Worms: Open Warfare

"Though it is named Worms, it barely comes even halfway to the level of the previous games"

Worms is a great, very enjoyable series. However, TEAM17's latest creation involving the little spineless creatures is quite a disillusioning experience. I started this game expecting cute graphics, funny sounds and voices, loads of weapons, variated missions, and great multiplayer fun.

Graphics: 7
The first point is ok. Though the screen is a little small for a game normally played on PC, the graphics are good. The screens are colourful, the backgrounds and the water are good looking. The worms themselves are small, but easily distinguishable.

Sound: 7
Also the sound is ok. The music is nice, and even though the voices are barely audible, they are clearly spoken otherwise and live up to the humor of the series.

Gameplay:3

However, this is where the good stuff ends, for the most important part, the gameplay, is horribly messed up. It is full of bugs. Weapon shots that suddenly pass through the landscape or a worm instead of hitting it, worms that suddenly fall in the water through the landscape, weapons that don't function properly; it all seems so unfinished and sloppy. Also, the AI of the game is so incredibly stupid, even for handhelds. Enemy worms that just walk into the water, or even worse, need the full 1 minute of their turn to think of a move, just to end up doing nothing. But if the do shoot, they ALWAYS hit, because of the mathematical algorithms that came to their aid. And the mission mode, normally a great amount of levels all with different objectives, are now just a set of straightforward, stupid computer worms, barely challenging.

But the greatest cause of fun, the huge amount of hilarious, strange weapons, was now removed from the game, leaving only some standards such as the bazooka, grenade, homing missile (which, by the way, doesn't work properly), and girder. Even fun things like the baseball bat tho smash your enemies off screen were left out. So no Holy grenade (my favourite), no carpet bomb, no french sheep, no super sheep, none of those.

Furthermore, if you do decide to play a game with one of your friends, it is just so static, because of this lack of weapons. It just comes down to bazooka shells flying either way, because that seems to be the only weapon that is a little reliable (the grenade always has max bounce on and this is unalterable, so aiming in a hole is impossible). The fun chaos of previous worms with explosions, cries of worms flying off screen, and poor little old grannies blowing themselves to oblivion, is just gone.

So that is why my grade is so low. This game is a disgrace to the usually so fun series of Worms. Lets just hope the next try will be better. They deserve it, those poor worms.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 06/20/06