Developer: Feral Interactive
- Worms 3 brings the series into full-blown 3D for the first time ever! In conjunction with a revolutionary, fully deformable 3D landscape technology, it expands the strategic options.
- Worms 3D is designed to retain the style and feel of its 2D predecessors, with the return of such favorite armaments as banana bombs, 'Holy Hand Grenades,' and exploding sheep, as well as deceptively simple-looking gameplay that seldom fails to surprise.
Price: $45 (from Feral Interactive)
Requirements: Mac OS X 10.2, 600 MHz G3, 256 MB RAM, 32 MB VRAM, 1.3 GB disk space, QuickTime 6. Universal.
Worms 3D expands the strategic options in previous Worms games in some fascinating new directions. Think caves, cliffs, tunnelling, roping, multiple random levels and realistic landscape. Worms 3D was designed to maintain the classic gameplay from older versions, while getting and upgrade to a 3D environment. Featuring a turn-based style of fighting, the game requires the player to accurately judge the trajectory and strength of their shots in order to inflict the most damage upon their enemies.
Recommended: Mac OS X 10.3, 867 MHz G4, 512 MB RAM, 1.5 GB disk space.
Trial: None
Usually, worms seem the most innocuous of creatures. They wrigglearound, chewing through dirt and surfacing after rainstorms. Somewherein school, a biology teacher told you a bisected worm would grow intotwo worms. Functional and interesting, if a little icky. Gamedevelopers Team 17, however, ask a slightly different question: “Whatif worms toted weapons and carried out military assaults? What then?”
Successor to a group of high-selling PC games released over the lastscore of years, Worms 3D combines turn-based strategic play with cuteworms trying to knock the bejesus out of one another. The control takesa decent amount of practice, but the game is light enough and funenough for most ages to spend quality time with.
Installation and Starting Play
Worms 3D comes on a DVD and installs into the Applications folder.If you’re connected to the Internet, Worms 3D can check for updatesautomatically. My DVD had the current version, so it didn’t need anupdate.
The basic game pits two teams of worms against each other, each armedwith weapons (such as bazookas and grenades) and tools (such as ropesand jetpacks). Each round scatters the players around a three-dimensionalisland board with a constantly rising water level. (Weassume it’s not overtly commenting on global warming.) Some islands aremilitary installations, while others are graveyards or jungles.
Bird’s-eye view of a game board, with teams noted by color.
In most boards, the goal is to eliminate each of the other players bytaking away all of their life points or knocking them into the water.Each weapon you have (there are about twenty) does a certain amount ofdamage and often knocks the target around, pushing it to a differentarea of the board (or into the water). Between turns, sometimes newweapon boxes drop from the sky. Pick up a box to add that weapon toyour arsenal.
The tutorial mode runs you through each game type and gives youpractice with the weapons. Some rounds challenge you to find a specificitem; others pit you against a couple of enemy worms. This gives youneeded practice with controlling the worms and learning how far someweapons travel when shot at different angles and power levels. The lasttutorial mission, The Driving Range, gives you a group of targets andthe full gamut of weapons—practicing there is highly recommended.
Graphics and Sound
Worms 3D originally came out a couple of years ago, so the graphicswon’t blow away any fans of current PC games or gaming consoles.However, they’re clear, colorful, and appropriate to the cartoon-likeaction of the game. You’re free to rotate and spin the perspective ofeach worm or look at the island from an overhead viewpoint (which helpsfor launching wide-area attacks such as the Air Strike).
An entertaining part of the game is the behavior of the wormsthemselves. They taunt one another with a variety of in-game comments,telling the enemy worms how bad their aim is or saying somethingpitiful just before they expire. Note: a dying worm explodes, takingout some nearby land with him.
The game includes a large number of audio “themes,” which determinewhat your worms say. Check out selections such as “Super Hero” and “USWrestling” from the edit-team screen.
The music bleeps a little, but also works well within the game. As awhole, the game reminds you of a Mario Brothers title, with cutecharacters and a clean appearance.
Game Play
Worms 3d 1.1073
Nice graphics, good music, but how’s the play control? Unfortunately,that’s the game’s main difficulty. You really have to run through thetutorial missions because the keyboard-and-mouse controls aren’t easyto use. Any given movement for the worm itself always depends on thecurrent camera angle, rather than the direction the worm faces(departing from most keyboard and mouse games).
Worms 3d 1.1073 Download
Several rounds of hopping around the board and occasionally fallinginto the water will adapt you to the controls, but the time pressure ofeach turn still makes the controls frustrating. If the camera seems to“spin” too much, try lowering the mouse sensitivity for finer control.If the island moves around choppily, lower the resolution or colordepth to reduce the load on your CPU. Most new systems should run Worms3D well, but older systems will definitely need the 32 MB (or more)video card.
Each turn alternates between the teams and from worm to worm within theteam itself. During a turn, the game gives you a few seconds to lookaround the board, and then counts down a movement timer in thelower-left corner. During that time, you can move and jump, useutilities like a parachute or rope, and select a weapon. Once you usethe weapon (or an item), your turn is over and control switches to theother team.
Taking aim with the shotgun.
Make sure to position your worms strategically! In some levels, thewater level rises quickly and will submerge any worms left on the lowerlevels. Use the Teleport item to reach higher ground.
Some bonus elements to the game lie hidden inside the game boardsthemselves. If you see an odd-looking spot in the ground, drop agrenade on it—you might find an Easter egg, such as a new soundtheme. See the unlocked-items screen from the main menu to track yourEaster-egg progress.
Playing Against Others
The computer opponents offer challenge enough, but Worms 3D includes amulti-player option both for players on the same Mac (playersalternate turns at the keyboard) and over the Internet usingGameRanger. Game playdoesn’t change much—you just have human teams of worms rampaging acrossan island instead of the computer.
Bugs and Annoyances
Play control could really be better. The default mouse settings tend to“spin” the camera around the player’s worm, which disorients youunnecessarily as the turn clock counts down. In my opinion, playcontrol should never be a primary game challenge, unless you’re in anarcade-style fighting game. For a game like Worms 3D that appeals to awide audience, better control of the camera should be mandatory.
Sometimes, using an item such as the Teleport caused the worms’ voicesto speed up for the rest of the game round. It’s obvious, butfortunately not crucial to the game.
Summary
The fun aspects of Worms 3D pretty much make up for the iffy playcontrol. Dropping yourself into the water because of a poor cameraangle still burns, but lobbing explosive sheep and homing pigeons atone another is the kind of fun most games can’t offer. I’d love to seea Worms game include a way to lock the camera directly behind your wormand better evaluate weapon targeting. But until then, Worms 3D is goodenough.
Copyright © 2006 Matthew Glidden, mglidden@atpm.com. Reviewing in ATPMis open to anyone. If you’re interested, write to us atreviews@atpm.com.
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