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Blood Bowl

Blood Bowl

An old game boardgame is transformed into a video game. What remains the same and what has been lost in translation? Jori tells all...

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Blood Bowl is Games Workshop's turnbased boardgame, where the denizens of the Warhammer franchise - humans, dwarves, orcs and other fantasy races - compete at a sport vaguely reminiscent of American football. Players batter one another with fist, club and chainsaw alike, kicking opponents while they're down makes for fun and profit, bribing the referee is practically part of the rules and if at least half he team isn't out cold by the end of the match, something has gone terribly wrong.

What separates Blood Bowl from real American football is that it's less a strategic exercise than happily daring whatever risk factors you fancy at a given moment. Characters can botch while running, fighting or picking up the ball, and as soon as they do, the other player's turn begins. Sine there are only 16 rounds, game time is actually quite limited. A player has to pit his strategy more against generic odds than their opponent's strategy, and the balance of the gamer can change at any moment.

This doesn't mean that tactics aren't useful. Blood Bowl teams are made up of 11 players, and the basic qualities, strengths, weaknesses and special abilities of linemen vary wildly from one race to the next. Even one point of difference in an ability is crucial, because the player with the highest attribute score also decides which of two dice is used to decide the outcome of sporting violence. In other words, it's rule of the fittest and even the slightest edge or team support can be crucial. Character abilities also play a large role, as they can grant bonuses such as improved throws and dodges, or new tricks such as flying tackles or mutations.

Because the difference between races and veteran or average players is so significant, tactics have to adjust to each match individually. This goes a long way to keeping the game fresh in the long run, and the game's twisted and rugged humour serves to make it stand out. There is an over-the-topness to the game that never fails to get a laugh.

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The transformation of the game from boardgame to videogame format has been effectively one for one. The studio hasn't used the classic Blood Bowl as a mere starting point and inspiration for original antics, but rather translated the original rules and mechanics to videogame form as is. This is one of the greatest weaknesses of most board game translations, because battling an AI opponent just can't hold a candle to genuine human contact. In Blood Bowl, virtual opponents lose the pure joy of pointing and cackling over your opponent's mishaps. Virtual heckling over the web just doesn't have the same feeling to it.

There are also a number of other small quibbles. Blood Bowl assumes gamers are fluent with the rules of the original game, which makes the tutorial rather messy and unhelpful. Several aspects of the game, including the importance of teamwork, are left unclear or not mentioned at all. Badly designed menus make the interface somewhat clumsy, and the quality of graphics varies widely between anemic action screens and genuinely stylish images. The game's hard rock soundtrack seems poorly suited to the fantasy themed violence, and the anecdotal commentary stars to sound old after only a few games.

As a boardgame Blood Bowl is a great and entertaining experience, and a brilliant choice for anyone who likes to laugh and drink beer while gaming. The console version is identical in every respect, except that instead of being at a table with friends, you're on the couch alone. It's best taken as a substitute for the real thing, if your friends just refuse to appreciate the game, or if hauling the figurines around feels like too much effort.

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05 Gamereactor UK
5 / 10
+
Perfectly balanced teams, plenty of humor, a lot of choices to develop the team.
-
Clumsy user interface, lousy tutorial, lack of human contact compared to the boardgame.
overall score
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