Worms Reloaded – The MMOMFG Review

Written by: Michael Lerch

Worms Reloaded

Worms Reloaded is blowing its way back to PCs with Holy Hand Grenades and cute voices. Is it living up to its name in the series or is it an explosive flop? Have a seat with some popcorn in hand as we take a look at the newly released Steam exclusive.

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What’s Good

 

A familiar wormy feeling – As a former player of previous Worm’s titles, I was happy to see the familiar gameplay. You control a team of four worms pitted against either AI or other human players with a variety of weapons at your disposal. Let’s not forget about the destructible environment which makes things a bit trickier. It really helped remind me of just how much I loved playing the original game way back when it released in 1995. Not too terribly much has changed aside from the graphics upgrade and large number of voices, which we’ll get to a bit later.

Set up shop – Worms Reloaded gives you a reason to play its singleplayer mode, to buy items in the shop. No, the game doesn’t require a real-money transaction if that was what you were thinking. For every campaign level you defeat, puzzle you solve, etc. you will receive coins to spend in the shop. In the shop you can buy things like the Holy Hand Grenade or custom tombstones for when your worms die.

Cutesy worm voices – I loved the voices in the original games, it’s what made the game so entertaining aside from the fact that I was able to blow things up. Team 17 has done a great job with giving your team of worms a hilarious set of dialogue for when they’re attacking, waiting or being attacked. At times, the dialogue fit so well that it kept me and the other players online laughing for several minutes.

Loaded multiplayer – It’s always really fun to blow your friends to smithereens, especially in a game like Worms. The multiplayer is one of the best things about Worms Reloaded because it really sets itself up for some good laughs; watching as another player tries to run towards a health crate only for you to use your turn to blow the ground out from below them, causing them to fall into the water. Victory has never felt so rewarding!

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What’s Bad

 

Repetitive phrases – It may be just a little pet peeve of mine but I am sure many players will agree with me on this; when you hear the same phrase repeatedly over and over, it loses a bit its cuteness and starts to become a tiny bit annoying. It’s not incredibly frequent as you have a variety of weapons to use that have phrases specifically for them, but for someone who loves the rocket launcher and shotgun it will get tiresome to hear the same thing repeatedly.

Take your time; I don’t have all day – Some of the players on multiplayer can be frustratingly slow at taking their turns. If it weren’t for the timer someone would likely leave the match. Other times it seems like the player forgets they have the game open and you have to wait about a minute before their turn passes on to the next person.

Custom Offline – Despite being able to have fun with your customized content offline, you can’t play your levels and game types online. This kind of bugged me because it’s like giving your dog a bone but chaining him just far enough from it to where your dog can’t quite grab that juicy bone-piece.

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Worth Remembering

 

Worms Reloaded is easily the most fun I have had in a long time. It definitely lives up to its name in the series and I have had a lot of fun playing online with friends and strangers. The campaign offers replay value and the voices are just adorable. Customizing your own game types and levels is also fun because it will give you a level of replay value. The shop is also something to give new players and veterans something to work for since the game is really easy to pick up on.

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Worth Forgetting

 

Repetitive phrases, some sloth-like online players and the lack of being able to play custom content online may turn off some people. It’s not entirely that big of a deal but this wouldn’t be a review if we didn’t have some cons now would it? Think of it as constructive feedback for the developers.

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Put aside the fact that there are a few things worth forgetting, Team 17 has done a really good job at keeping the series fresh. Worms Reloaded was a blast to play online and offline regardless of the little things. Some players are going to be slow moving, but it is either because they’re new, on a bad connection or just didn’t notice it was their turn. For $20 on the Steam store, I think this is absolutely something the casual player should consider picking up. Achievement whores will have a field day trying to drown 170 of their enemies and using the Ninja Rope 1000 times. Veteran players will enjoy the series comeback to the PC and the amount of players currently playing online.

*MMOMFG was provided a review copy on the PC from Team 17

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