Developer: Team 17
Publisher: Team 17
Platform: Playstation 4,
Xbox One
Worms Battlegrounds – Review
A turn based artillery game, in a series which started out as simply Worms in 1995. This is the first game in the Worms series to be on the 8th console generation. Worms Battlegrounds might seem straight forward, but has you going through hoops to finish off the opposition with a mixture of artillery. Just be sure to keep your wits about to outsmart and outmanoeuvre the enemy.
Story
An evildoer named Mesmer has stolen the Stone Carrot and as a result you are placed in charge of the Worms. This artifact will power up his psychic abilities and will allow him rule the world. Cara Timble is a famous archaeologist, mostly known for her tomb raiding capabilities and her use of the five finger discount on anything with value that isn’t nailed down. She orders you to take out the goons of Mesmer and take back the Stone Carrot. This might be a nice gesture, although she wants you to get it so she can take it from you and flog it on the internet. When playing the singleplayer missions, she’ll also tell tales, mocking other adventure games like Tomb Raider and Uncharted or movies like Indiana Jones. The humour is morbid, strangely light hearted too, as if all in good jest.
Graphics
Worms has a cartoonish feel to it, making it seem kiddy. It’s a grim contrast to the gameplay, which is the opposite. That being said, it fits the whole context: the story telling, the music, the slightly exotic weaponry. When you start a level you’ll notice the screen is locked on your position, and quite zoomed in. You can pan out and overlook the whole battlefield though, with little or no problem. Switching between these is quite easy. Every battlefield has a certain feel to it and again the devil is in the details. Enemy worms will have different attires according to the region. Their names will also be custom to the habitat. The aiming system is a little difficult as the crosshair is always at the same distance from you and you can’t move it. It’s also not easy to see just how much power you’ll need when shooting rockets because the powerbar isn’t clear on how much force the full bar will give. A little indication on whereabouts it would land would be a massive help, even if it were only during the story missions. That way the newer players to the genre don’t feel like outsiders.
Sound
The sound of Cara Timble is haughty and clear and she fits the personality perfectly. Saying things like: ‘He’s a good man, unless he spots an icecream van, then you are on your own.’, ‘You’ll be the Lord of the Manor and your online Chums invading peasants or arrow fodder as we call them. Sweet!’
The Worms themselves don’t really have that much vocal capacity. There are different types of Worms and they’ll have a different sound, but when you jump, they all make the same noise. The music is calm and pleasant, keeping things at a rather slow pace.
Gameplay
Worms Battlegrounds has a lot going for itself with a strong focus on multiplayer and a rather big singleplayer. The singleplayer might function as a tutorial because it’s quite big and the story is well mapped out. You’ll learn about different classes and their attributes. For example, size plays a role when burning a hole with a blowtorch, as the scouts are smaller than the other units. During the singleplayer you’ll unlock the weaponry slowly over the course of 25 levels. Weapons obtained by boxes dissappear as the mission ends, weapons in crates however will stick around for the remainder of the story mode. This distinct correlation makes the missions challenging, as you unlock a carpet bomber during the first mission and you’d be able to clean the map out on certain levels. The game also has 10 Ops missions which will have you race against the clock to gain medals.
You can get massively creative with the tools at hand. There are magnets for you to use and attract or repel mines and metal heavy artillery. A nice strategy is that you set one up to repel incoming enemy rockets and grenades. Another idea is that you could set one up between enemies and drop a mine, staying out of reach as the mine gets pulled into them. Not all weaponry is based on real life guns, there’s a lot of creativity involved. One of the funnier things was the exploding sheep. It happily hops its way to your enemy before exploding and doing a massive chunk of damage. The game has a total of 65 weapons. The new weapons from Worms Clan Wars are also included, such as the Winged Monkey, which can fly through the map and drop objects everywhere and the Teleport Gun, a revamped version of the Ninja Rope that can teleport the user to where the laser hits, without ending the player’s turn. You can also use telekinesis for example, which will let you shift and move objects with your mind.
There are also extra hazards on the map, like barrels that explode and leave a trail of fire which does turn based damage. Water/Slime will slow your downward momentum and will stop you from being damaged from a fall, in case you don’t have the parachute at your disposal. Stranding in a pool at the end of your turn without a plug to drain it, will result in you taking damage. Worms need to breathe too! A slight annoyance is that you can’t move through your squadmates, so you will get stuck easily in corridors.
The lightbar will indicate the situation and attacks of your worm. The bar will turn red for attacks and explosions, blue when you are submerged in water and green when poisoned. They’ve utilized the touchpad for a quick equip button.
In case you are a fervent map builder and like to customize the rules of warfare and the battlefield, they’ve thought of that too!
There are 5 themes for you to choose from, in chronological order: Prehistoric, Viking, Inca, Feudal Japan and Industrial revolution. You can add contraptions and devices, among which sentry guns, magnets, barrels, plugholes, physics opbjects, and other worms. There’s a bar to the left part of the map, which shows the complexity. One thing I noticed is that you can completely fill the map with the ground layer. The maps are also bordered which gives you only a restricted place to work with, so no endless maps for you! This helps you make the best of the materials and forces you to be smart with the tools at your disposal.
They’ve missed out on using the touchpad on the Playstation 4’s controller in the map editor because it would be useful if you could doodle the map on the button or use it to pinpoint locations and for a more precise placement of traps.
Conclusion
With a whacky storyline, a fleshed out singleplayer adding to a beefy multiplayer experience, you’ll have your hands full with turn based action. If you don’t feel like worm based destruction, there’s always construction for you to enjoy and let others find out how fiendish your trap filled maps can be.
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