Blood Bowl 3

Sure BB3 had a rocky release, but at this point the game has come a LONG way and I haven't encountered any bugs in well over a year now. It's better than its predecessors in every way, except the AI for solo play is the only real weak spot and that is being worked on. I'm sure that will improve having seen the major improvements with every season. The graphics are great and there are some really nice touches with the animations. The gameplay is smooth and it's just an all-around blast and well worth getting.

I'm also physically disabled and I play games entirely with voice control. I was able to play BB1 but because of the interface of BB2 I couldn't play that one. When BB3 was in development I made some suggestions to the developers so that BB3 would work with dictation. I can do everything by voice, the only thing that is somewhat difficult is using the wheel to select things like Stab. I figured out how to do it with a mouse controlling program, but it would have been awesome if there were keyboard shortcuts to make things like that easier. Hopefully that is something that can get worked on.

My only issue that I have is with the time limit. Since I do everything by voice it takes me a little bit longer so I would have preferred keeping the BB1 clocks or at least extending the extra time from 7.5 minutes to 10 minutes. An additional 2.5 minutes is not asking for much, especially when the Internet can also cause lag. Otherwise keep up the great work Cyanide & Co! :-)

Really fun but too many micro transactions.

game has improved drastically since launch, arena mode finally makes it playable

I got this game hoping that it would be an improvement from Blood Bowl 2, but it seems to not only be missing features from Blood Bowl 2, it also appears to have been made in a haphazard fashion, with more microtransactions baked into the gameplay. Things like simply being able to see your team when you open the roster have been removed, so the player customisations are less meaningful, and the special rules for different special fields don't even seem to work. Eternal League is in development, but I don't have high hopes. Unless you have regulars that you play with, maybe people who used to play the tabletop, I'm not sure it's something I would invest in.

The initial bugs and ui issues are gone. I recommend to give a trz.

The game is improving with every season. The development team has been doing a lot to provide multiple game experiences for various audiences (arena, ladder, AI improvements...). I played almost 2000 hours, this is the game I play the most and I will keep playing it.

Yes, with caveats.

The dev is still plugging away at BB3, presumably supported by their in-game currency and season pass model. Those things are... not great, but they give you something to work towards if you buy in.

The current content (barebones "campaign" consisting of 5 3-game tournaments, which repeat the same teams every time you replay them, and 1 training session) for single players is mostly to practice and experiment with different teams. An "Endless League" mode is moving through beta now which promises good things for single players, however, and why I decided to buy in now.

Blood Bowl at its core is a good, funm punishing football-themed board game. If that sounds good to you, pick up a complete version of BB1 or BB2. If you're excited to get into multiplayer ladders, grind through season passes, and aren't put off by slow but steady development (Endless mode was promised with launch and is just now nearing release), or if you want to get some practice in against the middling AI right now and bet the new single player mode will be good, get BB3.

Wow... what a true let down - CYANIDE NEVER LISTEN and always pump out sub par un tested games that require the community to QA them. So many bugs in the tutorial which doesn't let you complete it without reloading. Online career mode is just buggy and disconnects every few minutes.

Timer doesnt pause during annimations leaving you loosing a load of time on a tight 2 min timer. Its bad, somehow worse than BB1 which launched in a dreadful state.

Despite buying everything for BB1 & BB2 its all behind a grind paywall in BB3... Cyanide do not care.

Like it looks pretty

This game is a con.
They have moved the DLC teams into their live service section.
Meaning if you buy them you cant use them offline firstly, and secondly when the server shuts down you will lose ALL of the content you paid for.
Its a fucking joke and im tired of these games and these developers doing this.

Started off rocky back on release. The game is by no means perfect, however i do think its a good game. It is not fully complete as of 3.16.25. Following the discord there seems to be a good plan laid out, The updates are frequent and welcomed. They are also getting the community involved more in the game with doing special events. So in the end some great special events coming with one currently active in beta. The game i think is in a good state. Dont buy cosmetics but be prepared to buy teams you want.

The best place to play the new rule set online.

Not a fan of the micro transactions.
But where else will you get your blood bowl fix?
Bb2 is fun, but it's a stale, solved meta.
This is still relevant to table top blood bowl.

As a new player who bought to help with learning the tabletop game I think this is amazing! The AI was very slow a week ago but seems to of been fixed for me after this last season dropped! A few seconds to think and then the computer seems to take all it's turn with no delay. Actually owning a rule book and playing the PC game solo and casually online with friends have helped me understand the game far quicker. The customisation in the shop are definitely pricey... But the starting teams are great and I think the price of buying the additional teams is fair compared to the minis. It's a niche game. They gotta make money and they can be won by grinding which I like!.. An amazing game.. violent sports chess with dice! Easy enough to learn but a long road to mastery!

