Review code provided by Asmodee Digital
Blood Rage is a popular Kickstarter board game from designer Eric Lang and publisher CMON. It’s a tabletop heavyweight ranked #31 overall and #28 in strategy, at the time of writing. Needless to say, it’s a big game with a lot of fans.
So the news that Asmodee Digital, a leader in digital adaptations of board games, was releasing Blood Rage: Digital Edition definitely came with a lot of expectation. Social distancing means that it’s harder to get together with friends to play tabletop games. The prospect of playing our favorite games, especially thematic strategy games, online via digital adaptations is enticing. A digital edition promises the possibility of solo play against AI opponents and remote play with friends and strangers online.
In Blood Rage, players command Viking clans during the age of Ragnarök. Each clan fights for Glory, using their Rage and their warriors to pillage the land, conquer the enemies, and complete quests that will aid them in growing powerful during each age. It’s a complex strategy game that involves card drafting, area control, and other gameplay mechanics. Tabletop gamers love it.
And Blood Rage: Digital Edition aims to recreate that experience with the added features of digital play. That means pretty graphics that render the miniatures and the world of the board game into 3D splendor. And a multiplayer matchmaking system to allow for online gameplay. Not to mention single-player capabilities where players are pitted against AI opponents. All set within a UI that easily transports players into the game without all of the fuss involved with unboxing a big game.
It’s a big leap. Unfortunately, Exozet and Asmodee Digital have not quite stuck the landing.
Let’s see what went wrong.
STORY
Odin All-Father, in his wisdom, always knew Ragnarök would come. He never found a way to prevent the destruction of Midgard. Lesser creatures can only cower and wait for the end.
But not you. You are a Viking, leader of a proud and ancient clan. Even in the face of final doom for all the world, you will command your warriors on the field of battle, conquering and pillaging as you were born to do. The gods are generous in their twilight hours, bestowing gifts and boons upon you. Even the most monstrous creatures of Midgard seek to find glory in the little time they have left, and so they too may join you in your assault. You will use everything you have left to earn your place in Valhalla by besting all other clans, achieving the last victory the world will ever know.
Life is fleeting, but glory is eternal. Now is the time for rage!
It’s an epic story. Vikings. Gods. The end of the world. What better setting to fight against other players to see who will conquer the world and gain glory?
The exciting setting of the narrative is still maintained in the digital edition. The visual design, the characters, and the cards all retain that thematic connection to the narrative, and I greatly appreciated the rich background of Eric Lang’s game.
Where the story, or the immersion into the narrative, falters, however, is in the hiccups of gameplay. The constant restarting. The bugs that stop games in their tracks. These not only affect the gameplay and the overall satisfaction with the digital edition but they mar the beauty of the story as well.
A disappointing start.
GAMEPLAY
If we’re just evaluating how the game plays, then it’s loyal to the source material. Blood Rage: Digital Edition is a strategy game that combines card-drafting, variable powers, resource management, and all of the strategy required in a competitive game with up to five players.
Three game rounds, or Ages, guide the course of play, and players will control their clans by winning battles, gaining resources from the land, and completing quests. You spend Rage to perform actions on the board. And that is one of several stats that you need to increase to improve your clan and increase your capabilities each turn. Rage empowers action, but Horns enable larger pools of warriors and Glory is essential for victory at the end of the game.
There is a draft phase, in which players start to devise a strategy, but the action phase will create challenges for players to overcome and the most versatile and adaptable player will come out on top. It’s not just about winning battles. It’s about coming out on top of every encounter with the most resources and rewards gained.
So it’s not that different from the tabletop.
What’s different—and what’s special—is the features that are typically introduced with a digital adaptation of a board game. Solo play against AI opponents. Local multiplayer with hotseat mechanics. And online multiplayer with ELO rankings and leaderboards. These are the exciting additions that can make a tabletop game so much more accessible.
Looking at Blood Rage: Digital Edition from the outside, all of the gameplay components and mechanics are thrilling. The potential for greatness is there.
It’s once you get started, when you load up the game, when you try to access those features, that the problems start.
My game encountered difficulties just in the tutorial. A little bit into the explanation of rules and gameplay, I couldn’t finish the round of combat. I had to add a card in order to see who won, and I couldn’t.
Okay, I’ll exit to the main menu. But I couldn’t. There is no option to exit. At all. Or save your progress.
Let’s start over then.
What about a solo game with AI opponents? Sure.
After just a couple of rounds, though, the game froze on an AI player, who didn’t have any Rage to perform an action. But I did. Yet it lingered and I couldn’t escape the situation. I can’t exit to the main menu. And I can’t save my game. So that time was lost.
Multiplayer matches? Fair enough, but the lowest setting you can have for that play timer is 60 minutes. That means an impossibly long wait between player turns is possible. Not to mention that the other bugs can just stop a game in its tracks.
Force-close the game and try again.
That was my experience with Blood Rage: Digital Edition.
It seems that some players have not been encountering the bugs and have had positive experiences with the game. If you purchase the game, I hope that’s what happens to you. But it looks like most players are suffering from the same bugs and crashes that I did.
And it’s pretty frustrating because it completely takes away what could have been an exhilarating adventure with the digital adaptation.
I hope that things are fixed soon, but as of now, the gameplay is not really there.
VISUALS
The miniatures have been 3D-scanned and rendered into the dynamic world with Yggdrasil at its center.
It’s a nice recreation of the board game and it has thematic weight. Some of the graphics could have been better, though, and I wish there were animations of the battles with characters or miniatures fighting each other, but it’s relatively mild.
If you wanted an eye-catching depiction of the tabletop adventure, then you’ll have it, but don’t expect a magnificent upgrade that oozes technical wizardry.
REPLAYABILITY
If all of the issues get fixed, then this will have a lot of replay value. That’s one of the biggest draws for digital adaptations to board games. Solo play, local play, and online play mean that you can get a lot more bang for your buck than with big boxes that you can’t always pull off the shelf for a game night.
I’m hopeful that within a few months, all of the bugs will be fixed, the UI will be updated with patches, and that the game will look a lot more like what I envisioned when it was first announced.
The potential for high replay value in Blood Rage: Digital Edition is there. It just hasn’t been realized yet.
WHAT IT COULD HAVE DONE BETTER
There is a lot the could have been better. Exozet and Asmodee Digital should be committed to more playtesting and more time in development before the official launch.
Blood Rage: Digital Edition is not ready for release.
Game-breaking bugs that stop you in the tutorial. That stop you in combat. That freeze your games. That prevent online multiplayer with friends.
A poor UI that doesn’t allow you to save single-player games. That doesn’t allow you to exit to the main menu of the game. That forces you to hard shut-down the game to get out.
Kickstarter backers who didn’t even get keys to the game before those that pre-ordered.
The decision to release the game in the state it is. That’s one of the most surprising and most disappointing aspects of the game.
There are some pretty vitriolic reviews out there deriding the decisions made by the developer and the publisher. I try to avoid hyperbolic language and I don’t like being negative in reviews. I genuinely feel that most developers are trying to release the best games and products they can.
But this is currently a mess. And I can’t ignore that.
VERDICT
When it works, Blood Rage: Digital Edition is a beautiful game that faithfully adapts the original board game. It can appeal to new gamers who haven’t played the tabletop version, and it can reinvigorate long-time fans who want a new way to experience the epic Viking world.
But it just doesn’t work that much. It’s plagued with game-breaking bugs that affect the tutorial, single-player games, and the online multiplayer system. Also, there are UI decisions that just don’t make any sense.
In its current form, I can’t really recommend the game.
*I hope to update this review in the future if and when things are fixed.
