"The Wood Elf is on the ball. Uh-oh! A huge Troll lumbers straight for him. Without thinking, the light-footed Elf hurls the ball up field to his partner. Interception! A Goblin has caught the ball in mid-air, unbelievable. Another Wood Elf charges in for the tackle but a Goblin comes out of nowhere with his chainsaw on full belt. Oooo, that's got to hurt. The chainsaw Goblin just got a face full of Wood Elf fist. Well, he'll have trouble blowing his nose after that one Jim."

That's a short glimpse of the kind of weird shenanigans of this game of American football set in a fantasy world. Can this wild idea really work as a game though? It sounds ideal and could be just what gamers need to spice up the fairly stagnant sports genre, if only the finished product can live up to expectations. It almost succeeds but sadly, falls just short of a touchdown. However the foundation of something truly great lies within.

When you begin the game there are a range of options to try your hand at. The tutorials should be your first port of call. They'll explain all the basic game rules you need to get started such as passing the ball, moving players round the pitch, scoring touchdowns and smashing your opponent's face in. After partaking in these concise lessons you're free to load up a quick one-off match for some instant action, enter a competition (a series of matches between rival teams battling to earn more wins than anyone else and make it to the top of the leader board) or start a new campaign. It's this third option were the story comes in to play and the campaign mode is definitely a major focus of this refreshing sports game.

Alright, "story" loses much of its meaning when you realise that a campaign is not much more than a series of competitions. Your objective is to complete all these, top every local league table and earn the title of the best Blood Bowl team that ever lived! This is a lot easier said than done as you begin a campaign with nothing - no team, no players and only a chunk a' change with which to buy things with. First, you have to select a type of team from the available eight races: Humans, Orcs, Chaos, Goblins, Dwarves, Skaven (giant rat-people), Wood elves and Lizardmen. Each race has advantages and disadvantages. For example, Goblins get to bring chainsaws onto the pitch (it's entirely legal so why not) which are very capable of giving a freshly cut grassy playing field a coat of blood red paint. However, the rather puny goblins are annoyingly easy to knock down and injure. They also find it extraordinarily difficult to catch a ball hurtling through the air. Still, they can be thrown up the field by a friendly Troll which makes getting behind the defensive line of the opposition simpler.

You've assembled your motley crew of eleven or more players, given your team a ferocious sounding name, chosen a logo and picked the colour of their invariably torn shirts. There are just a few more things to do before a match starts, and the first is to choose some inducements. Inducements are sneaky moves that you can pull off before a match begins to hinder the opposing team or improve yours and increase your chance of victory. Examples include the offer of extra training, the chance to purchase riotous supporters who discourage fans of the enemy team from attending the match and a special bribe that you can give to the referee during a match so he'll turn a blind eye to one member of your team accidentally murdering a member of the rival team.

Money for these inducements comes from the stadium owners who love this sort of cloak and dagger trickery - it does make games more exciting after all! The final stage of pre-match setup only appears if there is a substantial difference between the Team Values of the two teams entering a match. If there is a difference, the team with the lower value gets the chance to hire mercenary players or even the star player for their race be it Orc or Goblin, Lizardman or Elf. These players will only join a team for one match but have some fantastic skills such as an excellent throwing and catching ability. If you do get access to these wondrous players and you have enough money for their substantial fee, buy them - they can often mean the difference between winning a match and getting, quite literally, pounded.

A match can then begin and no doubt a few of you are wondering why I laboured the pre-match settings so much before getting into the violent, blood-wrenching action. It's because Blood Bowl is so much more than just its in-game action. It's the behind-the-scenes stuff that really makes Blood Bowl what it is. Once you're into the American football action it immediately enters the unforgiving realm of comparison to more usual, chart-topping American football games such as Madden. Out in the open, with no supporting defence, it suffers and it suffers badly.

Before getting into the detail, it's helpful to describe the basic structure of a match. Members of the two opposing teams are positioned on the pitch - a rectangular playing field divided into two sections by a centre line - one team on one half and one on the other. Each half of the pitch contains an end zone at the back - a smaller rectangle. A team's job is to get the ball into the end zone of the half belonging to the rival team. Doing this is called a touchdown and at the end of the match it is the team with the most touchdowns that wins the game.

It sounds simple enough so how could a game based on this limited formula go wrong?