Aced the campaigns then bravely lost 5-0 on my 1st online match :)
I'm sure I will be playing for years.

much better now than on launch. The best way to play BB online, although still not perfect.

its ok i like it . some factions are with aditional price games takes about 1;30

Positives -

The game runs well for Blood Bowl, the graphics are good, and its got multiplayer/single player.

Negatives -

Far less content than BB2 (less teams) and all teams must be unlocked through grinding or purchase.
All player customisations are found through grinding or purchasing through in-game currency.
Less interesting data. In BB2, I could look at tournament stats and see who the best player was, who the most violent was, who scored the most. It was fun to see which players did well in tournaments and leagues. That is now removed.

My review of Blood Bowl 3: Where the Only Thing Getting Blitzed is Your Wallet.

Audio: An Awkward Silence

One of the most glaring issues with Blood Bowl 3 is the audio. The game fails to deliver any meaningful impact during some of the most intense moments. When a player hits another or crashes to the ground, there’s an utter lack of sound. It’s as if the game forgot to add basic sound effects for these key actions. Instead, we’re left with grunts and a haunting silence during critical moments, which completely kills the intensity of the gameplay. It’s an odd and disappointing oversight that makes the game feel lifeless.

User Interface: A Confusing, Clunky Mess

The UI in Blood Bowl 3 is nothing short of awful. Once you finally get a game going, the interface is confusing and clutteredThe layout feels unpolished and unintuitive, and while there’s an attempt at streamlining the process, the overall experience is frustrating. It’s a far cry from the sleek, more user-friendly options we’ve come to expect in modern games.

Customization: A Step Forward… But Behind a Paywall

While the customization options in Blood Bowl 3 are a welcome improvement over Blood Bowl 2, the excitement of personalizing your team is quickly dampened by the game’s monetization practices. Almost everything is locked behind a paywall or the “Blood Pass”—a time-limited battle pass that forces you to grind or fork out real money if you want access to cosmetics, other custom features. This “Blood Pass” system feels like a blatant cash grab, and it significantly undermines the player experience.

Factions: Locked Behind a Paywall

At launch, Blood Bowl 3 offers 12 factions, including the Black Orcs, Imperial Nobility, Chaos Chosen, Dark Elves, and more. However, the rest of the factions are locked behind in-game currency that can only be obtained through microtransactions. What's worse, each locked faction has three tiers of "cosmetics" that require additional payment. This feels like a blatant attempt to force players to spend more money to unlock content that should be available from the get-go. It’s a disappointing trend that feels more like a money grab than a game feature.

AI: Dumb and Slow

The AI in Blood Bowl 3 is practically braindead. In solo play, the AI is slow and unresponsive, making matches drag on far longer than they should. The turns take an agonizing amount of time, and you’re often left waiting for the computer to make basic, predictable moves. This lack of challenge or urgency makes the gameplay feel dull and tiresome.

Final Thoughts: A Missed Opportunity

Blood Bowl 3 had the potential to be a great update to the series, but it fails to deliver in nearly every aspect. The lack of sound effects, confusing UI, frustrating monetization, and underwhelming AI all contribute to a game that feels unfinished and disappointing. and more of a cash grab then an actual fun experience

Its good :)
I think there's enough varirty in the teams now to keep me entertained. Base is 12 I think + new teams you can collect through playing or purchase.
And a number of ways too play.
I've always managed to play enough games (25 - 30) in each season (90 days) to get new teams.
You can use the in game currency to buy the previous "new teams" - they come down in price over time and always deals to look out for.
The develops are still working on patches and mixing things up with different modes.

TL/DR:
If you're a seasoned Blood Bowl player or an eager newcomer determined to start playing, and alternatives like FUMBBL aren’t an option, then Blood Bowl 3 might be your only choice. For everyone else, I can’t recommend it.

A Nightmare for New Players
While Blood Bowl has always had a steep learning curve, Blood Bowl 3 does little to ease new players into its mechanics. The tutorial and campaign mode exist, but they fail to properly explain the rules in a way that prepares newcomers for real matches. Given the complexity of the game, a well-designed tutorial is crucial—but BB3 stumbles here.

