It’s understandable that some PC gamers have been a little envious of their Worms-loving Xbox-owning peers, as Worms 2: Armageddon on XBLA introduced all-new game modes and weapons that have been unavailable on any other format. Worms: Reloaded redresses all that, bringing the first new 2D Worms title to the PC market since the stellar Worms World Party in 2001, complete Armageddon and a few new tricks of its own.
For the uninitiated, Worms is a Multiplayer focused, turn-based strategy game that sees up to four teams of worms battle it out using some utterly crazy weapons over an infinite number of landscapes. You control one worm at a time and move around the landscape for tactical advantage before attacking your opponent. Each team has an infinite supply of bazookas and grenades, which make up your core arsenal. Bazookas are affected by the wind and so precision is required to use them effectively, whilst grenades are physics-based and require skill to master. Jetpacks, girders and teleporters add a further layer of strategy, on top of the one-shot crazy super weapons.
It’s a lot simpler than it sounds but to help newcomers, a training mode is included which does a nice job of covering the basics. A bit of experimentation is required but the early fun of Worms: Reloaded is trying out the wacky weapons and figuring out your strategy. A full-featured singleplayer campaign also helps, taking you through various themed levels against increasingly harder AI opponents. There is no story to speak of, but it’s worth going through to earn money which you can then use in the shop to unlock new items such as super weapons, sounds and graphics.
The only problem with that approach is that gamers wishing to jump straight into a multiplayer match will not be able to use some of the more powerful weapons until they have been unlocked. Not all of them need to be bought, but series favourites like the super sheep and the concrete donkey will be missed until available. Fortunately it won’t take too long to unlock these but really they should be available from the start.
Also new for the singleplayer there are Bodycount and Warzone. Bodycount takes a little nod from Horde mode in Gears of War, and sees you control just one worm against and endless onslaught of enemy worms who start off with less health but quickly generate more until your worm breathes his last. Warzone is a further campaign mode for advanced players to test their skills against the AI. The main complaint with both these modes is that frankly, the harder AI is super-human and able to hit you right on the head with a bazooka or grenade from almost anywhere on the level. I understand it has to be a bit of a challenge and to be fair the easier AI is more forgiving, but there should be some sort of inaccuracy even on the hardest level to allow for a semblance of fair play.
The strongest feature of Worms: Reloaded is the complete customisation of almost anything you can think of. The names, colour, sounds and headwear of the worms can all be altered, the rules of a game can be fully changed and even the user interface can be tailored to your personal preference. One big advantage over the Xbox version is the creation of your own levels using your own images that are simply placed in a folder in the Worms: Reloaded directory. The depth allowed is impressive and makes online games all the more fun to see the various combinations users come up with.
The new weapons and utilities provided are smart additions which introduce all-new tactics if used correctly. Magnets can either attract or repel certain weapons such as bazookas and so can help protect your protagonists, but they also allow easier manipulation of aiming to take down targets that might be harder to reach if all your other weapons have been used up. In one of my online games, my opponent put 3 magnets down, creating sort of corridor which they then used to bombard me with bazooka fire; which was frankly genius. The weapons and gadgets on offer allow this type of ingenuity that truly means no one game will be the same; and that’s where the real appeal of worms has always come from. The new features and weapons really send the experience to new depths. Bridges make a triumphant return and levels can now be created to be vertical instead of horizontal, an addition that seems so obvious it should have been included a long time ago. It’s such a small addition but the whole dynamics of a battle can completely change, the emphasis on ninja ropes and jetpacks even greater than before.
The cartoon nature of the visuals portray humorous animations of the wriggly warriors as they jump, dance and scream in horror at the atrocities performed on them and it all looks slick and well presented. The sharp graphics engine display the worms and their bright and colourful landscapes as good as ever and despite looking similar to previous entries in the series, Worms Reloaded still looks up to scratch with today’s standards. There are new sound effects, animations and graphical effects which all help in ensuring that blowing up worms is just as fun as it ever has been.
Available on Steam for the very reasonable sum of £17.99, Worms Reloaded is a game I cant recommend highly enough, especially at that price. For my money it is the best version of Worms yet and the benefit of mouse support and fully customisable landscapes should now leave some of those Xbox gamers a little bit jealous of their PC peers. The series originated on the PC, so it’s apt that the platform still flies the flag for the best Worms experience out there.
I'm a gamer of diminutive size who has been playing games since the days of the NES. I also enjoy long walks on the beach. "
