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Worms: Open Warfare Review
Written by Justin Davis on Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Banana bombing the hell out of some especially feisty competition. Respect.
Extreme lack of new content
Worms: Open Warfare from THQ and Team 17 is a strange beast for me as a reviewer. On the one hand I've had a difficult time putting the game down, which is always a good sign. Yet on the other hand the package has left me very disappointed with its bare-bones nature, and lack of new content. Open Warfare is "Worms on the PSP" - nothing more, nothing less.
For those unfamiliar with the franchise, imagine something like Cannon Fodder, only with a lot more personality. You control a 2D team of cartoon-style worms with a variety of weaponry at their disposal. Rounds are turn-based, and you lob said weapons (which include dynamite, exploding sheep, banana bombs, and more) at one another until one team emerges victorious. Aiming is accomplished by simply setting your weapon's trajectory, and then shot power.
The series maintains such high fun factor in a couple of different ways. The first is via the weaponry itself. All weapons behave differently, and have their own characteristics and effects that are discovered over time. You'll learn tricks like using a well-placed bazooka blast to knock a worm into the surrounding water, creating a one-hit-kill. It feels great the first time you feel comfortable enough with a grenade to lob it across the map, bank it off the wall, and directly into the face of an enemy worm.
The other cause of the game's addictive nature is its surprising amount of strategic depth. Accurate aim alone will rarely lead to victory. Qualities like understanding where you should (and shouldn't) place your worms and when to be aggressive or when to hang back are a must. It's possible to turn losing rounds around by teleporting worms onto higher ground, or to use the blowtorch to create a tunnel to shield a worm from attacks. This is what makes multiplayer Worms such a blast.
The same can't be said about Open Warfare's single player, however. The first major problem is that there's simply not enough to it. There's so much potential for a lengthy singe player experience in a Worms game that it's disappointing to see such lackluster implementation, again. You can hop into a quick game set to easy, medium, or hard difficulty, or set up a more complex round by fiddling with a handful of variables. There's also a challenge mode, which is the same single player experience, but with each successive mission pitting you against smarter and harder-to-kill worms. Why not put in grenade and bazooka target practice? Why not include tourney support or some kind of story mode? Why not create unique challenges like "bazooka only" rounds?
The other single player problem is the extremely inconsistent AI. I've seen the AI make jaw-droppingly accurate shots. The sort of thing that, while obviously possible in a literal sense, no human player would ever be able to pull off. I've also seen the AI blow itself up while aiming at seemingly nothing in particular. AI-controlled worms also frequently ignore health and weapon power-ups right in front of them.
Multiplayer implementation isn't groundbreaking, but it gets the job done. Four players can battle it out in local multiplayer (no infrastructure support), and since Worms is turn-based a single-system pass mode has also been included. Gamers simply play on the same PSP and pass the system back and forth.
The Worms formula is still fun and addicting (especially in multiplayer matches), but I can't give Open Warfare a pass for not trying to further the franchise. There's no new weapons, no online play, and I don't even think there's any new sound sets for your team of worms. If you're new to the series or just want some strategic warfare on the go, Open Warfare is fantastic. Worms veterans beware, however.
