Worms: The Review

Posted by: TacoCat on: 06/28/2009 08:04 PM [ Print | 0 comment(s) ]

WORMS:XBLA

Welcome to Worms

With Worms be prepared for an addictive gaming experience. Taking into account the single player challenge mode, online multiplayer, it's a safe bet you'll be coming back again and again for these heavily armed little guys.

Bot Bashing

The challenge mode is great practice for taking your game online or getting that little edge over your friends. As a purely single player outing the challenge mode puts you in increasingly difficult matches, pitting you against progressively better AI opponents, as well as more numerous teams. In the later levels is where the only real difficulties come in, starting with number 13. This challenge is by far the most troublesome, mainly due to the placement of your team on the stage. Your fourth “man”, as the last to move, is highly vulnerable to every opposing character making him the most likely to die first. This stage also brings you the hardest to reach worm in the challenge mode. Snugged securely in the upper left corner of the map, the most effective way of dealing with him is to blast his perch out from under him, bringing this little fella into a much more accessible position for your entire team. After clearing this challenge there are few real challenges, in comparison, in the remaining stages. Unfortunately with only 20 challenges just when you feel that the warm up is over you're through with the final one. Fortunately to continue your bot dominance there is the handy, and random, quick play mode. Setting you on a random level against a single team with a random weapon set, this mode can become very interesting.

WorldWideWorms

It's a good thing for us there's a well rounded multiplayer offering, bringing a decent amount of round customization, including weapon availability, based on difficulty setting, and the shortening of timers on explosives. The shortened timers definitely make for an interesting match, making long range timed weapons an impossibility. The online multiplayer can easily turn into a difficult time consuming endeavor, with a lack of games to be found, you're more likely to spend most of your time sitting in a lobby of your creation than actually playing a match unless you invite some friends. It's a huge plus that bringing your friends into the action is a very easy process otherwise your only hope of a decent match would be the local multiplayer. Of course there is something to be said for being able to watch your friends' reactions in person as you blast their teams into nothingness, as opposed to only hearing the anguished cries over the headset.

The Verdict

After everything is said and done the only thing that could make this a better download would be a multiplayer or team challenge/race mode. Other than that this game is a definite buy, even if you're unfamiliar with the Worms franchise.