Review: Blitz: The League - PS2, Xbox

Does the first non-NFL professional football entry make the cut?

Tuesday, November 8, 2005

QuickView:

Good: Humorous, entertaining

Bad: Doesn’t last, bad connection between game and story

Summary: It’s like wrestling and football combined.

Is it Playmakers? Is it Any Given Sunday? Nope, it’s Blitz: The League. That’s right, Midway isn’t quitting the virtual football world. Instead they’ve decided to come out with a game that’s supposed to bring what the “real” NFL is like. Of course the game can’t use real NFL licenses and the game ends up being over the top and just down right silly sometimes. Even so the game does entertain and will make you laugh once in a while.

Blitz is essentially the old NFL Blitz that we use to know. However, only EA can sport the NFL life now so Midway went ahead and created a game that mocks the NFL in an exaggerated sense. You’ll still be playing with your standard 8-on8 Blitz game and it pretty much feels like the old series too.

One feature added is the Clash Meter. When this meter fills up you’ll be able to unleash you player into a zone of lighting quick speed as everything slows down except you. There are problems with the Clash Meter because after you’ve toyed around with it, you’ll learn exactly when to use them and the game gets a bit too easy, especially with how fast the meter regenerates. Late hits and unnecessary roughness is still game in this version and the animations are still funny to watch. You’ll be able to witness gigantic linebackers tossing around tiny receivers like rag dolls. You may even cringe at times.

Also falling in line with the Blitz series is the horrid AI. Defenders won’t attempt to knock down passes and the computer will fall for the same money play over and over without adjustments. Fans of the old Blitz series will be very familiar with the core gameplay.

What Blitz showcases as its best feature isn’t the actual football gameplay. Blitz is about the drama behind the lives of football superstars. The campaign mode exemplifies this by allowing you to go to clubs, brawls, illegal gambling outings, drug rings, and much more devious acts that the high life brings. Campaign mode brings this to you in a form of a story. I’d like to say that the mode closely resembles the story modes of most of the WWE wrestling games now.

Certain interesting situations will arise such as betraying players’ trust, whether or not you should risk a player’s life by playing them, and other such more extreme scenarios. It does put a great little twist to football, but the problem with all this is that it really doesn’t tie into the actually football gameplay that well. For instance, when you are playing the regular game, it doesn’t really matter who’s on the field because it’s so arcadey. On top of that, you won’t care about your players because they’re all people you’ve never heard of and they lack that NFL stardom. This obviously isn’t Midway’s fault because of exclusive rights, but nonetheless it still affects the overall appeal and connection with the game.

The game is stunning when it comes to gameplay. Players are smooth and have a glossy shine. The framerate holds up well too. If there’s one thing Blitz does great is how it presents the action to you. They do a good job of zooming in and giving you great angles of big hits and spectacular plays. It’s a nice change of pace from the regular simulation view. The game is loud and you’ll be hearing a lot of “crunches”; that is, you’ll be hearing bones, helmets, pads all crunching. Some of the curse lines and taunts are fairly amusing too. All in all, the graphics and sound are done quiet well.

I think the biggest problem with Blitz is that its core gameplay doesn’t connect with the story elements. For instance, the most fun I had playing was with a friend just going head to head. This way the AI playcalling and stupidity is absent and makes the arcade action fun, but when I play the games by myself with the story mode, it just isn’t as fun. So in the end with all the added features of campaign mode and the inside lives of football studs, the same thing still brings the most enjoyment: going against friends.

Graphics: B+

Sound: B+

First Play: B-

Last Play: C-

Gameplay: C-

Overall: 75% C

Comments

lawrence.com does not necessarily agree with comments posted below - responsibility lies with the relevant user alone. Read our full policy

Review: Blitz: The League - PS2, Xbox

Does the first non-NFL professional football entry make the cut?

Comments

Post a comment