Worms 3: iOS

I picked up Worms 3 the other day after hearing about this iOS exclusive, and thought I’d give it a go. I used to love playing the old Worms games and this one is a nice, retro blast, with a few new features. Below I’ve deconstructed the game and wrote my thoughts down on each section. Have a read and let me know if you agree/disagree in the comments!

Campaign

Campaign mode starts out with a few quick tutorials on how to control your team, basic weapons & equipment run-down, it then goes through the new features added as well, namely Playing Cards and Class Gameplay. More on them later though. 

After getting through the tutorials in one piece, you’re set loose on the campaign mode itself, which is level after level fighting different Worms on different maps. As the campaign goes on, the enemy Worms get smarter and tougher, making for a decent and balanced difficulty curve. It’s enough to keep you on your toes, but not so much that you simply can’t progress.

Quick Game

Quick Game is basically just that. You select the terrain, your team, how many enemy teams there’ll be and a few other options (how many mines/oil barrels are placed, etc.) and get yourself stuck in! To be honest, this is probably the mode I’ll come back to the most, unless I can ever get connected to a ranked online match, as you can just open the app, and be in a quick game against the computer in less than a minute.

Body Count

Body count is essentially Horde Mode for Worms. You have one Worm at your disposal and an endless wave of increasingly tough enemy Worms take you on. See how long you can last. It’s actually quite addictive, and does have a sort of“one-more-go” feel to it, which I enjoyed, but ultimately, Worms is a team based game, so it didn’t quite feel right.

Pass ‘N’ Play

Pass ‘N’ Play mode is like the games offline multiplayer mode for the game, basically 2 – 4 players take it in turns to share the phone and each player controls a team. Not much more can be said about this, and I often find it’s much easier to just take your friends on over a WiFi connection, as it saves passing the phone backwards and forwards. Plus, do you really want your friends’ finger prints all over your shiny-nice iPhone? Cos I wouldn’t.

Online mode
Ranked or Friendly games available

Friendly mode allows you to play against your friends list (including contacts from your phone book, your Facebook friends or friends you’ve added in-game. It also allows you to select a random opponent).

Matches fought in friendlies do not add or take away from your Leaderboard Ranking

Ranked mode allows you to fight a random opponent from, with wins adding to your Leaderboard Ranking. Despite several tries, I was unable to be connected to an opponent, much to my dismay, as the PvP lover in me was looking forward to kicking some Worm ass! Looks like, for now at least, I’ll have to stick to fighting the computer, or local opponents and Facebook friends.

Team Customisation

Upon starting the game for the first time, you are prompted to create your team of four Worms. You choose your team name (up to 16 characters) and the names of your four Worms (again, up to 16 characters)

You can then select their look and voice, with many options available, though not as many as I remember being available in previous titles in the series. Still though, it’s very easy to come up with a distinct look for your Worms, I personally went for the drill Sargent hat, with aviators and a cool handlebar moustache, and made them talk like the guy who voices over movie trailers (albeit with a much higher-pitched voice). As I said, more choice would have been nice, but there’s still enough to get by on.

Coins
Coins can be picked up in the campaign just the same way you pick up health, weapons or items. By simply walking over them, and can be used to purchase packs of playing cards to be spent in game. There doesn’t appear to be a micro-transaction model in place for buying coins or playing cards (at least none I could find) which is a nice change for mobile games, especially since micro-transactions have made their way into paid games as well. It’s rather sad that it seems there’s no customisation or weapons available for purchase with coins at the moment, but that could soon change in a future patch, so here’s hoping!

Added Features

Playing Cards

Playing Cars bring a nice strategic flavour to the game, allowing you to use 3 cards per turn. They have a plethora of different effects on gameplay, ranging from lowering gravity to make it easier to jump (really handy for getting a Heavy out of trouble) to the awesome Solar Flair Card, which heats the sun up, causing all explosives on the map to detonate simultaneously (excellent for damaging a lot of worms at once). Playing Cards can be purchased in packs via Coins, an in-game currency that you can collect during matches and earn for victories over your opponents (both computer and human). The packs aren’t too expensive and coins can be saved up relatively quickly, so you’ve always got at least a few different tricks up your sleeve when it comes to Playing Cards.

Class based system

Another new feature to the Worms universe is Class Warfare! No, not like political class warfare, more like Team Fortress Class Warfare. There are four classes available in the game and each has their pro’s and cons:

• Scout: Very nimble and able to get from A to B in a heartbeat. Good for quick “hit & run” type gameplay.
• Scientist: Always handy to have onside as each turn a Scientist makes adds 5 health to each Worm left in your team! Not too shabby.
• Soldier: Your basic grunt, available in all other Worms games… He’s the middle of the ground, a nice all-rounder.
• Heavy: Can’t run very fast and can’t jump for toffee (use the low gravity Playing Card!) but he sure can take a pounding! Just keep him away from edges and you’ll do fine!

Graphics

Graphically, there’s a definite improvement over previous Worms titles released on iOS, with backgrounds showing a bit of depth now and the Worms themselves looking rather shiny and not at all blocky or jagged. It still has the same cartoonish appearance that previous titles have used and it’s still a great fit for the game.

The music can get a bit repetitive after a while as it only seems to be on a one or two minute loop, this is especially noticeable in the games menu’s or when you’re selecting a new weapon to use.

To sum it up, it’s not bad for the price tag and definitely good for five minutes if you’re bored waiting for a bus or train or something. Worth downloading, but it won’t keep you hooked for months and months. Weeks, maybe, but not months.

Pro’s:

• Playing Cards and Classes work well
• Looks great
• Cheap

 

Con’s:

• Can get repetitive after a while
• Music is annoying
• Ranked Online Matches seem to be problematic

 

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