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Blitz: The League Review for Xbox |
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| Thursday, October 20, 2005 |
| | Title:
Blitz: The League
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System:
Xbox
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Genre:
sports
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Publisher:
Midway
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Developer:
Midway Entertainment
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Release:
October 17, 2005
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Online:
Yes
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ESRB:
M
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Obscenities, violence and drugs, oh my!
When EA Sports got exclusive rights to using the NFL license, it looked like the days of having non-Madden football games were over. Luckily for us gamers, this is where one of sport gaming's greatest and most storied franchises came back into the fold: NFL Blitz. Of course, with the lack of a license they had to drop the NFL part, so now we're left with Blitz: The League. And what a league it is!
Midway is back, folks, and Blitz is as good as ever. With the lack of competition, gamers were afraid EA Sports would dominate the football genre, and we would be forced to buy Madden for our yearly football needs, whether it sucked or not. Well, I can honestly say their fears have been destroyed with the release of Midway's Blitz: The League.
The Story Behind the Game
With the inability to use the NFL license, Midway was forced to become creative in how they would present their game. In other games with similar situations, the developers merely made fake teams and players, yet made them obviously represent real ones. But as anyone can tell, that approach hasn't worked well in the past. In this game, though, Midway took the idea of a non-licensed sport game further than it's gone before.
Joining the Midway team were some of the writers from ESPN's hit television show—even if it was forced off the air early because of the NFL—Playmakers. The show was a sports soap opera (you heard me) about a football league which was similar the NFL. Only instead of focusing on primarily the football, the show took a look at the private lives of athletes, and the behind-the-scene issues of the teams. Steroids, sex scandals, drugs—it's all there.
With the writers on board, Midway developed not only a storyline—which is a rarity in a sport game—but an entire fictional league with its own unique history. Teams have their fake histories shown during the loading screens, for example. The league is filled with fictional players who have their own unique personalities, many of which you can link back directly to a player from the Playmakers television show. In short, Blitz: The League almost seems, at times, like Playmakers: The Game. And that's a good thing for any football or Playmakers fan.
Gameplay
If you've played any NFL Blitz game in the past, you have the basics of the game down. This game is not a football simulation like Madden and the now defunct NFL 2k series are. Blitz is all about arcade action in a sporting game, which is no surprise considering Midway's other smash franchise was NBA Jam.
The game is played 8-on-8 rather than the normal football lineup. This is classic Blitz gameplay, all over again. Blitz: The League has all three of the f's that made the franchise successful in the first place: it's fast, furious and fun. For any gamer who has played or owned a Blitz game in the past, it won't take you long to learn the basic controls of Blitz: The League. The game even includes a training camp mode to help people not only learn the basics, but learn about the new gameplay feature: Clash.
Like all Blitz versions before it, The League allows you to perform great plays on offense. You can hurdle, stiff arm, and spin your way past defenders, putting on an entertaining show for any friends who happen to be watching. Unlike previous incarnations, though, you are rewarded for doing well and utilizing your offensive moves. As you increase your combo of juke moves, or get large gains in yardage, a Clash meter will fill up partially on the top of the screen. Basically, it's the Gamebreaker from the EA Street games, but in Blitz-football form.
When you have anything showing on the Clash meter, you can hold down the left trigger and enter the Clash mode. If you're on offense and running with the ball, this allows you to slow down time (ala Max Payne's bullet time) and increase your moves’ potency to dodge defenders. If you're on the quarterback at the time, it allows you to take control of the receiver yourself, and make spectacular looking grabs. On the defensive side of the ball, holding the left trigger allows you to perform a dirty hit. These moves are the meanest and dirtiest hits ever seen in a football game. The dirty hits also add another gameplay element; get enough dirty hits in a quarter, and the two teams will fight. These fights are composed of both teams going at a free-for-all tacklefest, and the one with the most tackles wins. What do you get if you win? Some bars towards filling up for your Unleashed mode.
Like the Clash mode, the Unleashed mode makes it easy to dodge defenders and lay down the nasty on the guy with the ball. You get the Unleashed meter by pulling off enough moves while using Clash, or by getting enough touchdowns. Unlike the Clash mode, though, the Unleashed mode has some serious drawbacks. When on defense, it works great. You lay down the most violent hits possible, and often injure the player you hit. Everything from power bombs, to bulldogs, to beating the guy with his own helmet is present. Not only is it a huge boost for your team to take out the opposing team's strongest player, but it looks awesome as well.
