Worms Reloaded (PC) Review - PAGE 1

Players take turns moving one of their four worms scattered about each level. A turn usually consists of a worm moving to a position where it can damage an enemy and then retreating to a safe spot under a limited time.  Everyone will get hit so make sure you find a place where you can lessen the pain.  Using the weapons available, you can either directly damage enemy worms or knock them into a nearby hazard such as a mine or instantly killing them by drowning in a liquid.

 

At everyone’s disposal is a huge variety of weapons and tools to cause a lot of destruction. Most of the weapons will alter the landscape to constantly change how everyone moves around while items like ropes, teleporters, and parachutes assist with where you need to go. Wind will also affect weapons that must be thrown or launched so you must compensate for where you aim. You definitely want to play the solo campaign to learn how to play as it's quite short and you'll get the tokens need to unlock goodies such as new levels and weapons.

Outside of the normal campaign, you can hone your skills with Warzone (a harder campaign), Body Count (a survival mode for lasting as long as possible) or the Quick and Custom Matches. The game shines in the latter two modes as Worms Reloaded has a custom level generator that’ll create tons of landscapes. Item pickups are also found in these modes to grab new weapons, tools, or restore a bit of health.

 

If you’re not feeling the random level generator, make a level on your own with the designer. What it basically comes down to is drawing the outline of the landscape and then have the game fill it solid. There are some nice tools such as a landscape warp to add that curvy and wrinkly visual flair you see in stages; tunnel and hole generators add paths and bunkers for worms to settle in. It literally takes minutes just to draw your stage, add items, and spawn points. You’ll appreciate being able to churn out levels with little effort.

 

There are a few niggling issues present in Reloaded that don’t affect the game much but need some getting used to. Players aren’t given time to study the landscape before the match so they’re forced to spend their first few turns knowing where everything is and going for a quick hit that might put them in a place they don’t want to be. The controls are also awkwardly set up on the arrow keys so do yourself a favor by making your squad move with the WASD keys (or ESDF if you're into that) to make things more comfy.

 

While there is a training mode, it would be nice if the game briefly taught you about a new weapon you’ve never used before because some of the weapons are very unwieldy and you have no way to know what it’ll do until you use it. For example, Homing Missile sounds incredibly useful at first until you realize it needs space to actually launch and then go after its target in an inconvenient arc. Finally, the mildly amusing one-liners spoken by the little guys will quickly grow tiresome for many as there aren’t many lines recorded for the voice sets.

 

Worms Reloaded is surprisingly easy to learn and play. Newcomers and veterans will get used to things very quickly and make up some satisfying strategies on the fly. There’s quite a bit to do and you’ll be having a good time playing against other players online or in quick bouts with the computer. Random levels and creating your own stages also assures you’ll be playing this for a long time. Newcomers will be in for a good addition to their game collection and Worms fans will appreciate the return to 2D.

Final score: 9.2 / 10