Evernight

As someone who loved playing the Blood Bowl board-game with my brother as kids, I very much wanted this game to be good. It certainly has the potential to be, but as mentioned before, the single player is just overshadowed completely by the ludicrous dice-roll cheating in the AI's favour. Contrary to the die-hard fans who insist that single-player modes are for dinosaurs, and impatience is the only conclusion for getting pissed off at a game, I play multiplayer games regularly and have the patience of a saint. However, none of my friends play this, and I found myself cursing the screen like a trooper at how badly the game cheats with no shame or attempt to hide it. Every time you're about to score or win, you'll get the worst roll possible. Again and again. The AI, however, enjoys the pleasures of what actually appears to be reasonably random rolls. It grows old very fast. This game could have been so much more if someone hadn't 'dropped the ball' on.. dropping the ball. I Hate to give a bad rating on a game, but feel the higher number of positive reviews reflects people who only play multiplayer, or those who love Blood Bowl enough to put up with inferior single-player gameplay. I'm sure multiplayer is more fun, but if you want single-player, stay away. I last played this about a year back, but don't think it's been patched since, rather they've released Blood Bowl: Legendary Edition instead. Probably better to take a look at that.

The stronger points of the game are that it has a fantastically dark atmosphere, believable and often intense characters (something which alot of games lack), and a solid storyline that does the game justice. Also, you choose at the beginning which bloodline (faction) you are part of, which will directly affect your relationships with the characters in-game, offering variation and replayablility, if you don't mind already knowing the storyline the second time through. Finally, the level design is very well done, giving varied and interesting locations that will keep your interest, no rampant cookie-cutter design here. On the down side, it is a dated game, having been released in 2004, so you will probably only get the most out of it if you don't mind the avatars looking a bit blocky compared to what you might be used to. I'm sure it was 'fairly' close to cutting edge graphics in 2004, but if you can look past it, the game will **** you in and you won't notice. It was mentioned that the game doesn't feel finished by one reviewer, and while I disagree, I can see why that might come up. The game is completely set at night, so far as I can remember, so you won't get the bustling city feel that daytime would bring, and also it doesn't have a huge amount of side quests that seem to pack into games these days (to cover up lack of original content), but there is plenty to keep you occupied.. you won't get bored. Also, apparently the game was quite buggy at release. I'd used the official patch when I played it, and didn't come across any problems. I certainly didn't come close to checking on forums, as one or two others had, but everyone plays a game differently, and it's becoming standard practice to check forums rather than think a problem through, or work around it. Regardless, apparently the unofficial patch made by fans is the best, from what I gather. Overall I greatly enjoyed the game and thought it to be underrated, definately a pleasant surprise. At no point did I get bored, even though there are many areas, nor did I question whether I'd see it through to the end, unlike quite a few games which get churned out. The storyline was interesting, and I found myself carefully watching the behaviour of all the characters, not quite sure who to trust, as it should be in a vampire underworld. The hotel level was especially spooky, I might add ;) good job on that. I only wish that there was a sequel.