Developer: Cyanide
Publisher: Focus Home Interactive
Available on: PS4, Xbox One, Windows
I almost feel guilty admitting I missed the warhammer phase that swept the nation way back in the 90’s and is still quite popular today. The idea has always interested me, but the cost for the figures, paints, environments, and so on really deterred me from getting into it. Thankfully video games today can literally solve almost every itch you have for any type of gameplay, even if that be tabletop games, board games, or whatever game you are thinking of really.
Blood Bowl 2 is a War-hammer inspired strategy game that has you become the coach of your own team, determined to win the trophy at the end of the season. As soon as you start the game and start playing you realize there isn’t much to do here with actual football than you may have thought, and depending on your views on football, that can be either a good or bad thing.
Visually the game looks solid. You play on a football field trying to get your players to the oppopents side of the field to score a touchdown. Don’t expect this to be your momma’s football game however, as these players play for keeps. With hard hitting attacks, and some opponents that are not even human, will you be able to hold onto the ball and get it to the end zone for a touchdown? Are you a bad enough dude to get to the end zone?
The voice acting is very well done. I actually laughed at quite a few of the lines the characters will say after attacking one another. As far as the soundtrack, while it’s not bad, nothing audio wise will have you humming the tune in your car later.
While I do not have as much experience with real time strategy games as others, I felt Blood Bowl 2 had a pretty interesting learning curve. I expected a really brutal, difficult game. Thankfully, it wasn’t. I do feel it should have been a little more difficult, however I am in no way saying it is too easy. It’s just about right, minus some frustrating experiences at the end that I will leave for you to discover. The game itself won’t take you too long to complete. It took my brother and I around 3 days to complete the story mode.
Gameplay itself is an enjoyable experience. Each member of your team can move a certain amount of spaces depending on their skills each turn. Some are stronger, some are faster and able to dodge better, and others are just these badass monster sized players that will just stomp you into the ground. There is a great variety of players to choose from, each with their own unique skills and attacks.
Overall as far as consoles go, Blood Bowl 2 is a solid RTS title that will offer you hours of enjoyment if you are a fan of the genre. Recommended on consoles.
As far as PC goes, it depends on if you really enjoy the setting and atmosphere of Blood Bowl 2. With much stiffer competition on the PC, I would wait for a price drop on the PC side of things, as there are so many other RTS games to play that appeal to a broader audience. In no way am I saying it’s not worth it, I just feel the PC has such stiffer competition that it’s hard to compare the 2 ports side by side. My advice is to look up some good old youtube clips, and see if the game is for you. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have an ogre I need to knock into the ground.