Unfortunately, the Unleashed mode leaves much to be desired while on offense. While you do perform an incredible looking juke, you can only use it on one guy, and then your entire Clash meter is drained. Ultimately, every person I know who plays the game uses the Unleashed mode only on defense, unless it's a game-deciding situation like a last second play. You can get much more bang for your buck by using normal clash moves on offense, so if you earn an Unleashed bar while holding onto the ball, chances are you’ll more often than not go the rest of that series using nothing other than the basic juke controls.
Injuries are also an integral part of The League's gameplay. When you perform a mean enough hit on an opposing offensive player, you have a chance to injure him. You can tell he's injured because time slows down, and it zooms in on the body part, performing a CSI-like x-ray which shows the damage done. You see ACL's tear, spines snap, shoulders dislocate, fingers break apart...in short, it's very brutal. That's one of the reasons why this is the first sports game rated M. But injuring players does have a purpose. By injuring another player, you force their team to treat him, leave him out for an extended amount of time, or juice him with steroids and drugs to make him come back faster. If the team chooses to juice him, you have a much better chance of injuring him for a longer amount of time.
The Campaign Mode
Unlike other football games, Blitz has no franchise mode. Instead, it has a single player story mode penned by several of the writers from Playmakers. The basics of the story are as follows. A team in the league is playing one of the meanest, baddest teams out there, the Nightmare, with the meanest, baddest player who is voiced by none other than Lawrence Taylor himself. During their game, "LT" takes out the entire offense, in essence, and ends up basically ending the quarterback's career. This knocks the team down to division three (the league is made up of three divisions, each one better than the next. As you win the championship in one, you advance to the next highest).
The team's owner has had enough, and decides to completely revamp the team. New coach. New assistants. New players. You then pick between one rookie player and one veteran to build your team around—the rook handles the offense while the vet takes the defense. After that, the customization is up to you. Edit appearances of the remaining squad, change their names, etc. And there are plenty of ways to do it. Whatever you do, though, keep in mind that you now have to win the championship in the first division—you have the owner to thank for that. He made a bet with the mayor, you see. If he wins, it means a new stadium on taxpayer's money. If he loses, it means donating a hefty amount to the mayor's reelection campaign.
As the game progresses, you'll get emails from opposing teams, and the occasional cutscene. These cutscenes are great, and add an element of story and purpose to a sporting game like there hasn't been before. However, they are far and few in between. One gripe I have with the campaign mode rather than a franchise is that once you beat it, besides making a new team, there's no reason to play again—you know the story. In future versions, I hope they allow for more branching storylines, and maybe even outside-the-game events. If you've seen Playmakers, you know how much of the focus is on the life of the players at clubs, in the bars, in the gym, at home, etc. In the next installment in Blitz, I hope they add a portion of the game—or even part of the story—focusing on that.
That brings us to another major element of Blitz: The League: customization. Unlike other football games, there's more to increasing your player in The League than just training them. You can buy equipment in the store to increase your entire team's ratings, and you can put your players on drugs. Illegal drugs, legal drugs, mystery drugs...they're all there. This is another reason why the game is rated M.
Graphics
The graphics in Blitz are much better than one would expect coming from this franchise. While they are still cartoony to an extent, and awkward looking compared to the ones in Madden, they do the job. The real cream, though, comes from the animations. If you've ever watched a football movie or Playmakers, and seen the plays where the running back makes an awesome hurdle over a defender, spins around a couple more, then flips into the endzone, and found yourself wishing you could do that—well, now you can. The offensive moves flow extremely well in this game. Unlike other sport games, you rarely see mismatched physics, or the sliding effect present in other titles. Players change direction realistically (in the game world, at least), and when you juke someone, you really juke someone.
The same goes on the defensive side of the ball. The tackles here are the best you will ever see in any current football game. Are they sometimes over the top? Yes. Are they unrealistic? Yes. Would every one be flagged in the NFL? Yes. That's the kind of game this is, and the motions capture that. The game also adds an element of excitement, and helps the "I'm really there!" feeling with the camera angles in the game. You have an up and close look at the field, and as the action moves around the camera does a great job at capturing the action without backing up too far, like it would in the Madden's of the world.
