The Worms game series from Team 17 has been firmly embedded into my gaming heart and soul ever since my Commodore Amiga days, and I have been happily playing the series on each gaming platform I have chosen in every console generation since then. In fact I still have the original Worms installed on my Amiga 1200 hard drive I have in storage. It is such an iconic and well known gaming series that you can ask any gamer if they known or played Worms and they will all say yes. So when I learned that the current generations of consoles were finally going to get a new Worms game I was more than just a little excited, aptly named ‘Worms W.M.D.’, it was time to see what the next evolution of this series had in store for me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaEEz9RiJcE
When it comes to the Worms series, there are a particular set of elements that have to come together for it to really succeed for fans of the series and to attract new fans. Those elements run from the amazing and various battlegrounds in the levels you fight on, the legendary weapons you use to destroy the other teams and the brilliant customisation features that allow you to create your own teams and put your own personal twist on them. I am happy to say that this latest entry has all the above and more.
Worms W.M.D. brings together everything that has made the series so fun to play over the years, it takes no time at all to feel right at home in the game if you are familiar with the games but just in case you are new to it, Worms W.M.D. has an excellent tutorial campaign that eases players into how it all works from selecting and firing particular weapons to how to move your team of Worms around the level. The tutorial missions also introduce the new features such as vehicle combat in tanks, helicopter gunships and the new Mech suits. Each tutorial has a medal system to mark how fast you can complete the mission, with the ultimate goal of setting a new ‘World Record’ time, which is very challenging indeed to try and beat.
For those who enjoy playing solo, Worms W.M.D. offers a great Single player campaign that takes you through ever increasing challenging levels against AI controlled teams that vary in size and skill throughout. Each mission will have a set of side objectives to complete such as keeping your team alive or dispatching the enemy in a particular way and with a certain weapon. The basic aim is to simply defeat all enemy team to win but having these side objectives adds a nice little replay value to each mission for the perfectionists. The levels are well designed adding the new vehicles to mix up the action gradually and the levels themselves also hold secrets as well. On first look each map looks like the traditional 2D environments fans know well, but now you can move inside building to either collect crates for materials and new weapon discoveries or to take cover. This adds a new level of strategy in planning your attacks and in defensive manoeuvring to each turn. The single player campaign is a great way to practice using the weapons and getting used to the varying environments you will battle on before you take it to the next level should you choose to.
That next level is the Multiplayer side, one of my personal favourite modes in recent Worms games. Worms W.M.D. brings an array of options for the multiplayer side. For the competitive players it has a ranked online mode and for the less competitive but still want to challenge others online it also has an unranked option. Local play allows you to play offline against friends in a sofa versus mode or you can set up to play AI teams. Having the ability to set up private matches as well is great to invite friends to play online. All these modes give a very deep multiplayer side to this game which has always been one of the most fun aspects to Worms, the ability to challenge and share the experience with others and especially friends.
Customisation is also rich in this instalment, with the usual personalisation of creating custom team names and team members. Now you can customise the outfits your worms will wear, the style of dialogue they speak, the fanfare and celebration dance when you win and the gravestones your team will use should they fall. You can also create ‘schemes’ where players can set the AI difficulty, health amount, player turn and match times which will be great when creating private games with friends. For me this is the Worms game with the most customisation options and it encourages players to take more control of the Worms experience and that is always a good thing and creating teams is always great fun.
Creating new things also brings me to perhaps the greatest feature in Worms W.M.D., that of crafting. Crates no longer only contain weapons to be used but some can also contain materials that can be used to craft new weapons to use. Currently held weapons can also be dismantled to turn them into materials to be used for crafting new weapons as well, all helping to give an edge to planning your next attacks. To craft a weapon you simply bring up the same menu you would use to select the attack you are going to use and use the right bumper to switch to the crafting menu where the weapons you are able to craft can be selected. It takes one full turn to craft the weapon but the nice little twist is that you can even craft weapons during an opponents turn. This strategy enables you to be rather sneaky in your planning, by crafting on an opponents turn, the weapon will be available on your next turn and it prevents them from knowing you are taking time to do the crafting. Crafting also gives you time to see the positions of the enemy teams as well as learning the layout of the environment to pick a weapon that will help bring you victory as long as you can find the materials needed, which is why exploring buildings is a key element in a match.
Worms W.M.D. brought back all the reasons I loved the original Worms games and a reminder of just why they time and again succeed in evolving the series each time.By returning to the classic gameplay fans have loved, Worms W.M.D. is great fun to play and still holds a challenge for players of all levels. The crafting element along with the new vehicles all create engaging battles and the now famous Worms sense of humour binds it all together so fluidly that the customisation has never been more rewarding. Nice touches such as the nods to other Team 17 games also helps in making Worms W.M.D. a must have for any fans of the series and a very tasty party game for friends to enjoy.
It is time to grab your holy hand grenades, add a coat of wax to your mech suit and let your Super Sheep fly once again and it now even better than ever and it is a deserving game to celebrate the Worms 21st Anniversary.
