Blood Bowl 2: Fun but Lacking?

(Disclaimer: I am new to the bloodbowl franchise so i lack the perspective of a long term fan)

Blood Bowl two is the newest iteration in the Bloodbowl franchise. Being the newest in the franchise it naturally boasts a host of new features. Some of these features, however, are more welcome to the franchise than others.

Starting with the new campaign mode the game opens itself up to new players and offers a tutorial and guide to those unfamiliar with the systems. The largest complaint I've seen with the campaign is the distance it takes with the established lore of Bloodbowl. In previous games certain games from the history of Bloodbowl could be played in the single player option. There is another singleplayer option which lets you take your own team through its own league with persisting affects. Honestly this is a small complaint as the body of the game is the multiplayer.

The multiplayer of Bloodbowl 2 is set up in player created leagues and competitions. Any player can set up and manage their own league with varying degrees of publicity. This means you can join a public league or set up a private league of just your friends. In league matches team progress is persistent along with injuries which offers a wide variety of team builds and situations.

Bloodbowl 2 is well balanced and well designed however its major improvement over previous iterations is the graphics quality of the animations. These small improvements make the game so much more fun to watch and play. The other major improvement was made after launch which was the addition of the "Coaches View" which added the option to add a grid to the field and the ability to view player names and skills.

While BloodBowl 2 is not without fault though as it lacked a large amount of races compared to previous games, especially if you haven't purchased either of the two DLC races, Lizardmen or Woodelves. The team behind Bloodbowl has promised at least four more races in the future and is on record as saying these races will be free. After the brief fiasco surrounding Bloodbowl 2's launch the free races may only be accepted when they have been seen.

This game fills the turn based strategy game hole in my heart and lets me bring all of the star players I created into the league. While some may complain about the amount of dice rolls in the game the randomness mixes up the game making it more fun and unpredictable that can really test your ability to maneuver out of situations and fix the situations that can occur. The random number generators also serve to balance of the game and makes it more fun to play more experienced players.

In my opinion The good of Bloodbowl 2 greatly outweighs the bad and is a great ongoing game. Starting a league with your friends and living through the highs of victory and the agony of the deaths of your star players really lets you invest emotionally to your team and the game.