REVIEW – Blood Bowl 3 is a game that had everything it needed to be successful: an original idea, a fun tone and a huge fanbase. Unfortunately, these were not enough to cover up the game’s many flaws and problems. Blood Bowl 3 was a disappointment with buggy, money-sucking and outdated graphics.

The basic idea behind Blood Bowl 3 is very simple: take the diverse races of the Warhammer universe (orcs, dwarves, vampires, etc.) and throw them into a sport similar to American football. The result will be a brutal, chaotic and humorous gameplay in which you not only have to strategise, but also take into account the possibility of unlucky throws or fatal injuries. The game offers several modes to choose from: campaign (where you can build your own team), online matches (where you can compete against other players) or practice (where you can test your skills). There are also plenty of customisation options: you can choose a race (out of 12), uniforms (colours and patterns), logo or stadium.

Bug Bowl

Unfortunately, many of these promising features are rendered unenjoyable by the game’s terrible technical state. Blood Bowl 3 is full of bugs and glitches that regularly affect or hinder gameplay. Some examples of these include:

• Animations often stutter or freeze
• The camera sometimes shows events from the wrong angle or bumps into something
• AI sometimes makes meaningless decisions or does not react to anything
• Online matches sometimes break or crash
• The controls sometimes do not work or respond to the wrong button
• Sound effects are sometimes missing or repetitive

These are just a few examples of how frustrating it can be to play this game.

In addition to the bugs, the game’s graphics feel dated and poor. Character models and textures are low-resolution and lacking in detail, light and shadow effects are weak and colours are dull. The game doesn’t take advantage of the capabilities of modern hardware, and even so it lags or slows down at times. The graphics add nothing to the atmosphere or enjoyment of the game.

Blood Money

If all this wasn’t enough, the game also has an aggressive monetisation system. The basic version of the game costs €60 (which in itself seems exorbitant for a game of this quality), but that’s just the beginning. There are two types of currency in the game: gold (which can be earned by playing the game) and crystal (which can be bought with real money), which can be used to buy customisation items or new races. Yes, new races. In the game, only 8 races are available by default (out of 12), the rest you have to pay for. The price of a new race is around €10, which means that if you want to buy all of them, you have to spend an additional €40. That would be a total of €100 for a buggy and ugly game.

The prices of customisation items are also unrealistically high: a new shapewear, for example, costs €5. Moreover, most of these items can only be bought with a crystal, so you can’t get them by playing. This means that if you want to fully customise your team or try out all the different types, you will have to spend hundreds of euros.

This is an unacceptable practice for a game that already sells itself at a premium.

Blood Fun

The only saving grace of the game could be that the gameplay itself is fun and exciting. And indeed, the basic idea behind Blood Bowl 3 is a very good one: a sports game in which not only physical strength and tactics matter, but also luck and risk-taking. In the game, we roll a die before each move, which determines whether we succeed or fail. If we fail, we lose our turn or even our player. This means that we must always think about how much it is worth to risk a certain move or attack.

The gameplay is thus full of twists and surprises, which can sometimes be very funny or frustrating. The humorous atmosphere of the game adds to this: commentators make funny remarks on events, characters strike funny poses or talk to each other, and the game is full of references and parodies of other pop culture phenomena. So the gameplay could potentially be very enjoyable if it wasn’t so spoiled by bugs and microtransactions.

Blood Bore

Blood Bowl 3 is a game that promised much more than it delivered. The basic idea of the game is very good and original, but the execution is abysmal and disappointing. The game is full of bugs and glitches that ruin the enjoyment and atmosphere. The game’s graphics are outdated and poor, which is not fitting for a game set in 2023. The game’s monetization system is aggressive and money-sucking, forcing players to spend hundreds of euros on a buggy and ugly game. The gameplay itself could be fun and exciting if it wasn’t so influenced by bugs and microtransactions.

Blood Bowl 3 is a bloody disappointment that is not worth the price, neither by default nor as an extra.

-BadSector-

Publisher: Nacon

Developer: Cyanide Studio

Style: Strategy sports game

Release: February 23, 2023.