In this review, we take things to the third dimension with the GameCube game Worms 3D. We find out how well this strategy game plays.
This game was released in 2004. It represents the first game in the franchise to go 3D.
We have a fair bit of experience with this franchise. First, we tried Worms for the Sega Genesis. That game wound up being fairly mediocre. After that, we tried Worms Armageddon for the N64. That game wound up being the best game we’ve ever played. After that is Worm Armageddon for the Game Boy Color. That game wound up being a pretty solid game all around. From there, it was Worms World Party for the Playstation. That game got a great score. Finally, we tried Worms World Party for the Game Boy Advance. That version only wound up being OK. So, we thought we’d continue this series with this game to see how it plays.
There really isn’t much of a storyline in this game other than what you see in single missions. You take on various missions against the enemy for a host of reasons.
There are three modes of play: Single player, QuickStart, and Multiplayer. A QuickStart is just a randomly selected terrain where you are pitted up against four enemy worms. You are given an arsenal of weapons and your goal is to defeat the enemy by either running their damage to nothing or directing them into the drink.
Multiplayer, meanwhile, has various setups where you have up to four different teams take on each other on a randomly generated terrain. You can adjust the rules, but it’s a case of winner take all. You can either take on human opponents or enemy opponents.
Finally, there is the main meat an potatoes mode of the game: single player. It’s the main mode for your ability to unlock various features. In this mode, there are three separate modes. You have a training mode, mission mode, and challenge mode. If you are new to the franchise, or even new to the idea of Worms going 3D in general, this is a great mode to start off with.
In training mode, you have a series of levels to take on. The idea is that you complete objectives that allow you to get used to the controls and how weapons work. If you are used to the 2D versions of the game, the 3D works a bit differently, so even if you think you can handle the 3D without a problem, it’s still recommended anyway. The training missions end with a golf themed shooting range. You won’t get anything for destroying all the targets, so your best use of this level is to get used to the weapons and how they interact with wind, the terrain, etc. Besides, it’s great practice to begin with.
Next up is the mission mode. This also features a series of levels. You have a variety of objectives to take on (including the classic destroy the enemy objective, collect the crate, removing mines from the terrain, or touching various targets). Sometimes, you have multiple objectives for a level, but not too often.
At the end of each mission, you’ll be given a trophy depending on how well you did. Bronze simply means you completed the mission. Silver means you did particularly well. Gold means you achieved the hardest target. What those targets are isn’t actually mentioned in the game at all, but usually, it revolves around how many turns it took for you to complete the mission. The fewer, the better. Depending on how well you did, you can unlock features as you go along. This includes voice packs, utilities, and, most commonly, whole new levels in the challenge mode. Beat Alien Juice Suckers to “beat” this mode.
Finally, there is challenge mode. Challenge mode is basically a series of levels for you to take on. The objective is to obtain a high score that will allow you to get gold awards. Missions include Jet Pack challenges, parachute challenges, shotgun, and even a few matches against opponents where you try and defeat the enemy in the shortest period of time possible. Do well in these challenges and it’s possible unlock even more challenges.
For me, this is a bit of an oddball game to review. The main reason is this: if you’ve never played the 2D games before this game, this game really wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense. Why are there floating objects? Why are movements the way they are? Isn’t it weird that a fully 3D game is turned based? If you’ve played previous games like Armageddon or World Party, a vast majority of this game actually makes sense because you seen the overall evolution and a lot of what you see actually makes perfect sense.
So, how does one go about judging this game? Do you judge it solely as if you had no knowledge of the previous games or do you take advantage of the knowledge you’ve gained from previous entries? For us, we’ll go straight down the middle on that one and say that it does depend on previous entries to be enjoyable. That winds up being a shortcoming of this game.
What is interesting is the fact that this franchise is a gamble by going 3D. We’ve seen these transitions before with mixed results. On the one hand, games that make the leap from 2D to 3D wind up breathing new life into their respective franchises. Examples include a number of adventure games released on the N64. Then, there is the other side of the spectrum where RPGs tried making the leap from 2D to 3D with bad results from a quality perspective (typically, they were released on the Playstation).
One thing this franchise has going for it is the fact that it joined the “going 3D trend” particularly late. In this case, the franchise almost had a license to do this late. This is because the game makes the most sense in 2D just based on the style of play. Still, obsolescence would eventually catch up with this franchise, so at least making an attempt at the third dimension made sense. May as well do this now rather than later.
The transition, itself, well, it had rather mixed results. On the one hand, the movements and the style made sense going from 2D to 3D. Things like destructible terrain and how so much of it defies gravity winds up fading into the background after a while despite it’s illogical concept. Additionally, there are multiple view modes which greatly assist in making accurate shots more easy even though the 3D atmosphere adds another axis to consider. Even the wind indicator makes a lot of sense.
