Overview- Critic & User
Reviews - Videos &
Screenshots
News- Codes
& FAQs - Gameplay
Controls - Similar
Games
Answers
Bundles
Critic & User Reviews
IGN Review of Blitz: The League II
For every simulation experience there is an arcade alternative. It's the way it has always been and the way it always will be. Keeping that in mind we have Blitz, a game that has been the arcade alternative to EA Sports' Madden football franchise for years. In its formative years Blitz presented a much simpler style of fun but recently the series has taken a turn to the gruesome, Eli Roth brand of football action.
Blitz: The League II continues on the path of the first game with a campaign mode and script that is sculpted by former Playmakers scribe Peter Egan. The game inherits the spirit of the show by giving players a world where injuries are cured by steroid injections on the sideline and deals are struck by sleeping with marketing executives. Sadly none of those shenanigans amount to a good videogame.
Oddly enough it's the over the top stuff that works pretty well and the commonplace gameplay is what lets the game down. The League II brings many of the same conventions as the first with Clash and Unleashed moves becoming available for positive yardage and good plays on defense. Thankfully the moves have been expanded a bit and allow you to target body parts to injure and repair those injuries with bone setting and needle driving mini-games.
Late hits are also back in Blitz but take a slightly more violent form than we've seen before. Rather than just pulling an over the top tackle on your already downed opponent your character will go to one of more than a handful of set positions and start wailing on the poor bastard's body part. Sometimes it's with a cleat; sometimes it's with the other dude's helmet. It all ends with a satisfying blood spatter on the screen.
The injury mini-games work well and remain fun through each game (mainly because they're not used all that often) but the late hit beat downs get old in a hurry. The least they could have done was have a quick time event trigger rather than the overly simplistic "mash A as fast as you can" prompt that comes up now. It's a good way to drain stamina from your opponent's key players but it's so boring you won't want to bother before long.
Off the field you'll find a list of expensive drugs that you can feed to three of your star players. They have the usual boosts and benefits without relaying any of the harmful side effects. Surprise, surprise.
All of this tomfoolery is driven forward by a makeshift football league of miscreants of which you are the new starring member. You're a hot rookie who turns down a big deal to play in his hometown (which you choose during character creation). Your character talks like a complete idiot in every situation yet still manages to land gorgeous women and make millions of dollars. Lawrence Taylor and Jay Mohr lend their voices to the storytelling with LT reprising his role as the evil New York Nightmare linebacker and Jay playing your agent. They each do a decent job but the plot as a whole falls a little flat.
The worst part of Blitz actually isn't anything that I've mentioned up until now. Being that this is a football game I do have to talk about the game of football a bit and that is where Blitz is dealt its largest blow. The animations look bad with rigid movements and crazy rubber banding at work. The hits don't always line up and the AI constantly makes terrible decisions. Oh, and don't make your character a running back. Thanks to the overly exaggerated animations the game relies entirely on the Clash abilities to form any type of substantive running attack.
Visually The League II is mediocre. The player models look decent if not a bit too plasticky, especially in the rain. Animations are unrealistic and rigid and then there's the aforementioned rubber banding that happens when your players can't hold a block. There's a solid framerate and the presentation values for the campaign mode are kept at a fairly high level, even if the content isn't quite there.
Jay Mohr and Lawrence Taylor add character to the storyline, but nothing above or beyond the quality of the rest of the game. Frank Caliendo delivers his Madden impersonation in the commentary booth and it would have been good if they'd recorded a few more lines. As it is now you'll hear similar phrases regurgitated constantly. Sound effects are as cringe worthy as they should be when it comes to dishing out the pain and breaking a few bones.
©2008-10-15, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Blitz: The League II continues on the path of the first game with a campaign mode and script that is sculpted by former Playmakers scribe Peter Egan. The game inherits the spirit of the show by giving players a world where injuries are cured by steroid injections on the sideline and deals are struck by sleeping with marketing executives. Sadly none of those shenanigans amount to a good videogame.
Oddly enough it's the over the top stuff that works pretty well and the commonplace gameplay is what lets the game down. The League II brings many of the same conventions as the first with Clash and Unleashed moves becoming available for positive yardage and good plays on defense. Thankfully the moves have been expanded a bit and allow you to target body parts to injure and repair those injuries with bone setting and needle driving mini-games.
Late hits are also back in Blitz but take a slightly more violent form than we've seen before. Rather than just pulling an over the top tackle on your already downed opponent your character will go to one of more than a handful of set positions and start wailing on the poor bastard's body part. Sometimes it's with a cleat; sometimes it's with the other dude's helmet. It all ends with a satisfying blood spatter on the screen.
The injury mini-games work well and remain fun through each game (mainly because they're not used all that often) but the late hit beat downs get old in a hurry. The least they could have done was have a quick time event trigger rather than the overly simplistic "mash A as fast as you can" prompt that comes up now. It's a good way to drain stamina from your opponent's key players but it's so boring you won't want to bother before long.
Off the field you'll find a list of expensive drugs that you can feed to three of your star players. They have the usual boosts and benefits without relaying any of the harmful side effects. Surprise, surprise.
All of this tomfoolery is driven forward by a makeshift football league of miscreants of which you are the new starring member. You're a hot rookie who turns down a big deal to play in his hometown (which you choose during character creation). Your character talks like a complete idiot in every situation yet still manages to land gorgeous women and make millions of dollars. Lawrence Taylor and Jay Mohr lend their voices to the storytelling with LT reprising his role as the evil New York Nightmare linebacker and Jay playing your agent. They each do a decent job but the plot as a whole falls a little flat.
The worst part of Blitz actually isn't anything that I've mentioned up until now. Being that this is a football game I do have to talk about the game of football a bit and that is where Blitz is dealt its largest blow. The animations look bad with rigid movements and crazy rubber banding at work. The hits don't always line up and the AI constantly makes terrible decisions. Oh, and don't make your character a running back. Thanks to the overly exaggerated animations the game relies entirely on the Clash abilities to form any type of substantive running attack.
Visually The League II is mediocre. The player models look decent if not a bit too plasticky, especially in the rain. Animations are unrealistic and rigid and then there's the aforementioned rubber banding that happens when your players can't hold a block. There's a solid framerate and the presentation values for the campaign mode are kept at a fairly high level, even if the content isn't quite there.
Jay Mohr and Lawrence Taylor add character to the storyline, but nothing above or beyond the quality of the rest of the game. Frank Caliendo delivers his Madden impersonation in the commentary booth and it would have been good if they'd recorded a few more lines. As it is now you'll hear similar phrases regurgitated constantly. Sound effects are as cringe worthy as they should be when it comes to dishing out the pain and breaking a few bones.
©2008-10-15, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved