I was about to buy this game on sale, but luckily, I thought of looking for a demo first. I found one on Steam, installed it, and was ultimately disappointed. This is a game that wastes way too much time with gimmicks, to the point that the gimmicks become the center of the game over playing actual football.
For example, if the other team bribes the ref, no matter what you do on the next play, even score a touchdown, the ref will call a 10-yard penalty on you (and remove any points scored). To counter this happening again on the next play, you'll have to bribe the ref as well, or attack the ref, and since the ref survives the first attack, and calls a penalty on you, you'll have to attack the ref again on the next play to kill the bribed ref and get a new ref. So now, you've gone through three or four plays surrounding the ref, had two or three penalties called on you, and have to sit and wonder if you're going to get to play some actual football.
Not to mention, when the opponent hits me with a gimmick like electric shock powers, I then to have to figure out which gimmick I need to hit them back with. So, the game becomes more about figuring out which gimmicks to pull off and when. Also, players die or get injured way too quickly. The gameplay needs a lot of restructuring in order to make it fun.
There's really no excitement around the game of football; it's simply a game about gimmicks that happens to use the sport of football as the background. If the gimmicks excite you enough to enjoy the game, that's cool, but I certainly wasn't into it. I'd rather the game be centered on playing football but with the gimmicks being more of a side show rather than the main show, like the classic NFL Blitz games. If you're coming into Mutant Football League expecting an NFL Blitz-like experience, you're not going to get it.
In short, buyer beware. Play a demo before you even think about buying this game, even on sale.