On the other hand, there are certainly flaws with this. In the process of trying to smoothly make the game make sense in 3D, it’s rather unfriendly to new players who’ve never played this game before concept-wise. Additionally, the camera work leaves a bit to be desired. The camera problems are especially pronounced in narrow passages, pits, and small caves or entry points in the landscape. Outlines of the enemies behind walls or obstructions would have helped a lot because this limitation isn’t anywhere near as bad in the 2D games.
On top of that, this game actually winds up introducing a few minor problems in the process. The biggest for me is anything that involves putting a mark on the terrain (air strikes and homing missiles for instance). Before, a cursor just appears and you just press a button, aim, and fire (if the latter steps are necessary). In this game, you have to manually hold down the overhead view which made this process much less user friendly. I honestly can’t understand why this is so much more of a manual process.
Another minor problem is that weapons are much more finicky. Mines, for instance, simply roll off of just about anything. You could easily plant a mine on top of an enemy worm. In this game, it could just roll off and fall into the drink. Dynamite placement is similarly problematic where there is a sense of unpredictability when you place it. A guide spot would have actually gone a long way to compensate for this. Cluster bombs are now borderline useless in this game thanks to the small blast zones and unpredictability of where the clusters fall. Girder’s thicken upon placement which means you have to compensate for that added thickness for jumping purposes. So, a lot of minor problems to be had here.
Still, it’s worth pointing out that, considering how much this game is all about 2D environments, the developers actually did a very good job at transitioning the franchise into the 3D environment. Some games are simply stuck in the world of 2D and this franchise seriously risked doing the same thing. It’s by no means a perfect transition, but the developers did have quite a difficult task before them if you ask me.
From a features standpoint, this game represents one step forward and two steps back. For a step forward, the missions are much more varied. This is regardless of training missions, missions, or even some of the levels in challenge mode. There’s just more variety in the game overall.
The two steps back is the fact that so much was stripped out of the game. In Armageddon, there was a death match mode. You have random terrain and random worm locations. You can set the rules of the match, but after that, you square off against increasingly difficult opponents. This mode greatly increased the life of the game and made gave it so much replay value. As far as we can tell, this feature is gone completely.
Another feature that is stripped out is the concept of money. This feature was largely piloted in World Party. While it was poorly implemented in that game, it was a promising feature. Imagine a mode that started you off with easy opponents. After each successive victory, you get money to upgrade your starting arsenal for each round. You get more money for each round, but the opposition is also gradually more difficult. Such a concept would rival the concept of deathmatch. Having such a concept in a game like this would have made for some incredibly addictive gameplay. Unfortunately, money is removed completely.
Generally speaking, this game represents an accomplishment for game development. Take a game that is so heavily 2D and turn it into 3D. In this case, it is far from a flawless game, this has been accomplished. Still, if you’ve never played Worms before this game, it will no doubt be a rather bizarre experience. Variety in missions have been improved here. Unfortunately, weapons are a bit more finicky and anything with a homing feature is much less user friendly this time around. Also, a number of interesting game mode features have also been stripped out, making this game much more bare bones then it needed to be. It’s an alright game and it leaves me wondering if future games have been perfected since then.
Graphically, this game winds up being a letdown. There are improvements in the way worms are animated such as the reaction of dropping a grenade in front of them. Even the terrain has been improved with moving features (purely for aesthetic purposes). Probably the best part about the game is the water and backgrounds. This is especially true for the space missions where you can almost forget you are playing a cartoon style game. Still, the models are a bit on the basic side and the terrain isn’t the most visually pleasing necessarily. Blasts end up being very blocky and it’s difficult to tell what the blast radius’s are. A decent effort, though by no means perfect.
Audio, meanwhile, is quite reasonable. A lot of the in-game music relies on a more ambient style to provide atmosphere. It works quite well. Probably the thing that gives this game personality is the different styles of speech. There are loads of them throughout the game and they really add a great level of humour throughout the game. You’ll always find a good deal of variety as you play. Additionally, the amount of sound effects throughout work quite well. Overall, a great effort here thanks largely to the mountains of good speech packs.
Overall, this is a game that is definitely for players who are already fans of the franchise. For newer players, this game will simply be weird to play. While there is better variety in the missions themselves, this game has flaws as well. This includes the camera in tight spaces, finicky weapons, a high requirement to do a backflip (use two fingers), a less user friendly way of handling guided weapons, and the fact that this game is also quite stripped down in terms of features. Graphics are decent, though the audio is actually quite good. So, a reasonable effort, though a flawed one.
Overall
Furthest point in game: Completed all training and campaign missions. Also completed a couple of challenge missions (ensuring maximum variety).
General gameplay: 16/25
Replay value: 7/10
Graphics: 7/10
Audio: 4/5
Overall rating: 68%
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.