AI Plays Like a Goblin on Mushrooms
While not the game's biggest flaw, the AI is a major weak point. Instead of following logical strategies, it often makes reckless moves, prioritizing risky actions, failing to set up proper blocks, and even acting randomly. In some cases, the AI gets stuck entirely, not doing anything before it runs out of time. This means that new players can’t rely on AI matches to learn the basics, making the solo experience borderline useless.

A UI That Fumbles the Basics
In my opinion, one of the biggest issues with Blood Bowl 3 is its clunky and unintuitive UI, which sometimes makes even basic interactions frustrating. Simple actions, like selecting or setting values, feel tedious and unnecessarily complicated. Worse, the poor UI design makes the game error-prone, leading to misclicks, accidental moves, and other frustrating mistakes that can directly impact the outcome of a match.

Better Graphics, Worse Clarity
On a positive note, the graphics have improved a lot, the models are detailed and well made, especially when zoomed in. However, in actual gameplay, it’s often difficult to distinguish players and positions. Some streamers have even made guides on which customizations to buy just to make the game more playable—which brings us to the next issue…

Microtransactions
Blood Bowl 3 leans heavily into microtransactions, pushing players to spend money on customization options. While cosmetics don’t affect gameplay directly, the customization system is far more restrictive than in Blood Bowl 2—without purchasing additional cosmetics, your ability to customize players is extremely limited.

Missing Teams and Incomplete Rules
While BB 3 follows the BB2020 rules, it’s still missing several teams, and some rules are not fully implemented, leaving the game feeling incomplete. A new team is added approximately every three months, but players must either purchase these teams or play enough matches in the current season to unlock them. For new players, this means you'll have to buy teams added in previous seasons if they want access to the full team roster.

Bugs That Shouldn’t Exist
Even beyond the AI issues, game-breaking bugs are still present. Balls can disappear, players’ status (standing or prone) or positions can be unclear, and a range of other glitches make the game feel unreliable. While patches have addressed some of these issues, they still appear, though less frequently, and can occasionally cost you the game.

Recycled Sound and Commentary
While this isn't the most problematic issue in the game, the commentary and some sound designs are recycled from the previous game. Worse, some of the commentary references outdated rules and terms, further highlighting the lack of polish of the game.

Conclusion
Blood Bowl 3 has come a long way since it's launch, with updates addressing some of its major flaws and introducing new improvements, game modes, etc. However, it remains a frustrating, unfinished experience, weighed down by an unintuitive UI, aggressive microtransactions, and frustrating bugs. That said, Blood Bowl is, in my opinion, a great game with a decent and passionate community, and it's kind of a shame that the digital version is struggling to reach its full potential.

As everyone else has been saying. It's been out for 2 years and the following still exist:

1. AI will literally just time out not doing anything. Like, you'll have a full 10min turn of just sitting there while it does nothing.

2. During that, I've had the game crash on 2-3 occasions

3. Input delay is just horrific. You can lose anything from 10-20 seconds in just waiting for the game to register your click and that's assuming it even detects it. Sometimes you'll sit there that long and realise the click never even registered.

Input delay seems to be related to lag in talking to the game servers from what I've read, but when you're playing in the campaign mode or a friendly match vs AI, why is this even a thing. Why is my machine not handling all the decisions for it?

Even worse, the turn timer continues to tick down during those delays so in effect, you actually get far less game time during a match (I want to say maybe a quarter of the time shown is actually spent doing things?). Coupled with the input delay and AI just doing nothing you can spend the better part of an hour to 90mins just sitting there staring at your screen.


Underneath all that there looks like there could be a fun game there, but as it stands, not even when it's on sale is it worth this trouble. Particularly when it's been out so long

Final version as crashed 5 times and I can't even complete the tutorial.

This... Is bad. let me take what people keep saying, and explain.

1:Bad UI: Trying to set up formation outside of game is hair pullingly frustrating. No button key to tell you what does what. Clicking on things over and over but it doesn't click the thing, or doesn't show. In the game, double clicking SOMETIMES works to input an action, other times you have to push space.

Bad AI: I turned the game off when the AI literally took 0 actions during it's turn. I sat there for 10 mins until al it's time was up. Add into it. The AI takes longer to make moves then your average player who is looking at their phone between actions.

Bad Microtransations: You can't even buy the teams outside of the game. IE: not on steam. You HAVE to buy theyre bs currency in game to buy stuff.

Dissapointing sequal: Same fucking voiceovers from the same 2 people. But the sound quality is worse then in BB2. I mean it. SAME EXACT LINES... But now you will struggle to hear them repeat the same jokes you've been hearing for 8 years.

I'll be getting a refund.

