If you thought American Football was one of the most brutal and violent sports that existed then you were wrong! This new adaptation  from Games Workshop’s Warhammer Universe puts killing and winning on an equally level playing field. But are you left with a decisive victory or a messy blood bath?

The Warhammer Fantasy World and American Football are a rather irregular mix and putting the two together like this has turned out to be a very innovative and unusual combination. There are 8 playable races to chose from: Humans, Orcs, Wood Elves, Chaos, Goblins, Dwarfs, Skaven and Lizardmen. All these teams have varying abilities and you can manage customize them in a lots of different ways, giving your team supreme dominance on the pitch (i.e battlefield). You can toss the rulebook aside and watch the on-screen mess as you fight your way from one side of the pitch to the other. There are no rules to be aware of but keeping in good relations with the referee is often a wise move. Scoring a touchdown can be achieved in many ways without having to worry too much about the consequences of your actions.

You’re ultimate objective is to compete in the Blood Bowl Cup but you have to take part in lots of matches in minor leagues beforehand. As you progress through the Career Mode, you will have greater flexibility in how you manage your team as well as a few other gameplay features. You earn more money from winning matches and the more you get the more you can spend on upgrading your team members. Corruption is seen throughout as you can bribe the  referee and even use magical potions to improve your performance. The game also offers 2 main gameplay strategies. You can either muscle it out with the other team in real time mode or go with the traditional turn-based style of play that most Warhammer fans should be familiar with. Turn play in general is one of the highlights of the game so if you’re not a great fan of this kind of format then you might want to stay away from this game. Dice throwing is quite literally a necessity and although it makes matches more unpredictable, they can become quite a drag when you throwing so many dice and hardly making any progress in the game. Its a reasonable attempt at something new but to be perfectly honest, the game loses momentum and quickly becomes dull.

Visually, there is good variety in the arenas which range from standard grass pitches to dark forts/citadels to fiery/hellish wastelands. They all look very authentic and fit in well with the WarhammerUniverse. The players themselves look good across all races but occasionally there are some framerate issues to accommodate for the mass of players on-screen at any-one time. Online play is arguably the most enjoyable aspect of the game, largely due to the human intelligence of your opposition. Let it be said that the AI in the game is somewhat lacking. The Online mode allows you to  create your own leagues and competitions and play against people from around the world using Xbox Live.

Blood Bowl is a game that has lots of potential but it fails in some of the crucial areas for a sports simulation with poor AI and limited gameplay options. Games such as the Madden Series go to much greater lengths in order to make the game fun and enjoyable with a great deal to do. With this game, you’ll play it once just to see what there is to offer and then you probably won’t want to experience it again because there won’t be much else to do on it. Ok, its a new and creative concept but it falls a long way short of delivering a truly fulfilling gaming experience. My advice is to stick to real time strategy.

+  Good looking visuals and arenas.

+ Brings about the brutal nature of the game to full extent.

- AI is shocking.

- Framerate issues

- Very little replay value

5.5/10

By Ian Ratledge Posted Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 9:26 pm