Blood Bowl 3 review – it’s time for a real match

Blood Bowl is a board game that continues to attract new players from all over the world. It’s not as strong here as it is in most Warhammer-centric games, but even then you’ll find someone who plays it. I myself am one of those who occasionally plays it, so I was really looking forward to Blood Bowl 3. The following lines will tell you how the game turned out.

• Platform: PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox X/S, Nintendo Switch
• Publication date: 02/23/2023
• Manufacturer: Cyanide Studio
• Genre: Sports turn strategy
• Czech localization: No
• Multiplayer: Yes
• Data to download: 12 GB
• Game time: 10-15 hours + dozens of hours in multiplayer
• Price: 735 CZK (couples)

Blood Bowl 3 campaign will give you a chance to prove yourself

The stadiums of the Warhammer Fantasy world host a variety of entertainment. However, one of the most popular is undoubtedly the fantasy alternative to American football called Blood Bowl, which is significantly more bloody than the sport practiced in our reality. Death? This is something players have to reckon with here. Fortunately, this does not apply to you. You are reincarnated as a coach in the face of one of the most significant events in this universe – the Battle of the sponsors. It is divided into six tournaments in which you can take part.

Of course, everything happens quite sequentially, so first you and your team head to the stadium where they are training. The patron of this place is the legendary thresher Varag Vurdalak-Chuer, who is waiting for you with his orcs. What we’re going to talk? The first passage is a tutorial where you will learn everything you need to know. Then you head to the imposing Black Ark ocean where another cool trainer is waiting for you. This time it’s covered by several teams that are also trying to win this tournament, and this is how all Blood Bowl 3 scenarios continue, in which you then unlock new sponsors that determine the price of some of the services available in the campaign. Drag and drop is decent, but not difficult. However, I don’t know if more could be expected from this genre.

What a match, what a flip show

But enough has been said about the Clash of Sponsors campaign, which is one of the cornerstones of Blood Bowl 3. Now let’s see what the match format looks like. There are always a couple of teams at the start, whose task is to ferry a strange-looking balloon from one side of the field to the other. Players can use any means to implement their plans. However, only fists are legal. As a coach, you move your players around on your turn and try to make the most of them. For any mistake, the game immediately punishes you, making it impossible to continue the game and providing an opportunity for the opponent, for whom the same rules apply. One mistake and the round ends.

Do you think you can make few mistakes while playing? Exactly the opposite. While the basic movement is heavily based on tactics, if you want to push a little further with your guys, the dice come into play. That is, the classic ones with a range from 1 to 6. And dragging the range is just the beginning. Your guys will have to throw at the moments when they catch the ball, pick it up from the ground or try to pull it out from under the enemy siege. For myself, I always devour this factor in the tablecloth, and here, to be honest, I was not satisfied. The combination of tactics and randomness is something that will never leave you completely alone, because at first glance, a certain action can turn into a disaster in an instant.

In Blood Bowl 3, there is a possibility that something will go wrong. From slipping on vomit while trying to score a goal, to a poorly executed jump over the horns of an enemy minotaur. To prevent your turn from ending, you always have the option of re-rolling twice during one half of the match, but this may not lead to the best result. Sometimes you just end the disaster with a re-throw, which leads to a much worse climax. You will feel this fact in contact situations.

Each team is a unique collection

Blood Bowl 3 isn’t just about carrying a balloon, it’s also about punching. An imaginary train of pain begins almost from the first round and does not stop until the very end of the match. The main role in it is played by the strength of the fighters participating in one of a number of clashes. When there is a one-on-one fight, only the value of the pair that gives the attacker one bone, if the result is identical, counts as a result. However, when you enter an encounter where you clearly have an advantage, you can count two dice in a row, otherwise your opponent chooses from the results. In this case, “combat” dice are used with results that allow you to completely block the enemy’s attack, move the toe, or, conversely, get a memorial from him. So it’s always a good idea to think about whether the action makes sense or if you’re taking too many risks.