Well, Blood Bowl really is a game of two halves - the editor is never going to forgive me for that one! Firstly, you have the real-time mode. In this mode every action takes place as it happens - there is no concept of turns where orders are given to players and hardly any time is left to think about tactics. So far, so good. However, Blood Bowl was originally a board game from the visionaries at Games Workshop who brought us the fantastic tabletop gaming experiences of Warhammer and Warhammer: 40, 000. The sad fact is that Blood Bowl just contains too many small and silly rules for a fast-action game. Dices need to be rolled in the background for tasks such as picking up the ball or tackling an opponent. These should be taken out as it should be only the quickness of your reflexes that are tested and not having to rely on the delay-inducing calculations involving the skills of individual team members before an action can be performed.

Thankfully, not all is lost as the game can also be played in a more relaxed turn-based mode. In this mode, one team is given a five minute time period in which to make their moves. After this time is up, the other team gets their turn and the game continues like this until the match timer has expired. During a turn, each character can either move or tackle (head-butt, kick, etc.) a member of the opposing team. Spells you bought before the match began can be cast and any bribes played if needed. However, each action, aside from running a short distance, has a risk associated with it. Fail the intended task and your team will suffer a turnover, ending your turn and beginning the other team's immediately. For example, you may order a Goblin Lineman to jog over and grab the fumbled ball. Should the inexperienced youth fail to grab the egg-shaped ball as he runs over it, the Human team is free to start making their moves while the rioting crowd laughs at the puny greenskin.

Though this game is based on a board game, its characters are anything but the static plastic looking models you might expect, all being wonderfully animated. In fact, most characters seem unable to stand still as they taunt the opposition or simply pull off pointless yet exceedingly comical handstands. The graphics are also very bright while keeping with the semi-realistic theme - a feature that really highlights the rather outlandish nature of this game. My only quibble is with the graphics as a whole; they are a bit jagged without any smooth curves or flowing hair. As a whole the majority of what you see is well detailed though there are bits and pieces shown in the cutscene tour of a stadium that are fairly bland.

The sound is both good and bad at the same time. On the one hand you have the backing music which is suitably fast-paced and "pushy" - lots of triumphant, loud sudden sounds. This works well for the "pushy" type of sports game that it is. Further to that you get the chants of the crowd - an awe-inspiring cry of "kill, kill, kill" rises up on occasion and whenever someone is on the winning straight for a touchdown you can hear the increasing rumble as the crowd stamp their feet in anticipation. The bad sound comes from the two commentators Jim and Bob. It's not what they say that is bad. On the contrary, I think they are invaluable to the gameplay experience providing that extra touch of humour and really immersing you in the Blood Bowl sport. It's just that they aren't nearly loud enough in parts and sometimes the conversation gets overtaken by the music. They also become slightly repetitive towards the end of a campaign, after you've played a large number of matches. In addition to sorting those points the sound score could be beefed up by simply adding more of it. Maybe those mortally injured could roll on the ground screaming until paramedics raced on the scene. Crowds could cheer on individual players that they adore or hurl insults at those they hate.

Blood Bowl is going to last a long time, probably due to its tabletop game origins. In addition to some really quite long campaigns which can be completed with any race of team, you get competitions, huge customisation options and even multiplayer. Competitions, as I've said before, are really just a series of matches between rival team. You can opt to enter a tournament competition or a championship competition. Both have different rules and both will keep you entertained if you fancy a change from the "trudge to the top spot" gameplay of the campaign. You can also create your own competitions choosing things like the number of teams that can enter, the prize money and the style of the trophy you win. Teams are customisable in minute detail even down to the shoulder pads of individual team members.

Lastly, there is multiplayer which comes in three basic flavours. Hotseat allows two people to play on the same computer, taking turns in the turn-based mode. LAN allows the usual network gaming over several computers linked together. Internet League System allows you to take part in the worldwide Blood Bowl championship. Here, you create your team and do battle with the teams of other Bowlers in public leagues to try to win 1st prize along with the respect victory entails. Be warned though, competition in this online world is fierce! You can also setup private leagues for just your friends if you prefer.

Blood Bowl is a curious game. I love the whole idea of American football in a fantasy world as it takes completely separate game genres and moulds the together into one hulking brute. Unfortunately, this Sports come Role Playing Game come Strategy just doesn't do the striking concept justice. It has remained totally focused on its board game roots and feels a little slow and bland because of it. If you do not appreciate the different teams and rather comical pre-game setup of trickery and misfortune, there is nothing in this game to keep you playing. It really is exactly what it says on the box: "American football in a fantasy world". If you are not interested in the extras that come with the "in a fantasy world" part then, as a standard "American football" game, there are better titles on the market.

Reviewed by Tom Clark for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).