Should you buy it? Read our Worms Revolution Review
The Worms have been around for quite some time, 17 years to be precise and I think that they will not stop coming. The newest installment in the series is Worms Revolution. Now, is this game a revolution, an evolution or it's just the same game we all grew to love?
Worms Revolution stands somewhere between an evolution and being just the same game. But this doesn't mean that the game is bad. It's how they say, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!". As in all Worms games, you control worms and your task is to destroy the enemies using a vast arsenal of cool weapons. Revolution returns to the 2D nature of the game, but unlike the other old ones, this has 3D landscapes and character models. This, combined with the locked 2D gameplay nature of the game create a cool very effect. Add to this amazing vibrant colors, extremely funny and well made animations for the worms, very detailed environments with lots of stuff happening and you are in for a treat. Yes, Revolution is a beautiful game!
Apart from the amazing visuals, this time around, there's also voice work. Team 17 hired Matt Berry to do the narration of what's happening in the game and the end result is fantastic. The lines are very funny alone, but when you add his narration, they become gold. Kudos to Team 17! Sound effects here are better than ever. Swings, swooshes, explosions, bullets etc. all only add to the amazing experience.
Enough about the presentation, lets talk about gameplay. As I said above all Worms games are about defeating the enemies with crazy and cool weapons. The bazooka, grenades, shotgun, UZI, airstrikes they are all here and to use them properly you will need skill. Getting a bazooka to hit where you want or landing a grenade in a specific point, you will need "mad" skills. Sometimes you'll hit the target, sometimes you will miss it by miles, but that is not the games fault, it's yours. The controls are ok, but many times you will get angry because a little movement of the analog stick may cause your worm to fall to his doom. Also you will fail many times at jumping obstacles, but all will be your fault. The A.I of the enemy is both great and total rubbish! Sometimes the enemies will land perfect grenades or bazookas from far away and sometimes they will just skip turn if you are near them. This is stupid, but it has worked in the past and still works here. Mastering Worms games has always been a challenge and Revolution continues that!
What's new this time around are water based weapons and some other cool one, but I'll not spoil them for you. So you see a worm in a hole, what would you do? Blast him with the bazooka or grenade? Yes you could do so, but what if you drown him? What you can do is shoot a water balloon or the water canon or call in a water strike and fill the hole with water. The worm inside will lose health each turn, but he will not drown immediately. This is the first new feature, dynamic water. The battlefield has many holes full of water and if you shoot them, the water will come down and wash away any worm, mine, turret in its path. Another cool new feature are the physical objects. In the past Worms games, different objects were part of the battlefield, but you couldn't interact with them. In Revolution you can. For example if you see a bolt, you can pick it up using the new telekinesis or the UFO and drop it on top of the other worms. Or if you see a lighter, car battery you can shoot them, causing a big explosion damaging the nearby worms. Or if you see a blow fish or a mushroom, shoot them and they will release a poison that travels with the wind.
How you can interact with these objects is up to you. The game does a nice job helping you understand all of this, through the first "chapter" of the game, which truly is a training chapter. Apart from this one, there are also three more chapters each with a different environment, totaling at 32 levels. The difficulty rises as you progress through, but after a few tries you will beat even the most difficult level. Apart from the challenge levels, there are also puzzle ones where you need to use only or some weapons and gadgets to clear it. You will have fun playing these, but you also might get angry at some.
The next big new feature is the class system. In the old games, you controlled only a type of worm. In Revolution he, or the Soldier, is joined by the Scientist, Scout and Heavy. Each one plays differently. The Scientist gives his squad health over time, the Scout is smaller than the other ones and he can move faster and jump further. The Heavy well, he is a big bulky worm, very slow but has increased defense. This whole class system is a neat addition, but I didn't have or need to switch my default soldier worms to complete the game. Maybe if the level design would have been somewhat different and made it impossible to complete one without the specific worm, this system would have been great.
Another big part of the Worms games always has been the multiplayer and here, it is better than ever. Up to 4 people can battle online in a series of modes, but mainly deathmatch. The host create the game, set the rules about the gadgets and weapons, select the environment and battlefield, populate it with physical objects and dynamic water and when everyone is ready the game starts. In the multiplayer the class system works at its best. Creating a squad full of Scientist or with Heavies or with the other two classes, the gameplay experience can change drastically. The customization is back and it's larger than ever. There are literally hundreds of items and let me tell you that no two worms will look alike. But I encountered a big problem in the PS3 version of the game, there is no one playing it! I managed to get a couple of friends to buy the game and found some others through forums. This sucks, this game deserves a large audience because blasting someone with a sheep or a holy grenade is extremely funny, I promise you that! This is only on PS3, on PC I heard that there's a large community playing the game right now!
So should you buy Worms? If you are a fan of the Worms universe, you definitely should. If you are a casual game who wants to play something different give this game a try. The singleplayer challenges and puzzles will keep you hooked for some time. Also there's a Mars DLC pack coming, which contains new puzzles and challenges. The multiplayer is very interesting if you find someone to play with (PS3 only). Visually the game looks great even though it has some frame rate stuttering here and there. Give this game a try, maybe you will like it and maybe you will get some of your friends to play it. It may not be a "revolution", but it is a welcomed addition to the Worms universe.
8.5/10