Falling and hitting a victim can have different consequences in Blood Bowl 3. Someone just reaches out, someone throws a shoulder, and then it can also happen that the player simply dies. So it’s not necessary if you ask felchat for help. That is, if you have paid for it. As is often the case in sports, many things need funding because a quality team needs the best possible care. You can hire doctors, cheerleaders, cheerleaders, extra dice rolls, assistant coaches, or the guy with the pointed hat. Each of the elements can only minimally affect the course of the game, but all parts are taken into account in the mosaic.

You can spend as much as you want on different serepets, but quality players are the cornerstone of the team. Currently, Blood Bowl 3 basically gives you ten teams to choose from, in addition to which you can already find two sold as DLC. But back to the spectrum itself. It consists of diverse parties. We have dwarves, dark elves, humans, and a mixture of the “good” nations of the Old World Alliance or the other side of the Chaos Renegades barricade. Everyone goes to Blood Bowl 3 matches with specific players, only the combinations already mentioned can work with a wider range. The uniqueness of formations automatically determines the tactics they use on the battlefield. You don’t have to run much after the dwarves, but only a few can break their crowd with a ball, and the skaven are good at running, but not very good at combat.

In addition to building a team from the very beginning, you can work on its development. After the match, available points are awarded to those who managed to finish the ball to the goal or knock down one of the opponents. The more of them, the more miracles they can do with them. The most basic upgrades are always built around adding an ability. But once you want to change the stats, you need to have more experience points available. Character development is definitely a factor that makes you develop certain relationships with the characters afterwards, and it hurts even more when, for example, your favorite runner is killed by slipping on a wet floor. You will see for yourself how much time it cost you to produce it.

Will Blood Bowl 3 be DLC heaven?

The creators are actually going down the same path as Games Workshop in their content. What does this mean in practice? Instead of getting most of the teams right from the start, you can look forward to regularly adding new teams to the game. However, in a large number of cases, these will be paid DLC, as the current version of Blood Bowl 3 already shows. In the one next to the base, outside are two manchafts from the second edition of Blood Bowl. a game from the start that you can buy if you’re interested, or they’ll just leave it locked and thus deprive themselves of the strategy it offers. In the long term, we can look forward to adding a really rich set of commands, probably with tadpoles, Khorne, Norsca, ogres or wood elves on the way.

Apparently, the monetization policy in Blood Bowl 3 will not only apply to paid sets, but also cosmetic changes. Already, the game menu is overflowing with visual improvements that can be purchased for pieces of Chaotite Ore (Warpston). They can be obtained relatively easily. Just reach into your wallet, pull out your credit card, and you can start mining green crystals that provide visual evolution. In addition to cosmetic items, they can also be used to purchase access to the Battle Pass. This form of monetization seems really wild to me, because it’s not a free game, but a normal paying job, in which this concept does not really suit me, and I certainly do not praise in general for having it.

After a troubled start, I got a great match in Blood Bowl 3.

A few days ago, I planned to review Blood Bowl 3 here on February 20th when the emgargo subsides, but the reality I had to face finally made me change my plans. I got a rather problematic game that had problems with memory leaks, so it crashed in certain situations. As a result, I decided to wait for the first patch, and as a “reward” I received a relatively well-functioning work, which, apart from slightly angry servers, from a technical point of view, I still have nothing to complain about. In fact, the only thing I really don’t like about this part is the creators’ monetization policy and the fact that we have two DLCs from the start that foreshadow the direction that the creators will take.

The gameplay itself, however, is fully consistent with the format presented by the board, which was the predecessor of the creation of this work. Matches are filled with tense moments where you can sometimes find it hard to breathe while watching your player try to get to the opposite side of the field. The basic set of commands is decent, there are plenty to choose from. Besides, development is what I like. Despite the criticism from the previous paragraph, that’s why I don’t have such a big problem with achieving a higher ranking. All in all, we can predict that Blood Bowl 3 has a good future, so we hope that the creators will be able to maintain their work in the long term.