Those who want a tame, refined football game should just stop reading here because Blitz: The League II (BTL2) is as far from that as can be. BTL2 is Midway's second installment to the revamped Blitz series, which once again features The League, a football league with a handful of teams and minimal rules. The game is not NFL licensed. In fact, its campaign mode was created by Peter Egan who was involved with the ESPN show "Playmakers," which the NFL ultimately requested to have taken off air. That should be enough to get you thinking about the direction this game takes.

Like BTL1, BTL2 offers a hard hitting arcade style football experience, which is the NFL turned upside down and drowned in drugs. But while the NFL frowns on things, such as drugs, The League has no problems with drugs. Juicing up is a key part of BTL2 and you will find yourself juicing up players after injuries instead of sending them to the trainer, just for a little extra kick. Mini games found in BTL2 give you a little practice at drugging your players up as well, just in case you couldn't get used to it by experimenting during an actual game.

Along with the drugs in BTL2, also come the hits. There is now an aim tackling system, which allows you to pick a specific spot on a player's body and then hit them with varying force, depending on how fast you can smash buttons. These aimed hits will result in a plethora of injuries that come fully equipped with animations for your viewing pleasure: target the quarterback's arms and watch as his humerus cracks or drive your helmet into someone's abdomen and watch his spleen rupture. No matter what your preference of injury though, you will be able to find multiple injuries to excite yourself with. Although, after a few games, the injuries do become a little stale and seem almost too common. As mentioned before, injured players can sometimes be juiced up and returned to the game or you may be able to heal them by slipping a bone back into place. Other players may not be as fortunate and will spend some time on the sidelines. This time is minimal in respect to the injuries that keep the player from suiting up though.

But what tackles are enough, if they can't be followed by even more hits. If you aren't fortunate enough to put out a player with a hit, you can decide to stomp on their helmet a few times. Beware though that your opponent may be able to fight back, so don't get too cocky with this. After even just a few plays into the game, it becomes very evident that scoring isn't all that difficult. This means that punts are rare and kickoffs are plentiful. The ease of scoring detracts from the game, in that it is just as easy for the computer to score as it is for you for the most part. The AI does some rather odd things to adjust and keep the game close no matter how talented you may be at the game. The best player may find random interceptions and fumbles occurring and giving the computer scoring opportunities. Surprise? I think not.

The game features an extensive campaign mode in which you will progress through accomplishments, listen to voicemails left on your phone, buy cars, go the club, and even pick post game fights. You will also be able to create your own player in the franchise mode and create your own team in the franchise team mode. These offer quite a bit of amusement until the absurdly adapting AI and too frequent bone cracks get the best of you.

But even when certain aspects of the game may irritate you, the Unleashed moves will get excited all over again. Fill your clash meter by executing dirty hits and a variety of other non-NFL sanctioned activities and you will be able to execute Unleashed moves, which will inspire you to play even more of the game.

Graphics are not the most refined in the game and the colors are a little off and there aren't quite enough animations to make all movements seem completely natural. Player models aren't top notch either and when this combines with the lacking animations, it leads to a game that isn't fully immersive.

Regardless of some less than stellar aspects, BTL2 is a fresh approach to football games. If you don't want an over the top, adultered football game, don't bother getting BTL2. If you want something different from the tame world of Madden, then this is perfect for you.

Our rating: 3.0 out of 5.0