Grab Your Mouthpiece
Blitz The League II offers several modes of play, but most gamers will flock to the Campaign mode. You’d be well advised to watch the tutorial videos and do the tutorials first, though – there are some mechanics here that no other football game has, and even experienced Blitz players should know about the changes made here. The whole tutorial process only takes about twenty minutes and nets you a ten point Achievement anyway, so it’s worth your time.
In the tutorial you will find out about is the Clash Meter, Unleashed Icons, and the Unleashed mode, in addition to the basics of running, throwing, and defense. The Clash Meter is in your HUD during play, and you can fill it up by making big plays, both on offense and defense. Big plays on offense include of course long kick off returns, broken tackles, big catches, those kinds of things. On defense, interceptions, fumble recoveries, and big hits work towards filling your meter. Touchdown celebrations, dirty hits, and beatdowns are some of the things that give you Unleashed Icons, which are displayed below your Clash Meter. Getting several of these changes your Clash Meter to display Unleashed, which is basically your way of essentially insuring a big play when you need one, on offense or on defense.
Controlling this ability is pretty easy, but it’ll take a while to get completely comfortable with. You use the left trigger to drain your Meter, and doing so slows down time, giving your QB a chance to avoid a sack, for example, by working the right thumbstick, or a runner a chance to stiff arm the daylights out of a would be defender. The meter drains a little quicker than you can earn it back, but it’s a reasonable balance. What seems unreasonable sometimes is how many tackles runners (and by this I also mean receivers working for YAC, yards after the catch) can shrug off on their trot to the endzone; it’s just a little too over powering at times and the CPU knows how to exploit this really well in big games (championship games, for example).
So, more on the controls and other mechanics of the game. All kicks are performed with a button matching sequence; extra point attempts only require three matches, but for kickoffs, field goals, and punts, you have a five button matching sequence to go through. The worse you do, the less power and accuracy your kick will have. I prefer this method to a meter though, even though it gives you less control than a meter system. That’s generally what you can say about Blitz as a whole, though; it’s certainly less in depth than Madden, but at least in my case, it’s a heck of a lot more fun because of its arcade nature (more on this later).
Passing is done via the face buttons, and you can view receivers’ routes (when you’re on offense) with the right bumper, similar to other football games. The face buttons also act as your running moves, too, with X being your dive button and A being stiff-arm, for example. R2 is turbo, and the right thumbstick is used for dodging, as well as taunts like high stepping into the endzone when you’ve got a large gap between yourself and the defense. Dirty tackles are performed by holding down L2 and pressing X.
That’s basically the gist of it, and as you can see the control scheme isn’t very complicated or probably even unfamiliar. For those familiar with simulations or the real football leagues out there, other mechanics may surprise you that you should be aware of.
Blitz is a 7 v 7 game, instead of 11 vs 11, and you’ll be 1st and 30 after the kickoff, as opposed to first and 10. Quarter lengths are two minutes, too, so you have to take that score early, score often mentality because games are over very quickly. Challenges from your Agent in Campaign mode to get you sponsors for new gear is yet another factor that encourages you play for massive yard gains, each and every play. In fact, I’ve found playing conservatively to run out the clock in the fourth can really backfire; I’ve tried to run the clock out by running the ball and playing what I thought was ‘safe,’ only to have the ball stripped out by the, at times, very suspicious AI (NBA Jam anyone)?
Injuries, dirty hits, and beatdowns after the play are a huge part of play in Blitz, and more so than ever with Blitz the League II. You can hurt a player in more specific ways than before thanks to a targeting system that pops up while the game slows down during a dirty hit you’re performing. Depending on the angle you’re coming in at and what side of the players body you’re hitting, various green crosshairs will appear that you can use the leftstick to select. After that, just mash A as fast as you can and the quicker you do it, the more this circle fills up. The more the circle is filled up, the more serious the injury. Most injuries will keep players out for a few plays, but others like ruptured scrotums (yes, you read that right, and yes, it’s awful) or ruptured spleens or even broken necks sideline players for several weeks. If it’s your player that got hurt, depending on the injury you may be able to save him some recovery time by doing good in a couple of mini-games.
There are two kinds of mini-games; the first is just applying a needle to the player. During this timed game, you have to use the left stick to place a needle on a very fine point of a circle, but the needle moves around unpredictably, so you’ll do well to get a 70% success on it, which reduces the number of plays the player will miss. Other times, for fractures, you’ll have to set the bone, and you do this by moving both thumbsticks in the direction the mini-game specifies, and then snapping both thumbsticks again in a direction specified. This is a bit harder than it sounds, but it’s a neat system that keeps you playing instead of just watching.
