Do you have what it takes to get a review published right here on Kotaku? Mitch does, as he puts some fantasy into his football.
Yes, that’s right, we’re now publishing reader reviews here on Kotaku. This is your chance to deliver sensible game purchasing advice to the rest of the Kotaku community.
And thanks to the very kind chaps at Madman Entertainment, purveyor of all kinds of cool, indie and esoteric film, the best reader review we publish each month will win a prize pack containing ten of the latest Madman DVD releases.
This review was submitted by Mitch Alexander. If you’ve played Blood Bowl, or just want to ask Mitch more about it, leave your thoughts in the comments below.
Blood Bowl (PC)
Games Workshop’s tabletop miniatures game of ultra-violent fantasy football goes 3D on PC.
Loved
Turn-Based Mode: Blood Bowl’s turn-based mode is based on the latest rule-set and despite a few notable omissions, is a faithful recreation of the tabletop game. Veterans should be able to jump right in and feel at home though newcomers will probably be left scratching their heads over Dodge Rolls and Block Dice.
Multi-Player: While finding and connecting to an open game in the Public Leagues is a chore, once you do actually manage to connect to a game, multi-player is an absolute blast. The Hot Seat mode, allowing two players to battle it out on one PC is a welcome addition.
Look & Feel: While Blood Bowl isn’t going to win awards for graphics, Cyanide have done a good job bringing Games Workshop to life. The in-game models are all based directly on the existing Games Workshop miniatures and are immediately recognisable to players of the tabletop game.
Hated
Real-Time Mode: Real-time mode is clunky and too chaotic to be enjoyable. It feels rushed and tacked-on. It adds very little to the game on its own merits and will be of little interest to tabletop Blood Bowl players anyway.
Lack of Polish: The unintuitive and buggy UI, terrible load times, predictable AI and repetitive commentary detract from the experience. Tabletop favourite races like Dark Elves and Undead are noticeably absent.
Customisation: Half the fun of Games Workshop’s board games is personalising your team and/or army. Without mods, customisation options in Blood Bowl are limited to basic colour changes and emblem selection; a real missed opportunity.
Fans of the board game will love this but the bugs, lack of polish and learning curve make it difficult to recommend Blood Bowl to the uninitiated.
Reviewed by: Mitch Alexander
You can have your Reader Review published on Kotaku. Send your review to us at the usual address. Make sure it’s written in the same format as above and in under 300 words – yes, we’ve upped the word limit. We’ll publish the best ones we get and the best of the month will win a Madman DVD prize pack.
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