‘Blood Bowl 3’ gets “mostly negative” Steam reviews over “embarrassing” launch

nme.com:

Blood Bowl 3 was finally released yesterday (February 23) but already has a “mostly negative” rating on Steam.Developed by Cyanide Studio, the sequel to 2015’s Blood Bowl 2 sees “the iconic death sport return with the new video game of fantasy football faithfully using the latest board game rules.” Players are tasked with creating their team “then crush, mulch and cheat your way to the top… leaving your opponents in the graveyard.”An Early Access launch for Blood Bowl 3 was delayed in 2021 with the turn-based combat game’s full release then pushed back from February 2022 to 2023.“The pandemic has impacted production times, and these new dates will allow our development teams to give their fans polished games without compromising on our quality targets,” said Nacon’s head of publishing Benoît Clerc at the time.But over a year later than planned, it seems Blood Bowl 3 may not be worth the wait.

Just 26 per cent of the 460 reviews on Steam are positive with fans unhappy about skills not being implemented and the fact the only difference between the released game and the Early Access version is more teams.“All of the development effort has gone into the microtransactions store for cosmetics,” wrote one review. “It feels like all the previous community feedback went straight in the bin.

The microtransactions are extremely predatory and scummy.”Other players have complained that Blood Bowl 3 was virtually unplayable during a 48-hour early access period. “All I need is for the game to just function as intended and I can pretty much ignore the rest.

At the moment, not only is the game a total mess, it was almost non-functional for the entire duration of the 48 hour early unlock period I purchased,” said another review.Do not buy.