Lastly, beat downs are back, but these aren’t terribly interesting. After the play, depending on some unknown combination of factors, you might have the opportunity to go over to an opponent and press A a few times to punch or kick him, thereby reducing his stamina. I can’t say doing this even a few times in a game has had an effect on the outcome, but I suppose it doesn’t hurt.
Campaign Mode
The Campaign mode is complete with a story written by Peter Egan of ESPN Playmakers (I haven’t heard of him either). It tells the tale of your created player, using the nickname “Franchise” throughout. At the start of the campaign, you choose your player’s name, but his appearance, voice, and so forth are already determined and used in the cutscenes. Basically, you are a hell of an athlete that can play both sides of the ball with the best of them and you’re being drafted into Division III play in the League. The commissioner of the league wants you to join the New York Nightmare, but you refuse and will only play with your home team. You’re given the option in between these introductory cutscenes to choose your home city, and Midway provides several dozen to choose from, as well as your team’s name, colors, and logo, and you’ve again have several dozen options here to choose from.
Followingthis is a press conference sequence where you can further refine yourcreated character by answering nine questions that media ask. You cansay that your a big time running back or receiver on offense, butprefer to play on the line in defense; how you answer these multiplechoice questions helps build the initial stats for your player. Ithought this create a player was another example of how Blitz isn’tas in depth as competitors, but it’s streamlined in such a way that Ithink a lot of players will like, I did.
Before playing your first game and in between games, you’ll find yourself at what I will call the Campaign screen. From here you can manually train your players or have this automatically done. You can purchase upgrades from earnings you made by betting on your last game that will improve players’ strength, blocking, agility, hands, injury resistance, and a few other items. You can also purchase performance enhancing drugs for up to three players by going into the Juicing menu. Various drugs give players different abilities, like more strength or quicker stamina recover times; a meter shows how risky you’re being in relation to getting caught by the League, although I’m not sure what happens if you do get caught. You can also look at injured players that are out for multiple games; you can purchase ‘staff positions’ that reduce the number of games your big players will miss, too.
The Campaign screen is also where you can look at sponsors you’ve unlocked or earned and even girlfriends as you continue through Division II and I. Your agent is the primary means of getting you sponsors who provide you with better equipment, like helmets that resist head injuries better. During your season, your agent will challenge you to say, get three sacks with your created player and if you do, a new sponsor will provide you new equipment.
When it comes to game time, I liked how each match was fronted by a brief cutscene showing the other teams strengths, weaknesses, and their captain or star player. This helps you know what to watch out for on both sides of the ball; for example, you’ll want to play a relatively conservative air game against Zek Freeman and his Crusaders; I didn’t the first time I played them and I suffered through no less than five interceptions, more than enough to lose that game. Other times its an offensive star like a receiver that can make just about any catch and run like a bull afterwards.
As you play through the campaign, you’ll garner more money to purchase more upgrades, meet more woman and deal with the angered commissioner and his watchdog Quentin Sands, voiced and played by former New York Giant linebacker Lawrence Taylor. Challenges get harder and the games themselves get tougher too, and losing late in the game due to a very questionable fumble or interception can be very frustrating, believe me. All told though, the Campaign, like the rest of the game, is fun, but the lack of depth could limit how long you’ll play it.
Other Thoughts
Visually, Blitz The League II does a pretty good job. Players look a little too shiny and flaky, but I can’t say I noticed any major technical problems like clipping or texture problems with them. Team logos, stadium backdrops, and injury animations are all nicely done though.
Sounds in Blitz are sufficient, but not great. I really didn’t go for the rap soundtrack, but there are a handful of instrumental rock tracks that play during big third or fourth down moments that I liked. Voices are okay at best; I didn’t care for the voice of your player, and the main commentator doesn’t have much variety or informative comments. The color commentator, who seems absent for some games, is a sometimes funny, but often annoying imitation of John Madden. The first few times you here this imitation, it may make you laugh, but then you realize that he too has a very short dialogue list and says the same things over a little too often. Other effects, like player grunts and tackles, are fine.
On a random note, I liked how Midway decided to do endzone celebrations. The tutorial will give you a couple of them, but it’s up to you to figure out the rest. You’ll get the chance to enter a random four button combination anytime you end up in the endzone without being tackled, and discovering new endzone celebrations is fun, not to mention rewarding in that you get another icon for your Clash Meter.