Welcome to our CHEATfactor Game Review of Blood Bowl 2. We review the game and then factor in how the available cheats affect the overall game experience. For better or worse, our reviews will help you decide whether or not to use cheats when playing the game.

The fact that there is another interactive version of Cyanide Studios' fantasy football (and I mean that in the orcs and night elves way, not the humans and stats way) tabletop game is sort of astonishing to me but what's even more amazing is just how well this one works. It's by no means perfect but the series finally feels whole and well reproduced in an interactive format. With a surprising amount of depth and great presentation value Blood Bowl II is at it's best when playing with two skilled and experienced players who know what makes the game so special but be warned, playing against the cold and calculated AI will leave you feeling flatter than if you've been run over a high level dark elf.

The basic idea of Blood Bowl is simple enough, take American rules football but replace the million dollar athletes with Orcs, Elves and other fantasy races, while also replacing a good deal of the rules with mayhem and violence. That doesn't mean though that Blood Bowl is more NFL Bltiz than Madden in fact that's pretty much the opposite as the game is packed with tons of depth and content. Your first instinct may be to rush in to your first match and just try to inflict as much pain on your opponent as possible but you'll learn quickly that nearly everything you do in Bloodbowl needs to be calculated or you'll be suffering (literally) a loss before long.

The game comes packed with eight different teams for you to try out; Humans, Orcs, Skaven, Dwarfes, High Elves, Dark Elves, Chaos and Britannia. Each of them feels different enough to warrant experimentation and there are perks to playing with each one. There are issues though as it seems like not all races were created equal for the game. While some of the teams like Dwarves, Spavins and Dark Elves feel like a balanced way to play the game, some of the other races mainly High Elves and Chaos don't seem like they're an as integral part the experience and aren't as well though out and sort of feel like after thoughts. When matched up against larger teams (some of the team's can literally have more players than you) these teams feel like they offer very little challenge and are almost expected to lose, almost like the Jacksonville Jaguars of the Blood Bowl league.

Nearly everything you do in Blood Bowl starts with a roll of the dice and though the virtual dice which are basically just a random number generator never really feels as satisfying as throwing a real-life dice it does add an interesting new level of depth. Statically, every move you make has a one in six chance of failure and once you realize that you'll learn to question nearly everything you do. Do you focus on attacking the other team's players or attempting to form some sort of offensive strategy? As in real-life sports, scoring is key but it also happens to be one of the most risky things you can try to do. Each of the game's eight teams has their owns strengths and weaknesses which makes every game feel unique and interesting throughout the entire sixteen turn process.

There's no doubt that it's physical predecessor, Blood Bowl II is at it's best when it's played with actual people, whether they're online or in person. It's a great game to talk smack through and it feels more forgivable when your opponent is rolling and the dice god aren't playing to your favor than when it's doing so with a cold AI opponent. The game also features full online leagues that are sure to keep me busy for quite some time.

I was also surprised just how well Blood Bowl II sounded and looked. The play-by-play announcers are funny  and entertaining enough that they add to the game rather than forcing me to have to mute the sound (I'm looking at you Jim Nantz and Phil Simms from Madden). While the game isn't technically stunning in the visual department by any means, great animations mean it never gets old to watch a dark elf get smacked across the field. A lot of the big hits are presented in an absurdly entertaining slow-motion, which makes them even more satisfying. This review is based on both the PS4 and PC build of the game and though there was a bit of slowdown on the PS4, both performed remarkably well.

I still prefer the traditional table-top version of Blood Bowl but the advantages of being able to play this online means that I can once again play with my old table-top gaming buddies in other states. It's fun, it's brutal and it could even serve as a great intro to the world of table-top games for this looking to get in. Blood Bowl II is by no means perfect, but it's still a lot of fun.