Worms Reloaded review
Worms on the PC has had a bit of a holiday. But after having a few years away and having a bit of a flirt with other formats, Worms has returned home looking refreshed and better than ever. Say hello to Worms: Reloaded.
Based on the Xbox 360 release Worms Armageddon 2, it’s the Worms title that the fans have been waiting for. And although it’s pretty much the same game as the Xbox 360 release, being on the PC makes the title much better.
Reloaded includes everything you get in Armageddon 2 and its DLC pack. But for me it surprisingly looked better, with a crisper, sharper picture being presented. The more important thing is that Reloaded is so much easier to pick up and play compared to its console cousin, which is a bit of a surprise seen as console games are the very definition of pick up and play.
I’m not a massive PC gamer. I’ve never been able to play an FPS with a mouse and keyboard with great ease. But Worms belongs on the PC, and playing with a mouse and keyboard just seems so much more natural rather than a console controller.
It’s also a lot more precise playing with a mouse. That was my one frustration while playing Armageddon, there were times you couldn’t quite get the target exactly lined up as you would like. Or it would take most of your available turn and you’d run out of time before selecting the destructive weapon of choice. With Reloaded it’s a simple swoop of the mouse and pretty much a case of point and click. Much more accurate, as well as being much quicker.
Single player modes return in Worms Reloaded, and bring a lot that will keep you busy for as long as you like. More importantly they will bring you back for more. The Tutorial mode will teach you all of the basics, and prepare you for the challenges that lay ahead. Campaign mode brings 35 levels of increasing difficulty, and manages to mix up the game types between the more classic deathmatch and challenges enough to keep you hungry for more. There’s no doubting the amount to do in the Campaign mode, it’s whether your frustration gets the better of you and causes a mild case of rage quitting.
There’s also two other modes in the form of Warzone and Body Count. Warzone is the more traditional deathmatch type game, with the difficulty once more increasing as you progress through each match. And although Warzone is fun to play, it’s Body Count that is perhaps the best inclusion to the single player side of the game.
The objective is to get the highest score by killing the enemy worms as quickly as possible with your one single worm, and by staying alive for as long as you can. The enemy worms start off with a low level of health, but each time you kill one another regenerates in its place. At set points throughout the game the amount of starting health the enemy worms begin with increases. Crates and health drop throughout the game as well, which is just as well as your enemy worms will do their best to reduce your health, as well as the fact you’ll quickly run out of the heavy duty arsenal you begin with.
Once more the AI worms’ intelligence ranges from one extreme to the other. One moment you can be competing against the Albert Einstein of worms, managing to pull off the most impossible of shots that makes pushing a camel through the eye of a needle look easy. Then of course you have the next extreme, with some worms failing to distinguish the difference between you and their team mates. There’s also the comical moments where the impossible shot is attempted, only for it to be failed miserably resulting in three of your targets disappearing at once.
Although it is nice to have a single player aspect to the game which keeps you entertained, it’s the multiplayer that really does make Worms. It always has done, and always will.
Local multiplayer seems to be a dying mode in games now, but it’s available in Reloaded. Online multiplayer also returns, but if it’s ranked competitive matches you’re after, expect a little wait until you find an opponent you actually manage to connect with. That said, it is early days since Worms Reloaded was released, so the numbers playing online can only improve.
It’s been far too long a wait for the return of Worms on the PC. But the improvement in graphics, single player offering and sheer fun that can be had offline as well as on mean it’s a welcome return and one certainly worth the wait. Welcome back to PC gaming Worms, welcome back.
