Blood Bowl III Launches Today
Blood Bowl III is launching today but is it time to head to the pitch or wait in the dugout for this one?
Cyanide Studio (the Developer) and Nacon (the Publisher) are bringing you Blood Bowl III today available on PC, PS 4/5, and Xbox consoles. It’s more time on the pitch with 12 teams and a whole lot of fantasy football action.
Blood Bowl III – $29.99 (Steam)
“Wars are no longer fought in the Old World since the populace decided to resolve their differences through a sport dedicated to the god Nuffle: Blood Bowl. However, just as much blood is shed in this sport as on the battlefields it replaced. Murder, mutilation, cheating, corruption, sorcery and even divine intervention are all fair game on the pitch, to the delight of every rabid fan!”
Welcome To Blood Bowl
If this is your first time hearing about Blood Bowl III then here’s some quick basics. It’s a turn based Fantasy Football game where the players assume the role of the “coach” and as you move your players around the field XCOM-style. Much like an American Football game, your goal is to score touchdowns and beat the other team. You’ll play on offense and defense (sometimes with the same drive due to a fumble).
The video game is a (mostly) faithful adaptation of the board game and has a whole lot of digital cinematic flair due to it being a video game. So if you’re looking for a digital version of the board game to play with friends virtually, then yeah…this is that game.
Blood Bowl III also has some new features over the previous incarnations of the game. Not only are the rules updated to the latest edition of the board game (including new skills and updated passing mechanics) but there is a new single player campaign as well. There are some other quality of life changes as well. Oh and of course there are a few different teams in the mix this time around
Team List At Launch
- The Orcs
- The Humans
- The Dark Elves
- The Dwarves
- The Skaven
- The Chaos Chosen
- The Elven Union
- The Nurgle
- The Imperial Nobility
- The Black Orcs
- The Old World Alliance
- The Chaos Renegades
There’s also a competitive mode if you want to try your team against other players. There is going to be an official ladder to climb in the rankings as well as the ability to join leagues and host custom tournaments with your prefered settings.
And Now The Other Stuff
If you’ve hopped over to the Steam page to look at the game you’ll probably notice there’s a few different editions. It basically breaks down to “base game” vs Orc Edition vs Human Edition vs Everything Edition. You should also be aware this game has a microtransaction store where you can purchase more in-game “stuff” for your team. Furthermore, the pre-launch game has been having some issues. The devs have already released a patch and are working on the server issues.
Now, I have not played the release build of Blood Bowl III. I did get a demo during one of the beta weekends and it’s exactly what you’d expect: a digital Blood Bowl. Hopefully the developers can iron out any kinks and smash those bugs to get the game up and running smoothly. I know there is a rabid fan base for this game and if you’re a fan you’ll enjoy this game …when it’s working.
Personally I’m taking a bit more of a “wait and see” approach with this one. It sure doesn’t seem like folks got to play too much during the pre-launch 48 hour window. I think there could be something there for the diehard fans of Blood Bowl but I’m going to check back in after a few patches to see if it’s running smoother. If the same digital Blood Bowl cycle repeats then I’m sure there will be more teams released later and that might be a better time to check out the game.
You might want to wait for those launch day woes to pass or your initial impression might be a big fumble with Blood Bowl III.
