Worms Revolution (Xbox 360) Review

Worms Revolution is Team 17’s promise to take the well trodden franchise and turn it in to something new. To revolutionise how we play Worms. To quote the PR with the game, to bring the gameplay “squarely into the 21st century.”.
Perhaps the more pertinent question they should have dealt with is, who actually wants it? After over 17 years of Worms titles are there truly any gamers that have not played and had their fill or the Worms franchise?

I’ll leave that question to hang in the air (well… digital page if you prefer) for now and instead take Worms Revolution on its own merits.

Sporting a newly revamped 3D engine the game hopes to lure you in with large colourful graphics, new weapons and a new class based Worm mechanic. Couple those with the already well worn, yet still great fun, multiplayer and you have something worth further investigation.

As with pretty much every other Worms title Worms Revolution is mediocre at best when playing the single player campaign. Team 17 do a few things to try and engage you more than usual but the small number of levels over just four play areas (e.g. beach) means that things are a little flat at best. The AI seems to vary wildly too from stupidly shooting itself with a rocket, to then taking out a squad of our worms with pinpoint accuracy from the far side of the map. These issues have been in play since the early days and little has, or probably can be, done to address them. The new tutorials are useful for new players though with many of the games basic weapons, utilities and mechanics explained over a series of guided levels.

Many may gag at the thought of moving Worms from the 2D safe haven it’s enjoyed since 1995. Sure there have been a handful of other 3D attempts at Worms but let’s face it, they kind of blew. Here the play field is rendered in super bright and colourful 3D but viewed from the side on an almost 2D plane. It all looks jaunty enough and the random level generator still manages to produce something interesting on each new build (outside of the missions levels of course which are pre-defined). The biggest issues I have with the new look are levelled at the implementation of water, and the worm models themselves.

Firstly the worms of Worms Revolution are j ust ugly. Don’t get me wrong these guys were never going to take The Lemmings or The Troddlers in a cute competition but now they’re just bulbous pink undulating lumps… and I’m not keen at all. The water effect used in the game looks ridiculous. Instead or water flowing (think Where’s my Water for a recent example) through a level or gushing forth from landscape pockets, it sort of rolls in blobs. It looks more like gelatinous balls that water. Add to that it just doesn’t seem to have the physics quite right either.

Now along with a smattering of new weapons and the 3D overhaul the game also boasts about its new physics related gameplay. Now you can use pockets of water around the level to wash any unwary victim down the landscape and in to the water that surrounds each level’s play zone. You can also use a water pistol to fill up a landscape pocket an opponent may be in and start to slowly drown the worm. These are all great little additions but sadly don’t always work in execution – this is probably down in some part to the weird way that water “feels” when you try and use it in the game world.

On to the real major change to the series then – class based worms. Gone is your massive array of cookie cutter worms, and in comes a tight knit squad of selected from one of the four classes on offer. Scout, a fast moving and nimble fella with weaker attacks. The Soldier class is the well rounded character from previous games. The Heavy is a chunky arsed worm that moves slowly, can’t jump for toffee but has increased health and more powerful attacks. Finally is the Scientist. This worm is the weakling of the bunch but can reward team with better weapons and gadgets as well as imbue each worm on your squad with 5 e xtra health per turn.

Mixing up these abilities you can approach levels in different ways. The impact tweaking these has is minimal but it may lend itself to certain players play styles more than others. It’s also a bit of a rip that you have to pay to unlock worms when you want new ones. This is done via in-game currency earned by completing levels… it’s still a little annoying.

Struggling through the 32 campaign and 20 puzzle levels is made both better and worse by the inclusion of comedian Matt Berry’s larger than life voice over. Those familiar with Berry from IT Crowd (he plays Douglas Reynholm) will instantly recognise his voice and performance here. The material is mixed with some great highs and some dismal lows along the way. Your mileage may vary dependant on how you like the performance – pers onally I found it fine most of the time, but it really started to grate about 2/3 of the way through the campaign.

Thankfully the whole thing is pulled around, as always, by the multiplayer elements. The new multiplayer modes add some much needed variety and the ability to watch someone else struggle with the physics or nerf’d Ninja Rope makes the pain less for you to deal with. Online play is smooth to initiate and get going but I was struggling at times to find player matches – even during these early launch weeks.

Final Thoughts

Worms Revolution may be the first Worms title since Worms 2 that has added to the series without making anything else too much worse.

Problems with the erra tic nature of the game are inherent in all versions. The new changes are small, not exactly a revolution. The voice work is both great and grating in almost equal amounts. The squad based mechanics are good, the multiplayer is as fun as ever and the newly tweaked engine is a good place to start from.

It’s hard to overlook the fiddly nature of the play areas. The inconsistent AI performance. Dull single player portions. Frustrating “waiting for CPU” moments during single player also help push up the blood pressure while waiting to execute your turn.

With all that said though, never forget that Worm Revolution, like most Worms titles before then from the day Andy Davidson sent that copy of Total Wormage to Amiga format, these games are great fun. They offer up a blend of mayhem and comedy that can deli ght and amuse for many hours on end.

To answer my own question from the start of this review, yes, we do want another Worms game. Worms Revolution is a baby step towards what Worms needs to become to move on to the next generation of hardware, we just need Team 17 to take stock of what works, tighten up the experience and give us the Worms we’ve wanted since Worms 2 and its derivatives.