in their fantasy football teams and shouldn’t be missed this season.
