Whoever thought of the Blood Bowl board game was a genius and thanks to NACON and Cyanide Studios, we have a digital adaptation of this board game. Blood Bowl III is the latest title in NACON’s Blood Bowl franchise, and it brings plenty of new mechanics and an updated set of official rules of the latest edition of the board game to the table. We got access to an early build of the game in which we got to try it out in its early access form. This is our early access preview of Blood Bowl III in which we crush some enemies and score some touchdowns.
Blood Bowl is based on the board game of the same name and Cyanide Studios has been working on the franchise with new releases updating according to the updated rules of the board game. Blood Bowl combines sports with strategy and executes it in the most brutal possible way as you crush your enemies, slap them, punch them, shove them and even cheat them to come out victorious. There are some rules in the game but even they can be broken if you have the resources for it.
War disappeared in the Old World when the inhabitants decided to resolve their differences by playing the god Nuffle’s sacred sport: Blood Bowl. And yet it is no less bloody than the battlefields it has replaced. Murder, mutilation, cheating, corruption, sorcery and even divine intervention come one after another on the pitch, to the delight of everyone watching!
Blood Bowl III promises the same, brutal football experience that Blood Bowl II had, only better in nearly all aspects. The early access build that we received from NACON included three factions Black Orcs, Elven Union, and Imperial Nobility. If you have played either the board game or the previous titles in the franchise, you will already have an idea that no 2 teams are equal in the game and each comes with its own unique number of unique, tactics and strategies that you must follow to win. To actually win in the game, you have to embrace your team’s strengths and weaknesses and work around them.
For example, Black Orcs prefer strength, and they will beat you to a pulp if you come in your way and sadly I found this the hard way. I tried taking them on head-on with the Elven Union and they made short work of me, and it was a crushing defeat. I tried again and this time I preferred to use my team’s agility and worked my way around the enemy team, and I was able to win. True that I could not beat any of the orcs to the ground apart from the goblins in their team but still it was fun, and I enjoyed both of the times. Even if you are getting beaten in the game, things will be pretty interesting.
Most of the major moves are based on the dice roll and depending on the scenario and your player’s stats, the number of dice will change, and depending on the result, you will either gain the advantage over the opposition or you will lose your turn miserably. I was really looking forward to the single-player campaign of the game however the early access build only came with Hot Seat and VS mode against an AI. Still, it is was pretty fun and it had certainly made me excited enough to look forward to the full game despite various technical bugs and glitches.
It is a good thing that Blood Bowl III actually treats all players on your team as individual units that come with their own unique skills and traits as well. Depending on the unit type, they will have their own stats however each player in your team will also come with their own unique straits as well which will make them exceptionally good in certain scenarios or bad in certain scenarios. You can check out your team’s stats and use them according to the game to gain an edge over your opposition. Apart from your own team, various factors that are not in your control also affect the gameplay as well such as the weather conditions. The game rolls dice for the weather as well and if you are not lucky, your team might get a debuff depending on the weather condition.
Coming to the technical side of Blood Bowl III, it requires a lot of optimizations at this point. I have played much many early access titles and alphas that were much more stable than Blood Bowl III in its Closed Beta form. The most obvious problem for me was the invisible stands in the stadium. For me, the audience was sitting in the air and there was nothing there. During the match, the stages would reappear however during a full shot of the stadium, the stages would just vanish and show people sitting in the air. Apart from this, there was a very weird lag for me while playing the game.
Each command took at least a second or two to register and the AI also takes too much time to make its moves. Even in obvious situations, the AI would just keep thinking and thinking. In one scenario, my whole team was wiped out, and still, the AI would just keep moving players around randomly after long pauses instead of making their way to the Touchdown and scoring a point. I am hoping to see a much more refined and smarter AI since I am sure that the developers will work towards making it better until the full release. The version that we received for this preview is indeed an early access one and the full version will be a lot better as compared to this one.
Blood Bowl III presents a fun concept on the traditional NFL formula however there are some things that need to be worked on until the game’s full release. If I completely ignore the bugs and glitches that I experienced during my gameplay, I will still find some mechanics that need to be adjusted in the game with the biggest one being an in-game tutorial rather than an outside link to a page filled with different Youtube videos. In-Game tutorials are always better, and they are easy to understand especially for players who are new to a franchise.
I have already played Blood Bowl II so the franchise is not new for me however for someone who is just starting with the franchise, sending them to an external link with videos filled with tutorials does not send a very good message to them. In addition, the videos do not cover the entire gameplay topics as well so the game tutorial definitely needs work and an in-game tutorial will be much better. The new teams in Blood Bowl III are looking really good and I really liked them. Apart from the teams, the gameplay feels better as compared to before however, it is still not in its final form so it is too early to say anything about it.
Especially, the Black Orc team is looking really good, and I am sure that plenty of players will be going after their sheer strength and brutality. The full game is set to feature 12 teams so it will be much more diverse than the Closed Beta. I do not really want to be too critical about the game because the game will still undergo overall optimization and tons of content that will be present in the full game was missing from the early access build. I am certainly looking forward to the full release of Blood Bowl III this September as I really want to see how much it is better than the previous title in the franchise.
