Haoshiro
Mar 7, 2007, 09:20 AM
I've spent a bit of time with the new Worms game on Xbox Live Arcade and thought I'd share my first impressions with the board.
First let me start by saying I have been a Worms fan for a long time. I loved the original, and played Worms 2, W:A, and Worms World Party quite a bit (mostly the latter).
Worms XBLA (as I will refer to it) is none of those games, so if you are wanting an updated WWP you will not be getting it, but you probably already knew that.
The first thing I noticed was some issues with sprite texture scaling, on the logo no less. it's a very minor thing, but you can notice it by looking right above the grenade, a black line. Thankfully, I really haven't noticed this problem anywhere else.
When you go into a game, you see it draw the map. To me I am reminded of old games running on slow hardware, but it almost seems like this is more intentional, unless they had some limitation with memory (which seems unlikely). The land first is drawn onto the screen from top to bottom, then you see it outlined with a shadow gradient, and then again with highlights. After that the "trinkets" appear and then the worms (all at once).
The game itself has some disappointments but theymay work out to make a strategically better game, time will tell.
There is a "Rope", but this is not the "Ninja Rope" we are used to (and which I loved). It is much more like actual rope this time, it's slower, has a longer range, and just cannot fling you around like the Ninja Rope could. It seems to be impossible to swing higher then your hook point, meaning you can't fling yourself over somethine at all. If you manage, let me know...
They seem to have leveled that out a bit by giving you more Jet Packs (2, iirc) and they have very long timers on them. I can't be sure but seems to be over 100. About enough time for you to fly 66-75% across the map.
Overall gravity seems to be in play a bit more in this version, Fire Punches don't send your target flying as high, ropes feel prohibited by the wait of the worms, etc.
Also a disappointment are the exploding barrels, they are simple explosions ala Worms: Armegeddon/WP for Dreamcast. These aren't the Oil Drums present in prior PC versions of the game, the land isn't covered in fire when it explodes, it just goes "boom" and leaves a crater.
I do like that explosions are no longer perfect circles, and leave rougher craters. Visually it makes the game look a touch more polished, imo.
Shotguns seem to do less backfire damage at close range. I stood on top of a worm and fired straight down, and it only inflicted 5 points of damage to my worm - nice!
Damage from neutral mines don't seem to get calculated until end-of-turn, which felt rather strange - perhaps someone can confirm/deny this? I'll be watching closer to be sure.
There are really no adjustable options at all, timer is fixed at 45 secs, there is no Worm Placement options, and no "Change Worm" utility exists. You can now zoom out and see the entire map on screen, that's a nice touch as well. You can play normally from this perspective as well.
Acheivements look to leave a lot to be desired. While I have not entirely finished all the Challenges, it seems like almost all of the acheivements can be completed by the time you finish all the challenges. I already have 5 acheivements, and I'm just half way through the 20 challenges.
The only one that seems like it will take longer to get is Gold Damage (do 20,000 cumulative damage) but you'll probably be half way there after challenges are complete.
Overall I am enjoying the game, and haven't played any online matches yet. The controls are the best of any console version I've played, the graphics crisp (though I would have prefered a different art direction for land/objects).
I'll be back with more impressions when I finish out challenges and collect more information about changes and details.
Hope this was helpful to someone!
First let me start by saying I have been a Worms fan for a long time. I loved the original, and played Worms 2, W:A, and Worms World Party quite a bit (mostly the latter).
Worms XBLA (as I will refer to it) is none of those games, so if you are wanting an updated WWP you will not be getting it, but you probably already knew that.
The first thing I noticed was some issues with sprite texture scaling, on the logo no less. it's a very minor thing, but you can notice it by looking right above the grenade, a black line. Thankfully, I really haven't noticed this problem anywhere else.
When you go into a game, you see it draw the map. To me I am reminded of old games running on slow hardware, but it almost seems like this is more intentional, unless they had some limitation with memory (which seems unlikely). The land first is drawn onto the screen from top to bottom, then you see it outlined with a shadow gradient, and then again with highlights. After that the "trinkets" appear and then the worms (all at once).
The game itself has some disappointments but theymay work out to make a strategically better game, time will tell.
There is a "Rope", but this is not the "Ninja Rope" we are used to (and which I loved). It is much more like actual rope this time, it's slower, has a longer range, and just cannot fling you around like the Ninja Rope could. It seems to be impossible to swing higher then your hook point, meaning you can't fling yourself over somethine at all. If you manage, let me know...
They seem to have leveled that out a bit by giving you more Jet Packs (2, iirc) and they have very long timers on them. I can't be sure but seems to be over 100. About enough time for you to fly 66-75% across the map.
Overall gravity seems to be in play a bit more in this version, Fire Punches don't send your target flying as high, ropes feel prohibited by the wait of the worms, etc.
Also a disappointment are the exploding barrels, they are simple explosions ala Worms: Armegeddon/WP for Dreamcast. These aren't the Oil Drums present in prior PC versions of the game, the land isn't covered in fire when it explodes, it just goes "boom" and leaves a crater.
I do like that explosions are no longer perfect circles, and leave rougher craters. Visually it makes the game look a touch more polished, imo.
Shotguns seem to do less backfire damage at close range. I stood on top of a worm and fired straight down, and it only inflicted 5 points of damage to my worm - nice!
Damage from neutral mines don't seem to get calculated until end-of-turn, which felt rather strange - perhaps someone can confirm/deny this? I'll be watching closer to be sure.
There are really no adjustable options at all, timer is fixed at 45 secs, there is no Worm Placement options, and no "Change Worm" utility exists. You can now zoom out and see the entire map on screen, that's a nice touch as well. You can play normally from this perspective as well.
Acheivements look to leave a lot to be desired. While I have not entirely finished all the Challenges, it seems like almost all of the acheivements can be completed by the time you finish all the challenges. I already have 5 acheivements, and I'm just half way through the 20 challenges.
The only one that seems like it will take longer to get is Gold Damage (do 20,000 cumulative damage) but you'll probably be half way there after challenges are complete.
Overall I am enjoying the game, and haven't played any online matches yet. The controls are the best of any console version I've played, the graphics crisp (though I would have prefered a different art direction for land/objects).
I'll be back with more impressions when I finish out challenges and collect more information about changes and details.
Hope this was helpful to someone!