It's good, I'm having a good time with it. The main menu UI is a bit clunky to navigate, but the game itself plays well.

Released in 2023 barely functional, is now playable but incomplete in 2025. Bloodbowl 2020 tabletop fans buy this on a discount.

This game is amazing! I've loved blood bowl for years, both digital and physical, and this is the first digital version makes you feel like you can model your own players.
Continuing support has been great with a slew of improvements being made based on community feedback.
Most original teams are in now and they are adding the newer teams as well.
I have always been more of a private league coach (which has great admin support now), but I love the new arena mode and have heard good things about the upcoming eternal league.

Why can't you fix the server connection issues? Where do you run these servers to be this shit? Underwater?

Blood Bowl 1 & 2 are superior...
The micro transaction business model, trickle feed of team releases, poor UI (designed for consoles), and extremely bad AI make this largely unplayable.
If you enjoy playing one off games in the ladder format or wish join a third party league then perhaps Blood Bowl 3 could be okay. However, there is still no excuse for the lack of a full complement of teams over 2 years after release...
There is a chance a new version of the tabletop could be released before all of the teams are available for PURCHASE in this video game.
But hey, the graphics and animations are great!

Great alternative to the table top. Nice for learning the skills. I've enjoyed it.

Has better graphics than Blood Bowl 2 +10 pts

Has worse EVERYTHING ELSE than Blood Bowl 2 -20 pts

Has some of the shittiest, most half-baked, myopic monetization and UI I've ever seen. Worse than most of the garbage trash Activision and EA put out. -900 pts

Put the Ork cheerleaders behind a paywall -900000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 pts

ONLY buy this game if you have a dedicated group of friends to play it with regularly, and even then yall should just play BB2 instead.

Ill definetely reccomend playing blood bowl 3 with all the issue cause of the love i have for this game Cyanide is listening to the player a lot

theyve finally fixed it! and its real good!

lots of depth but doesnt take itself too seriously

This abomination of a game is a horrible downgrade from BB2 and it should NOT have been released to the public. DO NOT BUY!!!

If you enjoy games that make you rage quit. Then you will love the shit out of this one. When you think dice cant possible roll any worse but they defy the odds like winning the lottery. And player after player just drops dead. The game only cost so much. But you will be spending a lot more on replacing all your keyboard and patching up drywall.

6 hours in, 3 games played. They take forever, stay away!!! Get Blood Bowl II instead, i enjoyed it more. I will be uninstalling this one and getting my fix with BBII...

A very good Turn Based Strategy game with dice.

Visually it looks nice but even on a discount be warned that the game has MANY problems.
Visual and gameplay bugs still occur with models displaced to several squares from where they actually stand, having to make rolls against opponents that are not there are a few examples.
At the very least you can level up and acquire teams and rewards just by playing the game so at least you don't have to pay real money for all cosmetics and teams, however it can take time but still nice to at least have the ability to get around paying for these additions.
Honestly you would have to be truly blinded by either buyers remorse, being a die hard fan or actively being deceptive to recommend this game with out any warning about the problems it still has.
Got this on sale so not as bad for me personally, only paying a small amount for it, would suggest anyone else do the same if you are really interested.

I am Sorry but your game sucks. you hide content behind a pay wall , i mean really you don't get Norse , amazons . undead, chaos, gnome ,goblins, wood elf's etc and the AI is Stooped !! it was going to score and ran the ball carrier at me !!

The AI is a bit slow and not really challenging, but otherwise, it's a great game. A bit steep on the learning curve to start, though. Just persevere through the first couple games and it becomes a lot more fun!

Aggressive micro-transactions, every customization option and teams. I understand needing to continue making money on a game but damn make it cheaper at least.

8 bucks to get a team, if you want a chunk of custom stuff for the team at a discount, its 20 bucks, if bought separate looking at 50 bucks. Times this by 8 at time of this review and you are looking at around 50 bucks to get all the current teams or 160 bucks to get teams and SOME custom items not all.

At least they did make it so custom equips are unlocked and not single use anymore unless its a legendary one. Also going offline makes it so nothing you have done or unlocked is usable.

In my opinion, this is the best version of Blood Bowl! I have owned all versions of this game that have released on PC; yet, this is the first version of the game I've actually truly played, understood, but, most of all, enjoyed!

Rather than try and explain in detail what Blood Bowl is, do yourself a favour and check out @AndyDavoBloodBowl on YouTube. He has helped massively!

