Worms is possibly one of my favourite 3rd party franchises out there, I got this game with my PlayStation 1 way back when, and loved the entire experience, even if the original worms were an odd red colour with giant noses.
Worms is a team based, turn based, 2d action game, where you take turns in moving one of your worms across the battle field and use your armaments to deal damage to your enemy team, and also the environment.
Now to say that Worms has had a bit of a rocky few years would be an understatement, they have had some decent games recently, but the majority have been a major let down, and if we take a look at the mobile scene, it gets even worse. It’s no surprise then that their highest rated game at the moment is Worms World Party HD, so it’s fantastic to see them going back to their roots, and releasing worms WWD.
Right from the get go, WWD has a massive stylised change to how the whole game looks, a similar change from the first game to Armageddon, and a style that they have held onto pretty closely for a long time. Everything is highly polished and stylised, honestly looking more like a calm painting than the explosion fanatic game I am used too.
Gameplay wise, its worms, there is very little you will find surprising if you have played any of the previous 2D worms. You can jump in two ways still, the long forward jump, or the backflip for more height. You take turns, you choose your weapons and hope that the wind doesn’t ruin your perfect shot, but the AI will nail you regardless. Though there is a little difference now, some buildings or parts of the environment can be entered, without the need to blow torch your way in. This means in some cases you can make use of them sort of like a mini fortress, until the enemy blows the wall off to get inside.
Weapons also act as you would expect and control just as easily as before, it’s the case of, easy to use hard to master that has given worms players a lot to practice over the years. There are a lot of new weapons also, which have been outlined in some of the really great trailers, it will be interesting to see how these control, especially the tie in weapons such as rocket league.
The single player missions that are currently in the game so far are what you would expect, though thankfully, gone are the long waiting time at the beginning of the AI’s turn before finally making a move, it seems that they will think as they move across the level. Plus, they are no longer such a crack shot that it feels unfair, they will miss overly difficult shots to make it feel more fair, which overall makes the game more fun to play if you are absent some friends.
There has also been an increase in how many teams can be present on each map, now going as far as 6 teams per match, making it much more hectic than older titles have been.
As I said, graphically the game looks like a painting, some really amazing artwork in the environments ready for you to destroy. The worms themselves have a new look also, I’m still not sure if I like this new look, or the worm’s world party style more, with nostalgia glasses on I will probably say the original, but the new style looks amazing regardless and really a joy to view in HD.
Explosions are nice to view as you would hope, and the whole aesthetic at work here screams polish, it really shows how far Team 17 is going for this game, to show they are still capable of making a new Worms game, not a rehash with the same old mechanics like some games have been.
Some of the biggest talk is about the pre order All-star bonus being released with the game, pre-ordering gives a lot of bonuses from multiple different series;
- Team fortress 2
- Rocket League
- Bro Force
- Saints Row 4
- Goat simulator
- The Escapists
- Orcs must die
- Yooka Laylee
- Unturned
- Payday 2
- Worms
Each giving different bonuses to the game from new weapons, to customisation options for each of your worms. Usually I’m not a fan of this kind of pre-ordering, and I’m disappointed to see weapons here too, I just hope they don’t give any advantage to online play.
Worms has had some ups and downs, with titles like Worms world party and worm’s ultimate mayhem being some of the best games released, but there have been some unfortunate titles like worm’s golf out there also. It’s great to see worms go back to its roots, with no large headed worms, or tank worms in sight, and just relying on skill and the obscured weaponry available to use here.
However, the pre order bonuses really do bother me, and it’s a shame to see them cropping up more and more.
Overall Worms WWD is definitely back to its glory days, and it will find many new young fans.
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