It has been close to seventeen years since Team17 released the very first Worms game and showed us how fun it could be to wage all out warfare using the tiny pink crawlers. Over time, the series has evolved to include even crazier ways to outsmart and obliterate your opponents. Worms Revolution takes things a step further and adds even more delicious chaos into the formula that we all know and love.
Worms Revolution is the newest entry in the long running Worms franchise by Team17. We see the return of the core gameplay style that fans enjoy as well as some new additions to the Worms series.Will these additions be enough of a change to keep things fresh and make it worth the purchase? Here are the Hots and Nots of Worms Revolution.
Hots
New Additions To Gameplay Fit Well
The basic Worms gameplay formula in a nutshell involves two or more teams of worms doing battle using a turn based system. Worms are placed randomly across the map and each team is given an equal amount of supplies to use. On your turn, you have a limited amount of time in which you can maneuver across the battlefield to strike at your enemies using one of the many weapons that are at your disposal. Crack open that nutshell and you will find a slew of ways to achieve the goal of eviscerating the enemies forces. Set loose an angry granny and watch her run up to your unlucky victim and explode, fly around on a jetpack and drop a cluster bomb right in the middle of their forces, or just drop a giant concrete donkey on them for massive amounts of damage.
Team17 has also added in some new gameplay elements for players to use that add more strategy into the mix. The addition of physics objects gives you more ways to torture your foes. You can utilize things such as explosive bombs, lighters that act like napalm when they explode, and bottles that release the new water hazard. Water no longer acts as an instant death unless you fall off the edge of the map. Instead, you can use collections of water found in levels to push you opponent down slopes or slowly drown them every turn. There are even 3 new weapons included in the game that let you create water to alter the field or kill your opponents.
Also added into Revolution was the inclusion of 4 different classes of worms for you to use. You can now compose your team of 4 using the soldier, scientist, heavy and scout classes. The soldier class is unlocked from the start and is the all around worm. They have average health and movement speed. The scientists act as the support class in Revolution. At the beginning of a scientist’s turn, each player will be given 5 additional points of health and items such as the sentry turret and magnet are more effective when created by them. Heavies act as the tanks and are loaded on health and can dish out more damage, but suffer greatly in the mobility department. Finally, the scout class is the most mobile of the 4 classes and are able to move faster and jump farther than the other worms. On the downside, they also happen to be the weakest class and can not deal as much damage as the other classes.
Tons of Content
There are 5 different options you have when it comes to playing one of Worms’ various game modes. The first is single player, where you can fight through increasingly challenging campaign levels as well as increasingly challenging puzzle levels. Both of these are loads of fun and worth going through if you are new to the series or want to learn more about the new features. Next up is the versus modes, which can be played locally or online against friends or strangers. You can choose from Deathmatch, Forts and Classic. Deathmatch pits up to 4 different team of worms against each other using the new elements in Revolution such as water and classes. Forts pits two teams of worms against each other with the teams being separated into forts with a body of water between them. Classic mode is everything you love about the original worms and removes all of the new elements found in the game.
The three multiplayer modes can be customized to your liking and you can mess around with the settings to create your own personalized mode. Want to play a match where you have nothing but Holy Hand Grenades and jetpacks? Go ahead and create it. You can even change things such as how many mines are in the level, if you want to include water, what weapons will be used and how many uses they will have, sudden death and a whole mess of other things. The customization options also spread over into creating your own personalized team of worms. you can change everything from what classes make up your team, to what they wear and sound like. There is definitely quite a bit of great content packed in here for a good price.
Sound And Voice Work Is Excellent
One of my favorite parts of Worms Revolutions was the humor that narrator Matt Berry brought to the table. His hilarious dialogue is worth playing the single player for on top of the fun gameplay. His complete disregard for the safety of the little worm soldiers is amusing and more than once I found myself laughing at his parts during the levels. The sound effects in the game are also well done. From the rockets and sheep exploding to the small quips from the worms, you could start up this game blindfolded and just know that it is a Worms game.
Visuals Are Great
Worms has moved back to a 2D landscape setting but uses 3D graphics to show more depth in the levels. The 2D setting works much better for the series and allows players to survey the battleground more efficiently and find various ways to use their weapons and the terrain more efficiently. The colors of the environments and characters are vibrant and watching the fire blanket the ground looks pretty awesome after you fire a rocket at an oil drum.
Nots
Physics Objects Are Clunky
While Worms Revolutions is an excellent entry in the series, there are a few issues with the new physics objects that set it back. I didn’t really find myself relying on the objects scattered around the map to help me and they felt clunky at best. I shouldn’t have to hit that lighter twice with a rocket launcher just to destroy it and douse my enemies in fire. Moving the objects around using telekinesis or the UFO is also pointless and ends up being more trouble than it is actually worth. Grenades were also difficult to use because it did not seem as if they bounced like they should consistently.
Verdict
Worms Revolution is a strong entry in the Worms series that gives players tons of content that justifies the $15 price point. While the physics objects aren’t really one of the stronger new additions, The addition of water and classes change up the gameplay just enough to make it fresh, fun and more addicting than ever. Fans of the Worms series should definitely look into picking up this entry and this is a good point for newcomers as well.
[Editor’s Note: Worms Revolution was reviewed on the PlayStation 3 platform. The voucher code was provided to us by the publisher for review purposes.]