Team 17 have earned a place in Gamestyle’s heart for the simple but oh so addictive genius of the Worms series of games. After a wobbly first step into the 3D realm, courtesy of Worms 3D, our favourite soil-dwelling soldiers are back with some new tricks in Worms Forts Under Siege. In fact, to quote the “Soulman” accent of Worms 2: “Papa’s got a brand new bag!” Or castle, as the case may be.
The premise will be familiar to fans of the series; destroy all of your opponent’s worms. This can now be achieved, however, in one of two ways: by blowing up the enemy principal building, or by targeting the individual grubs. The arrival of constructions in the Worms universe is the hook by which Team 17 hopes to reel in a new generation of players, and to some extent it works. The ability to construct progressively larger buildings and therefore fire ever more ludicrous and powerful weapons adds a new tactical element to the tried and tested formula. The budding general must decide whether to concentrate on attacking their foe’s “Fridge-Launching” Castle, tackling that pesky Weapons Factory, making some much-needed repairs or going straight for the jugular by sending in the “Monkey Troop” to take out their main building.
Careful decision is needed when planning to build, too. One building may be erected per turn and choosing where and what to raise can make all the difference. Victory locations are scattered about the playing field and each building has a prerequisite number of victory locations needed before it can be built. However, before gallivanting off (like only a worm can) to snatch up all the victory locations, it is worth considering linkage. You see, Gamestyle made the mistake of throwing up a long line of Towers (small and weak) with a Citadel (large, strong, can hurl Giant Yaks) at the end; suitably close to enemy lines to cause maximum destruction. Imagine our horror then as just one of those puny towers was bulldozed by a 50lb Canary causing the link to our primary edifice to be severed. A building which finds itself cast adrift from home base is destroyed instantly.
Tactics aside then, what of the old magic gameplay? In a showdown with a human opponent, Worms Forts manages to generate some highly amusing encounters. The humour and exotic weapons still bring about a smile and encourage more play to discover ever bigger and dafter ways of dealing death. The experience though is marred by a truly desperate camera. Although the player is given rudimentary control over the point of view, via the analogue controls or pressing R3, the fact that it is almost constantly moving, panning or literally swinging round and round with the worm as the pivot point is bewildering and sometimes nauseating.
Crunch time came for the camera when Gamestyle had to rely upon it to glean some useful information for the purpose of this review. This is also the reason for the somewhat erratic naming conventions used for the "main building" . Because one is never called upon to build one of these structures, the elusive name is only revealed when they are obliterated. The solution is simple, right? Gamestyle loaded her up for one final bout and after very nearly running into the dreaded (for all the wrong reasons) Sudden Death mode - managed to detonate that enemy construct. It was then that the trusty camera panned out for a dramatic view of the opposing team’s demise... and somehow became entagled in a Japanese maple, making Gamestyle privy to a close-up of some bark. This is not a bad camera; it is broken.
The sense of frustration is not helped by the long and drawn-out nature of the battles which can easily last over an hour. To speed things up, if the bout goes on for more than 30 minutes, Sudden Death mode is initiated. This became the time when Gamestyle wanted to reach for the power button. Sudden Death consists of a long, dull sequence at the end of each turn during which the “God of worms” pops up and inflicts miniscule amounts of damage to buildings and worms. Far from speeding up the bout, the turn times become unbearably long - and with very little variety in the scene that is played out - boring. The phrase “fancy a quick game of Worms?” no longer rings true.
In case you were thinking of taking on the solo quest - don’t. Team 17 have decided to forgo Artificial Intelligence in favour of Artificial Stupidity. Gamestyle has been forced to endure the sight of a computer-controlled worm jumping on the spot for the entire turn time of 60 seconds. One of many highlights was witnessing the imbecile foe traversing the entire length of the battlefield only to return to their starting position in time for the last 10 seconds to drip away as they did nothing. The annoyance is perhaps only matched by the same enemy suddenly developing crackshot abilities with the most unwieldy of weapons, and pulling off game-winning manoeuvres completely out of the blue. Inconsistent barely covers it.
Production values at Team 17 seem to have been tumbling since the heady days of 2D splendour. The immaculate sound, menus, backgrounds and animations of Worms 2 are nowhere to be seen. This is made worse by the lazy omission of a 60Hz option. The 3D environments are bland and uninspiring - in stark contrast to the cartoon-like worms and their weapons. There is quite a range of voice options for the worms, but when each one only has a limited number of endlessly repeated catchphrases and a very similar squeaky and annoying voice, the compulsion to check them out soon ebbs away - as did any enthusiasm Gamestyle might’ve had for Worms Forts Under Siege
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