Loading up Blood Bowl 3 for the first time is a spectacle. There’s a glorious opening animation that sets the stage perfectly for a game about orcs, death, and (occasionally) football. Punches are thrown in packed stadiums, balls are spectacularly caught as teams are spurred on by their fans’ raucous cheers, and of course someone gets run over by a Death Roller. It’s a shame that everything goes downhill from here.
If you’re new to the world of Blood Bowl, it’s a great introduction. Violence comes first, tactics after. Death Rollers are, fittingly, a death sentence. If you’re a newcomer and missed the beta – a Death Roller is a giant lawnmower piloted by a dwarf with a bad case of bloodlust. They’re illegal and will result in a sending off for the offending dwarf, but you’ll almost definitely injure your opponent’s Star Player in the process, so it’s probably a worthwhile trade-off. In terms of understanding the vibe of Blood Bowl, developer Cyanide has done a great job. But in terms of improving on the tried-and-tested formula of the previous two video games and Games Workshop’s original tabletop game, Blood Bowl 3 often feels like a step backwards.
The tutorial is new for the game’s second beta – our editor-in-chief Stacey Henley could have done with this when she previewed the first, but I’m coming at it with an experienced head. Still, it seems fun and approachable for newcomers. The Halfling agent Rufus Bottomfoot who talks you through everything is a great character to coax you through the sometimes irrational rules of Old World sports chess. However, it could still do with some more explanations on Dodge rolls and Go For Its that Stacey ironically stumbled on in the first beta, and I had to Google how to throw my Goblin with my Troll.
Dwarves are another new addition for the second beta, and they’re, well, dwarves. They’re slow, stubborn, and brutal in equal measure, but then again my Black Orcs refused to recover and get back onto the pitch against Elves, so I might have just recruited a particularly wimpy clan. The best thing about the dwarves is that their bright beards stand out from the pitch – this is a major problem for the Orcs, whose green skin blends in perfectly with the green grass. Customising the armour helps a little, but not enough. Again I call for better player customisation in Blood Bowl 3, not only to include players of different races and genders, but also so I can see my damn Orcs.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like they’re coming. Gautier Brésard, Cyanide’s Project Manager, said that this is a “technical and time issue,” also citing budgets as a consideration when asked about adding more genders and skin colours in the Blood Bowl 3 Discord server. He did, however, say that “it’s obviously something we want [to] add.” For anything not currently in the Games Workshop miniature range, Cyanide may need to consult the miniatures producer – Brésard cited female dwarves as an example of this – but for the likes of Elves, Humans, and Ogres, adding genders and skin colours is just not a priority for the studio. Brésard did not respond to a request for comment.
This is disappointing, as in matches there are some excellent cutscenes as you smack a Goblin or take down an Elf Blitzer who has been dancing around your line of scrimmage for too long. These would only get better with fully customised teams and characters. When scoring a touchdown, the only cheerleaders in the game are currently two scantily-clad women (both human). It felt odd to see them celebrate my victory against their kin, so adding customisable cheerleaders should be added, too.
However, the cutscenes are the best part of the matches. The UI is cluttered and difficult to navigate. On-screen dice rolls only begin their animations after the result has been declared on the game log in the corner of your screen, negating any tension. I quite like the pop-out wheel to pick which die you want to use, but it doesn’t make a lot of sense compared to Blood Bowl 2, where you click on the die that has just rolled. Having two sets of dice on the same screen at the same time can only lead to confusion.
I’m hesitant to complain about bugs – this is a beta, after all – but there are some corkers here. Games against the AI frequently crash while making a decision between two dice rolls and the only fix is force-quitting the game, thus abandoning my match and any bonuses I would have accrued. Another quirk I noticed was how often I rerolled a roll and got the exact same result. This could have been bad luck, but it happened so often that it felt suspect. It even got to the stage where I was hoping for a worse result – Both Down to Attacker Down – just to see a reroll actually change the result. Some of them worked, yes, but I felt like rerolls in particular were stacked against me, although bad dice are a fundamental part of the Blood Bowl experience, so at least things were recreating that tabletop tournament feel.
Blood Bowl 3 is stylish, I’ll give it that. But as it stands in the second beta, there’s little else to get excited about. The UI in matches is the biggest flaw of Blood Bowl 3, but other areas need attention too. There are some kernels of good in the beta, too, but the best additions seem to have been added to the single-player portions, which – unless the game aims to find an entirely new audience – the majority of players will only glance at in favour of PvP action.
Source: Read Full Article