This time I have a pretty good football game I’ll be taking a look at called Blitz 2.

As always, I’ll start with achievements.  These are not too bad but it will take a bit of time to get some of them.  Having to make sure you get good stats with your franchise player and doing certain things like sacks and TD celebrations.  I knocked out over half of them for about 650 GS in a few days. I was trying a lot of things as I played games for achievements so I probably could have cut it down to maybe 2 days for 500-600.  You will need 2 playthroughs on campaign mode to get 1 or 2 achievements, though.

The game itself is rather fun. The enjoyment of crushing an opponent with a helmet to the nuts is always refreshing (1 of the achievements is to rupture 10 scrotums!). This plays like most football games – passing, running, kicking and defense with the exception of 1 thing: you get to smash opponents during and after plays.  This is one of the best aspects of this game.  Being able to put a beat down on a QB you just sacked is a great feeling.

The plays are pretty varied for both offense and defense and the cpu-controlled players actually do a decent job on the field. Depending on what traits you give your “franchise” player, you will be given different positions and skill boosts. You will be playing both offense and defense so you are on the field the whole game (unless you are injured, of course).

When I played I had designated my player as a QB and CB so that he had good speed and tackling ability. As you win games, put hits on opponents and score touchdowns you will earn cash to upgrade entire team’s skills such as speed, agility and tackling. This will effect your overall team play as you progress through the campaign, so try boosting these stats as much as you can. You can also train your team giving individual players stat boosts to their skills. I left on auto-training so I don’t know how much if effects individual players as my team ended up being rather good at the end.

Once you are into the campaign mode you will need to win in each of the 3 divisions. You move from Division 3 to 1 by winning the championship on each level. Each of these levels offers you incentives during the games like taking out a QB, landing an injury on a player or not getting sacked or injured. By completing these you can hook up with new girlfriends or get new gear that will enhance your overall team skills. I enjoyed trying to do some of these during my campaign play through. It gives the game a different twist than just scoring and stopping the opponent.

The best part of the game (and what Blitz is known for) is the body injury! During the game you can get late hits and build up your “clash” meter. Getting long plays, breaking tackles and breaking or rupturing opponent body parts will also increase this.  Once your meter is filled you can “unleash” this on an opponent by trying to get a good solid hit on them and aiming for certain body parts.  Seeing a foot break when you dive tackle a player is great. The opponent also can do this to you and forcing you to have to treat the injury. You do this by trying to reset bones in place or getting a needle as close to a target as possible so the player doesn’t miss too many plays. I’ve had my #1, #2 & #3 QBs all get injured on the same series so expect to be injured and injured often!

I’ll get onto the good and bad below but I will let you know there is blood and swearing (the game is M rated) so this isn’t something for the youngsters to play.

The Bad:

1) Having to try and fix injuries during the game gets tedious at times. It’s a nice feature but I wish it could be automated sometimes!

2) The campaign is too short. They could have added another division or maybe make more teams in each division so you can prolong the game a bit more.

The Good:

1) I love the details in the injuries and play animations on the field. They did a great job and I really enjoyed watching and playing

2) The music is good in this game as well. It has a good variety of songs and they are all pretty darn good.

Overall I would give this game an 8/10 due to the injury aspect, the overall fun of playing and the campaign mode which has as actual story to it!

Written By: Tony
Gamer tag (and g3 community tag): Necromancer2k8

All images courtesy Midway Games