Blood Bowl is not going to be a game for everyone, lets get that out of the way off the bat. Blood Bowl is based on the table top game of the same name, and loosely mixes Gridiron with the Warhammer universe. It's an interesting combination that can be a bit of fun if you're willing to put the time into learning the rules and game mechanics.

As said, Blood Bowl is based of a table top game, which means that nearly everything is based on dice rolls (and each time you'll actually hear a dice roll noise). When you're moving past an opposing player, dice roll, when you're trying to tackle, dice roll, when you're trying to throw, dice roll, when you're trying to pick up the ball, dice roll, when you're... well, you get the point. All this means that a lot of the game is left to chance. Each player on the team has statistics that can increase their chances to beat opponents or successfully execute moves, but you have to put a lot of time into your team before you will start to see some tangible advantage to statistical upgrades.

There is a lot to take in when learning to play Blood Bowl, so it's highly recommended that you play through the tutorials first. They don't take too much time, which unfortunately means they're light on description for such a complex game, but if you take away the basics you should have enough of a foundation to make it into a proper game and get used to the mechanics yourself.

Blood Bowl is largely a turn based game, so it's fairly slow paced. You'll be spending a lot of your time figuring out where to position your players, and thinking through each move before you make it. The slow pace may be off-putting to some, especially if you're expecting a fast, aggressive game to match the visuals. After kick-off each team is given 16 turns per half to move your players and try to make it to the end-zone to score. Each team can keep moving their players until every player has made a move, or a player fails in one of their moves, resulting in the opposing team taking their turn to move around. The system works quite well, but as stated, so much is left to the roll of a dice, so one misstep can lead to a turnover when you're just starting to get your movement going.

There is also a real-time option for players who prefer that sort of thing, but it's not nearly as well structured or thought out as the turn based game. The real-time game has you clicking positions on the field to move players. You can pause the game to give orders to several players at once, but it's not nearly as strategic as the turn based mode, which the game is clearly designed around. Here things are much more simple, and although encounters are still dice based, everything is a lot quicker. The real-time mode is OK for a break from all the strategy of the regular game, but feels like a bit of an afterthought overall.

Graphically Blood Bowl is fairly average. Some of the fields (particularly the bigger stadiums) are fun to play in and are a bit more detailed, but some are quite bland. The character designs are about what you'd expect given it's based off the Warhammer license, but the overall quality of the graphics leaves a lot to be desired. Given the average graphics, it would also have been nice to see faster load times, which as it stands can be over a minute.

The sound isn't a whole lot better, with some looping orchestral music in menus that becomes quite jarring soon enough. There is some colour commentary also, which is a bit fun for a while, but ultimately becomes repetitive, which is admittedly a problem in many sports games.

Some people may love Blood Bowl, particularly if you're already into the table top game. However it's such a niche title that it's hard to recommend to a broad audience. With that said, if you're interested and willing to put a decent amount of time and effort into learning the intricacies of the game and leveling up your team, then Blood Bowl might just be worth trying out.