Oh Worms, how you made me waste so many hours of my childhood, obliterating pink squirmies. You taught me that no matter how cute the opponent is, I must show no mercy, and aim a rocket launcher straight into its face. I missed that competitive, hot seat gameplay, and turning my friends into tiny tombstones. But out of nowhere comes a new Worms game, with the same great gameplay, same style, HD graphics, and online multiplayer. Shenanigans you say? No, this is Worms Reloaded.
Starting the game will task you with naming your army, as well as customizing their look and their voices. Their battle cries are all high pitched, but can vary from sounding like aliens, robots, sports announcers, rednecks, news anchors and more.
The premise of the game is simple and unchanged from the original Worms. You lead a team of worms from arena to arena, destroying any opposing teams of worms that stand in your way and leaving a trail of animated tombstones in your wake. At your disposal is a whopping arsenal of 47 different weapons and utilities.
Some of the many different weapons are old favorites, such as the sheep bomb, air strike, cluster grenades and Armageddon. Out of those 47, 14 of them are brand new, and more wacky than ever. They include the super bunker buster, ferrets, poison strike, and buffalo of lies.
Not all tools of war are unlocked from the beginning however. The game uses a Shop system, rewarding the player with coins for completing missions, tutorials and skirmishes. Everything from weapons, new hats, tombstones, forts and missions, can be purchased there.
Time hasn’t been very good to the controls. While moving your worms with the left and right keys and jumping with Enter is quite intuitive, you also have to use the mouse to look over the battlefield. Having to constantly go from keyboard to mouse can be irritating, but it won’t ruin the fun of annihilating your cute opposition.
There are multiple modes to take your army of worms through. The standard campaign has 35 missions of warfare, with an additional 30 missions in Warzone, which is a mode for advanced players. Body Count mode pits one, lowly worm against an onslaught of unending worms that increasingly get more challenging.
Hot seat multiplayer is still available, but Steam ensures hassle-free, online multiplayer, which is by far the most satisfying mode. Winning against a CPU is one thing, but nothing is more satisfying than crushing a real player online. Playing online is also a great way to learn different tactics.
Playing Worms Reloaded made me feel like I just opened a time capsule from 10 years ago. It shows that even such a simple game of worm warfare, can stand the test of time, and still be as entertaining as it once was.