There are some errors, though. For example, if your player gets his helmet knocked off but gets the touchdown, it will show him celebrating with his helmet still on. And up close, the textures are nothing to write home about.
Oh yeah, and if you have any children keep them from watching any segments with the cheerleaders for your team. Their skirts leave little to the imagination.
Sound
Blitz: The League is the most foulmouthed sports game you will ever play. Period. The f-bomb drops left and right, and sometimes that's not even the worst thing you’ll hear said. The game is also filled with on the field taunts from the opposing players. Occasionally before the plays, there will be a cutscene of a random player trash talking the opposing team. You'll usually want to take it out on that guy, but don't; chances are he's their best player, or the one making all the big plays that game. The voice actors do a great job of conveying the "on the field" feel, too. As stated before, LT helps this out by providing his own voice for some of the characters, and also by providing his own grunts and sounds.
The sounds of the gridiron are also portrayed well in this game. You can hear the impact of a tackle like you were the one getting hit. And if a player gets injured, you can tell what happened to him by the sound if you happen to become squeamish and look away. Did he break a bone? You'll hear an audible crack. Did he dislocate? You'll hear a lesser crack. Did he rip tendon? You'll hear the stretch, followed by a snap. It sounds just as painful as it looks.
While there's only one commentator in the game, and he has limited lines, he does a good job. In the next installment, though, I would really like to see more effort put into commentary. While the game is supposed to feel like you're a player, sometimes it can get boring hearing nothing but grunting and running for minutes at a time. There is one humorous element, though. Your offensive coordinator is always up in the booth, and after a good chunk of the plays it cuts to him. His lines range from things extremely helpful ("Maybe we should take it at him again") to the funny ("I thought that guy was in jail still?"). The soundtrack also fits the game. If you've watched Playmakers, you'll know what type of music to expect.
Overall
Overall, Blitz: The League is easily the best football game this year. If you want a simulation, go ahead and get Madden (not like you have a choice). But if you want a good football game, despite the fact it doesn’t use actual franchises or players, pick up Blitz. And if you’re a fan of Playmakers, you shouldn’t even have read this far—you should be heading out to buy the game right now.
While the campaign mode takes away some of the replayability a franchise mode would give, it’s still a great way to train and customize your team for the mode you’ll spend most of your time playing over and over: Xbox Live. That’s right, the team you work on for 30+ games in the story can be transferred online, where you can put-up-or-shut-up with players worldwide. Don’t have Xbox Live or a solid connection? No problem, you can use your team in the quickplay mode, too. If you can't play online, though, take away one on the replay value rating. It's fun with friends, but it really only shows its true potential online.
Blitz is the ultimate football game to play with friends, or people who don’t follow the NFL. With its easy to pick up—and extremely entertaining—gameplay, it’s a hit with both football purists and those who have always refused to play Madden because they don’t “know who anyone is.” That’s the beauty of this game: you aren’t forced to pick teams based on who they have. As the story progresses, you do learn more about teams and players, and I can guarantee you’ll get your favorites, but you don’t need to use them. This game brings it back to how competitive gaming should be. It doesn’t ultimately matter what teams you pick, it always comes down to you vs. your opponent.
That is one of my few gripes with the game, though. When playing the computer, your opponent often has the patented Midway comeback AI. What I mean is, even if you’re up by two touchdowns with less than a minute left there’s a good chance you’ll still end up biting your nails. The computer will get an interception, cause a fumble, etc. While it makes me mad to no extent, I have to admit it does add a level of tension and excitement to the genre. One problem with the Madden series has always been that as you play more often, you almost never are in danger of losing.
While Blitz: The League is available for two systems—Xbox and Playstation 2—there is little difference between the games. The Xbox doesn’t "officially" utilize all four controllers (although there is a code for 2v2, the game wasn't designed this way, and after playing it once or twice you won't really want to again), so they’re even there. And the graphics are only slightly better on the Xbox than on the PS2. Ultimately, it comes down to which online play you enjoy more, or if you want quicker loading times and an HD to save to rather than a memory card.
On either system, though, Blitz: The League is a must-own for any football fan, and anyone who has been feeling nostalgic about the olden days of playing NFL Blitz at the arcade with your buddies.
| The Core Score |
Overall
9.3 |
| Fun |
|
10 |
| Gameplay |
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9.5 |
| Graphics |
|
9 |
| Audio |
|
8 |
| Replay |
|
9 |
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