| Worms: Open Warfare review |
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Worms on the DS is, quite possibly, the biggest missed opportunity in all of gaming history. The classic multiplayer game, in which players take turns to aim and fire various different weapons at teams of four 2D worms, is present and correct, but Open Warfare does little to take advantage of its host platform. Here we have a console that is geared towards increasing user interaction and a game that traditionally encourages creativity and customisation. It should be a match made in gamer's heaven but it it ain't as, for some unknown reason (probably budget limitations), Team 17 have decided to hardly use any of the DS's features. It's almost as if they thought about the wealth of possibilities that the format offered and said "Oh stuff it, let's just give 'em a cut down version of Worms 2. Nobody will really care anyway".
Well there are plenty of people out there who care about Worms and they are going to be severely dissapointed with this update because it isn't really an 'update' at all. In fact, it's actually a step backwards...from the original Worms. Remember how the original Amiga game allowed you to add your own voices to the worms by importing your own AIFF files? Well the DS has a microphone so wouldn't it be cool to record your own voice straight onto the card? Apparantly not. Team 17 (or THQ - we don't know who makes the decisions) has been extra stingy with the built-in memory, so there's no voice customisation in here. The same goes for level editing too. Worms: The Director's Cut allowed you to wield the mouse like a can of spraypaint and draw your own basic levels. Oh, hang on, the DS has a stylus and a touch screen. Surely it would be a fantastic idea to implement this feature, you wouldn't even need the extra storage space - just draw a level, play it and lose it once the DS is switched off. Part of Worms appeal has always been that it gives more control back to the player and to remove this aspect, on a machine that is primed for such use, is absolute insanity.
So, given that Worms: Open Warfare lacks two of the obvious refinements that would have made it a brilliant DS title, there is very little to actually recommened here. The game does feature six brand new landscape themes, whilst the Worms are now polygonal models rather than 2D sprites but this is essentially the same game we were all playing in 1995. You pick a weapon from the touch screen, launch it at your rival worms and hope that you wipe them all out before they can do the same to you. In one minor change, for a console version of Worms, the camera can now be panned using the stylus: a very worthwhile feature that is ruined by the fact that the camera defaults back to the currently active worm almost as soon as you move it away. This makes attempts at long distance aiming next to impossible at worst and tediously frustrating at best.
Graphically the game is also a bit of a mess. From the moment that the bland, lifeless menus first appear, it is obvious that Open Warfare was rushed out without any thought to delivering a polished professional look. There are none of the PSP's amusing FMV sequences - even though the DS has already proved itself capable in this department - or any animated backgrounds. The worms themselves look dreadful and are terribly animated: watch a CPU worm fire a shotgun and it looks as though the little invertabrae has had his face twisted upside down. Sound is also woefully underdeveloped. There are often explosions that give off no noise whatsoever and, to the horror of many Worms fans, the classic Bjorn Lynne theme tune is nowhere to be heard.
Extended play will reveal that the graphical problems are the least of Team 17's worries with this shoddy conversion. Forums up and down the interweb are ablaze with tales of glitches so ridiculous that we can only assume that the game's testers are either stupid, evil or just complete gits. Weapons will often refuse to fire, worms fall through solid land, the touch screen will randomly malfunction and on one occasion our turn was interrupted by a CPU worm who decided that it was his turn to lob a grenade, even though we still had 30 seconds left to fire. The resulting camera confusion had to be seen to be believed.
Open Warfare's one saving grace is that it offers a decent selection of multiplayer options. As the title suggests, it can be played wirelessly against other DS owners. Up to four players can play the full multiplayer mode from only one cartridge, or if you only have access to one DS, the machine can be shared and passed around accordingly. There's no online mode though and considering that Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection is supppossed to be free and easy, this really is the most dissapointing omission from Open Warfare. Even the N-Gage version of Worms has an online mode so it's puzzling that the option doesn't crop up here.
Please don't misunderstand - side from the bugs, Worms Open Warfare is not a bad game. If you're looking for a portable version of Worms that you can play against three friends, then this is an unambitous adaptation that retains much of the core gameplay that made the originals so much fun to play at home. It's just that both DS owners and Worms fans deserve so much more than a bog standard port. Open Warfare lacks the developer effort and imagination that could have made it a Worms game to remember. Instead it offers the bare minimum that you would expect.
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System: Nintendo DS
Genre: Strategy
Developer: Team 17/Gamesauce
Publisher: THQ
Players: 1-4
Version: European
Reviewed: Apr 2006
Writer: Ashley Day
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Pros:
- 4 player download play
- Still fun if you avoid the bugs
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Cons:
- Poor customisation opportunites
- Sloppy presentation
- Bugs + glitches galore
- Very few weapons
- Dumb camera
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Worms: Open Warfare Video: 10.3MB
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