Essentially, Blood Bowl is like most turn based games (like Baldur's Gate 3), but in the format of a sport, with stats, skills and abilities that match the setting. It makes a great eSport too! The format and rules make it a fun game to play, over and over, and over again! The team building and almost roguelike progression of your team just keeps bringing you back, Just be ready to accept that each match takes a bit of time. I've not timed it, but its long. Maybe 40 mins to an hour, per game. Great fun though!

Oh, and it runs sweet on Steam Deck!

I just started playing and the AI freezes and won't make any actions. I played BB2 a lot and never had this problem. I personally don't think the game looks as good as BB2 but that's a personal taste. I can't say much else about the game since it freezes and I can't play it.

Battle Pass, in-game store, always online, and some other minor complaints make this a downgrade from 2.

The battle-passes would be fine if they just added cosmetics, but they have teams locked behind them. When my friend tried this he wasn't sure where to get teams that were only available in battle-passes before. I haven't opened up the shop and won't. I would buy DLC from Steam, but really don't care for the way this game has been monetized. Make it free to play if you want it to be structured this way.

I really like turn-based games for being able to stop and start as I need, in 2 I save and quit games often and really assumed that I could do that again. The first time I tried to do it in 3, I was dumbfounded.

Some of the graphics are improved, but the UI is a bit busy and not helpful. In particular there are some in-game elements that are hard to read, like the radial wheel and the block options.

They are beta-testing the eternal league right now and that could add some reason for me to come back, but once I'm finished with the "campaign" I will stick with 2 when I want to play.

Honestly thought things would get better, but after wasting almost 10 minutes stuck in a game with a bug preventing any actions being taken (this particular bug has appeared to be reported in the developers discord log at least over a year ago), I've simply decided it's just not worth playing anymore. Dodgy server connection drops you randomly from games, then when you try to log back in you get error messages advising that you're already logged in. Don't waste your time with this game, because if anything it definitely eats up far far too much of it. Kept playing to try and unlock teams via blood pass (hence the hours), but ultimately, I'm simply not enjoying the whole grind of it season after season, would prefer if the teams were on sale via steam as per BB2, at least then they might occasionally get a reasonable discount, rather than any teams that you're missing costing the same price all year round. Wish I had refunded when I was still eligible

it's a fine emulation of blood bowl. after several years of waiting and getting it 50% off I'm satisfied. Just took them way too long to make the game worth buying

The game is ruined. I hate all the rule changes for the teams, for example the Dark elves and wood elves can't all pass using agility 2. Now they have a dedicated passing skill which limits those teams play style. Orcs have animosity with each other which doesn't make sense to me at all. The character models look like trash and aren't pleasing to look at. The movement of the characters feels so sluggish.

Furthermore, when your checking your team stats at the end of a match they used an excel spreadsheet format that is such an eyesore. I will play this version only to scratch my Blood Bowl itch if nobody else is playing Blood Bowl 2. Otherwise.... I will avoid this game.... it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Absolutely a waste of money. BB2 might not have the new rule set, but it has waaaaaaay better AI and full release of all the teams.

Do Not Bother. I'm playing an AI right now that spends 2 minutes, thinking, doing a move and using 7 minutes thinking, and then dodging into 3 tackle zones..

If you buy the game now, you have already missed out on a significant number of teams. You can grind through the battle pass (or buy it) to get the newest one, but if you want any of the teams that were released before you bought this game, you need to buy them with in game premium currency. In BB2, at least the teams were separate DLC and you could wait until a sale to pick them up a bit cheaper.

It is blood bowl as always so the core game is good BUT hiding every bit of costumization behind the store rely kills any and all feeling of progression. Worst offender is the Chaos factions that have their mutation effects, in prewious games those mutations were wisible and gave a lot of characteristic to each player. Here? Non of it is vissble and aren't even in the store. It just has a small indicator "2 heads" and that's it. They also don't get any slightly fancier gear when they level up.

At least have something in the store but from what I have seen even the store is very bare (or I just missed a bunch of stuff because I'm new and not a day 1 player) which is also very bad.

First match after the tutorial and team customization (customization is nice)camera is broken i just passed the refund time limit.
Not sorry fix your game cyanide at least the gameplay basics features, you look like crooks

blood bowl 1. blood bowl 2 and now blood bowl 3 what do we get arfter 3 games you might wonder. ingame payment crap. 0 inprovement too the ai, idencial models. and a ban system that will kick you when there connection crap is having a meltdown.

on the bright side the models do look more refined

As a recreational bloodbowl player, this is exactly the improvement to 2 that I was looking for. I can't believe I held off on buying for so long.