Blitz: The League II - Review

Added October 29th, 2008 by Karmum

The smash-mouth, in your face gritty gameplay has returned for another venture, Blitz the League II. The original Blitz: The League combined bone-crunching hits and a satisfying experience, which made for an overall great package. The main issue with this sequel is that it feels too much like its predecessor.  If you can get past this, what you will find is something different from the current football games on the market.

If you’re already familiar with the original Blitz game, you’ll immediately notice this game doesn’t go hand-in-hand with the NFL. There are no licensed players in the game; all are completely fictional. Blitz II plays like your standard game in several categories, but also is quite distinct.

Blitz: The League II emphasizes on something the people at the NFL attempt to be disassociated with: dirty hits. You are given a clash meter, which you fill up with big plays. If you decide to use this meter on defense, you will unleash dirty hits, which can possibly injure your opponents. As you land dirty hits, you will acquire “pips”. Six pips will fill your unleash meter, which can be used to land devastating hit on your opponent. If you choose to use your clash meter on offense, you will slow down time wherein you can make spectacular once-a-game catches or evade opponents.

The more dirty hits you land on your opponents, the more chances you’ll have to injure the opposing teammates. Landing a dirty hit will give you the opportunity to decide where you want to injure your opponent (in the leg, arm, chest, etc.). Once you choose the location of damage, tap the A button as quickly as possible to cause your opponent to leave the game for a longer period of time. Injuries range from broken collarbones to broken ribs, and many unusual ones in between. Your opponent can also land injury-prone hits on you.

When your opponents are on the ground, you might be given the option of a late hit. You can run up to the opponent and press the A button. This will initiate a mini-game, in which you will keep hitting A until your opponent either reverses it, or you acquire a pip. These late hits can range from punches to removing their helmets and beating them with it.

When your players are injured, you are initiated into “Triages.” Depending on the injury, you might have to pop a person’s bone back into place or inject them with a needle. Such as if a bone is dislocated, you must first move your analog sticks in the desired location to snap it into place. Then, you will be given a direction to snap them in, pull your analog sticks where it is required and the more accurate you are, the less time it will take for your player to recover.  If a needle is necessary, you are given a target to aim for, and the closer you are, the quicker a player comes back in. The problem with this is injuries such as broken ribs happen extremely frequently and inoculations don’t seem extremely practical. While this game is completely fictional, it seems too improbable.

The biggest part of Blitz: The League II is the campaign mode in which you’ll create a character and team. You will progress through 3 seasons, in 3 different leagues. Options such as training, statistics and juicing are available. The more dangerous the drug, the more prone you are to get caught. The problem with campaign mode is the fact it is extremely tedious. If you played the original Blitz campaign mode, you will notice it has taken a dive for the worst in Blitz: II.

Visually, this game is not spectacular. It suffers from looking too similar to the original, which was not a remarkable showcase in itself. However, there are weather effects such as rain that look nice. Weather will affect how you play, such as attempting to cut on a dime, but instead falling to the ground. Since Blitz: II is not emphasized on its graphics you won’t be bothered on how it looks.

The soundtrack in the game is from several different rap artists. Unless you're fan of the rap genre, you might want to disable the music provided, in favor of your own. Another letdown in the game is the announcers. You will immediately notice how one of the announcers has an eerie similar sound to John Madden. Random comments are issued from his mouth, which normally don’t even pertain to what is going on.

Complementing the single player mode is multiplayer. Ranked and custom matches, along with leaderboards are present.  You can compete online with your custom-made team from campaign mode.  Playing through several matches, I only experienced a few problems and felt it ran quite well.

Overall, Blitz: The League II suffers from terrible announcers, annoying soundtracks and a boring campaign mode. Despite this, it is a surprisingly fun game. The best part of Blitz: The League II is the gameplay itself.  Landing constant dirty hits and injuries never felt so great.