Blood Bowl is back for another turn of vicious matches where following the rules is less important than bending them. The third official videogame adaptation by Cyanide Studio based on the successful Games Workshop board game franchise, Blood Bowl 3 follows the latest rules and adds new content to keep these matches fresh and visceral, just as the bloodthirsty crowd loves it.

Be Aggressive, B-e Aggressive

As a newcomer to the franchise, I won’t be able to dive into complex comparisons with the previous outings and will scrutinize Blood Bowl 3’s merits on its own. But picking up on the complex term, this is a proper label for the game. Ignore the brutal cinematic cutscenes as these are only there to illustrate a significant match moment, and focus on the tactical and extremely slow-paced turn-based gameplay that will resonate with diehard fans of tabletop games and lengthy sessions. That is what Blood Bowl 3 is all about – a brutal tactical sport with a fair dose of arbitrariness to the outcome of each action.

Skipping the tutorial is a surefire way of getting your dreams crushed, along with your players’ skulls. Learning the basics is a must, but understanding how the advanced systems work is crucial if you have any intention of ever scoring a touchdown. An early misconception is that the randomness from dice rolls plays the biggest role in the end result of a match, and you’re right to think so – even the simple action of picking up the ball can fail and lead to a turnover.

However, experience will show you that there are ways to turn the odds in your favor, from organized player positioning to assists, passing, and more. While you will never completely move away from the RNG-based actions, you will get to a stage where tactics and intelligent interpretation of each play may spare you from constantly hoping for a miraculous dice roll. Iteration, iteration, iteration… such must be your approach until you reach a superior understanding of the strengths of your team and the way that the AI behaves in each situation.

Risk management is a good way to describe your actions on the field. Will you try to rush with the ball through a group of opposing players and hope that the dice rolls favor you, or do you prefer to take a slower approach by grouping various players around your main and protect them as you move towards the goal line? There’s tactic to this bloody mayhem, along with the countless statistics and abilities powering it under the hood – the more you understand what makes it tick, the better you will be at it.

There are many factors to take into consideration, starting with team selection. You can pick the classic Orcs, the stylish Dark Elves or the disgusting Nurgle, to name but a few, with varying degrees of mastery difficulty, translated into a clear showing of strong and weak points. You may opt for the automatic creation of a balanced team – recommended for new players – or manually recruit the players that you want within the allotted budget. Try to save some gold for extras such as cheerleaders or the vital dice re-rolls, among a selection of bonuses that could benefit your team instantly or in the long run. You can also change your formation and play around with various customization options, from the team jersey and emblem, right down to the cheerleaders, ball, and dice.

A solo campaign available to all factions is one of the big selling points of Blood Bowl 3, diverting the spotlight from the competitive multiplayer for a few hours. More than an elongated tutorial, this is perfect to hone your skills in more ways than one and to understand how to approach the different types of foes that come your way.

Nonetheless, the AI does have this exasperating tendency to overthink some of the movements, right to the point where you may start wondering if the game didn’t crash altogether. Patience is a virtue, and in this game it’s more than that, it’s an entry requirement that should be clearly stated on the box.

Some exasperating bugs also rear their ugly heads, such as an opponent character gliding across the field instead of running. But the worst one was the frequent and huge delay when selecting a decisive action such as re-rolling or a special move, something that lasts up to 10 seconds at a time – the game freezes, you are suddenly on hold and hoping that the game resumes, but the scares are real.

Bloody Display of Power

Looking at its predecessor, Blood Bowl 3 doesn’t seem to represent a massive jump in terms of graphical quality. The match atmosphere is suitably gritty, and it get you immersed in the chaos, but you can look at it in the same way that you gaze at the human cheerleaders – they drive your attention initially, but look closely and you’ll notice that there’s still room for improvement. In a nutshell, it’s a nice package that manages to convey the feeling of a cruel sport played by nasty creatures, but a lot more could have been done regarding facial features, as all players from the same position look alike.

On the same subject, I’d like to express some concern over the countless shop pages for player customization. Perhaps the default limitation in player likenesses is intended to push us to the shop, where you can browse seven pages of head, right shoulder, left shoulder, right arm, left arm, and body items. Spread across the various races as they may be, it still doesn’t excuse the lack of face customization.

Make no mistake, you will lose; you will be frustrated; you will wonder what you did wrong to suffer a humiliating defeat. Such is the predicament of Blood Bowl 3, a savage sport where being skilled just won’t cut it sometimes – you must be almost flawless and have a little bit of luck on your side as well. That’s all part of the process, much in the same way as a player drops the ball in real life, but with an extra splash of blood to sweeten the deal for the bloodthirsty crowd.

Incidentally, the more you play, the more you are bound to enjoy it. Scoring a touchdown is deserving of an actual fist pump for you alone to see, and winning match after match is a feat that won’t leave you cold. Practice makes perfect, even if the road is filled with obstacles in the form of dice rolls.

Blood Bowl 3 is one for fans of tabletop games and especially those who appreciate this specific franchise; players with very little patience for turn-based action and intricate mechanics surely won’t be convinced by this new entry. In the end, the way that the community grows, the quality-of-life improvements that Cyanide manages to add, and how compelling the seasons will be is what will ultimately make or break the game – right now, it’s ferociously good but flawed, and still somewhat far from the revolution that some fans may have been waiting for.   

Score: 7.5/10

Pros:

• Complex to learn but alluring to master
• One-of-a-kind mix of strategy and sports
• Potentially addictive in official competitions

Cons:

• Limited player customization pushing players to the shop
• Some bugs and AI delay hindering the experience

Blood Bowl 3 review code provided by publisher. You can read MP1st’s review and scoring policy right here.