Worms 3D (Mac)

Rating:
Summary: This is a TASTY game
Review: Did you ever play the old game "Artillery?" You know, the game in which you and one opponent get a "base" (a small block) each, set far apart over a random, rocky terrain... and then you set about trying to land shells on each other? You'd set an angle of fire, a velocity, and, taking wind into account, you'd fire. Each shot would trail up into the heavens, and then track its way down, and the winner, of course, was the first person to score a hit on the enemy base.

Worms 3D by Feral Interactive is a modern answer to that basic premise, but in modern trappings, bells and whistles. In this case, though, your base is a little cartoony worm, drawn in Pixar-esque graphics, that is able to move around and hide from the incoming shell while trying to return fire! Again, the terrain is random, and of course you don't just get one choice of weapon (heavens, no, not in games these days) - grenades, rockets, dynamite, bazookas and, yes, the occasional air strike all are yours to inflict pain and defeat on your opponent.

So it's a bit more concentration, as you might imagine, to move around (slowly) amongst rocks and pillars, choosing which weapon to use (the grenade? trusty ol' bazooka?) and taking aim, deciding how far to lob the shell, and trying to take the wind into account (while dodging whatever your opponent has been up to). You may choose to fight against AI opponents with variable difficulty settings, or you may fight enemy teams of human opponents over networks... and this, of course, is the real meat and potatoes of this series of games, as there is quite a busy online Worms community (including the Dark Side). You also can play a single-player campaign, which involves quite a bit of unlocking secret goodies, interspersed with getting through occasionally frustratingly difficult obstacles.

You get to do all this with quite a bit of attitude, too - your vanquished opponent doesn't just sink into the ground of vanish in a puff of smoke without exclaiming something caustic or witty, often in an exaggerated English accent. As a veteran Marathon player, I can attest to the hours, nay, weekends of fun that are to be had in games of simple shooter competition against one's friends, seeing who can get the toughest shots off and rack up the most kills. One of the best parts of Worms, though, is that you get to do all this with a cute but certainly non-gory set of graphics (think Elmer Fudd being blown up one more time, as opposed to zombies being mowed down in Doom 3).

My objections to the game are few and minor. I've seen other gamers complain about the camera modes being at times confusing: you can look via first person, third person, or "blimp" (from above) views, and I'll admit that sometimes I found it hard to get just the view I wanted to get a clean shot, but I didn't find it to be a problem with an otherwise outstanding game. However, I did find myself frustrated with the fact that I couldn't change the game's key commands from the defaults - and since many of the firing keys are near the left hand home row keys, but the 'jump' button is the Enter key, it can really be hard to move, jump and fire all at once. A minor gripe, but it's the main reason why I gave Worms 3D a 4.5 instead of a full 5 - graphics, sound, and gameplay are all otherwise impeccably fun and well-executed. This game is a bit out of my usual range of "stuff I download and try," but it was a pleasure to take the review copy and play it, because, as I warned you above, it sucked me in.

Rating:
Summary: Very Good
Review: I really love worms 3d, it's extremely addicting. The multiplayer is among the most fun multiplayer games I've ever experienced and the singleplayer is deeper than I thought it would be. Though I have had problems connecting to multiplayer over a modem...hotseat makes up for that and if you have a broadband connection gameranger should be no problem. So what are you doing sitting here reading my review? If you like worms buy this game and if you don't then download the demo first and then come back and buy this :-D

Rating:
Summary: what a fun game!
Review: I really love worms 3d, it's extremely addicting. The multiplayer is among the most fun multiplayer games I've ever experienced and the singleplayer is deeper than I thought it would be. Though I have had problems connecting to multiplayer over a modem...hotseat makes up for that and if you have a broadband connection gameranger should be no problem. So what are you doing sitting here reading my review? If you like worms buy this game and if you don't then download the demo first and then come back and buy this :-D

Rating:
Summary: Very Good
Review: The Worms 3D game was one of the best games ive played in a while. I have been a big fan of the "Worms" games and was dissapointed by Worms Blast. But this game takes the original Worms and gives it a whole new spin. But the only big thing that is a problem, is that you will have some trouble trying to aim. With it now in 3D you'll need to learn how to aim with large objects in your way.