REVIEW: Worms: Battlegrounds

Worms fans rejoice, and don your helmets, the newest Worms game has back-flipped itself onto Xbox One, and we got ourselves a copy to review!

I’d not played a Worms game since Worms Armageddon and always had fond memories of battling my brother to see who would be the one to go down to the newsagent to speed rates of childhood obesity and help perpetuate the stereotype that the British have bad teeth.

In some ways, you might be pleased to know the Worms format hasn’t changed in the slightest. You’re still in control of a team of wormy soldiers, and your aim is still to blow up every single worm on the opposing teams.

A pleasant surprise came in the form of a new Story Mode. Narrated by The IT Crowd’s Catherine Parkinson, Lady Pinkle is some kind of Lara Croft Tomb Raiding worm artefact hunter. Cue the introduction of Evil Genius Professor Mesmer, naturally hell bent on world domination; he’s taken control of every historical site since time began, and our job (at the behest of Lady Pinkle) is to take down his goons, find the Golden Child and overthrow Professor Mesmer and relieve the artefacts. Hurruh!

Don’t expect the story mode AI enemies to go easy on you though! They’re devilishly accurate with their weapons, and have no issue with using the terrain to their advantage.

Set on a pretty large scale map, each level has a bunch of hypnotised worm goons to blow to smithereens, and often features some pretty intense puzzles to work out in order to do so. Seriously, I might not be University Challenge material even on my best days, but some of these required some pretty in depth thinking in order to solve.

Worms Battlegrounds is in fact a current-gen port from PC, and thus we now have a level editor. Sadly the editor is pretty uncomfortable to use. There’s no real indicator of what icon does what, or how to implement the tool you’re using. The fill tool, one would imagine would be used to fill a layer with texture or colour, but I couldn’t figure out how to get it to change either of those things.

Another addition to the Worm universe are clans for online use. Grab a bunch of online buddies or complete strangers, and together set out to decimate enemy forces. Create a clan emblem, name your worm team, customize how they look and sound. After all, would it really be Worms without choosing their manners of speech?

There are two control choices, Modern and Classic. Depending on your experience with the previous games, it’s really down to personal preference. The only difference between them is the locations of action and menu buttons. There are no real issues with the controls themselves, the analogue stick moves them left and right on the screen, and the buttons are responsive. You can’t ask for more really.

Worms Battlefields also now has physics, water can be guided and moved (which can in turn affect other things like the worms), and most puzzles are influenced by some kind of physical mechanism, whether that’s a button, or a door, or even a hot air balloon. However, there is a slight drawback to this. I had to restart quite a few missions a fair number of times, because of how scarily easy it was to accidentally break these things. A slipped mine could be the difference between a door opening or irritatingly remaining closed because it got stuck in the gears. Worms might slip irretrievably behind or between mechanisms. Thankfully the story missions include checkpoints which you can restart from, otherwise I can imagine some very bald Worms players by the end of it.

Other than that, Worms Battlegrounds is a Worms game in every sense. It’s pretty much the same as every other Worms game. It still has the same weapons (although there are 10 new ones, giving Worms Battlegrounds the largest weapons arsenal of them all), the same stereotypical accents, and the same premise.

Is it a bad thing? Not necessarily. I get the feeling most hardcore Worms fans will be happy with the changes and new features, but I can’t help my over-all feeling of slight disappointment. After all, a franchise this old is still using the same formula and hasn’t changed in nineteen years. It was strange to not have played a Worms game in so many years, yet find it much the same as ever.

It’ll be great for people who love Worms games, there are many who are diehard fans of the franchise. Clan up and get exploding stuff on the online Battleground, or stick to the local play or story modes. There is enough to keep you dipping in and out for some time to come.