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Worms Reloaded

4/10

This is one serious step back from WA. Though as funny as always (quite hilarious actually), and though it looks quite a lot better, they messed up the mechanics badly. Ninja Ropes don't control very reliably, the Jetpack doesn't show the fuel countdown until you're halfway out and consumes fuel in an extremely random way (sometimes it consumes almost nothing, other times you can hardly get a few metres up with it) and it is now the primary means of transportation, mines are INCREDIBLY bouncy (seriously Mexican jumping beans have nothing on them), landscapes are extremely tiny, weapons don't do 50 or 75 damage anymore but instead 45 and 65 (while the Shotgun still deals 2x25, making it even more overused I guess)...

Worst of all, though they added a couple of interesting new weapons like the Buffalo of Lies (which is like a Mad Cow herd except it's the same thing exploding over and over again) and especially a poison gas launcher and a bunker buster, both of which would fit very well in WA, they removed almost all weapons from the previous games. The Concrete Donkey is still in, as is the Banana Bomb, but there's no Carpet Bomb, any of the fancy airstrikes except the two basic ones, no walkers except that buffalo thing and the sheep, no special dynamites, no special anything in fact. There's not even a minigun ffs!

The campaign is exactly what you expect it to be, too. There's 40 missions. In 1-19 you basically win automatically, the question is just who of you two kills the computer player the quickest - you or he himself. At mission 20, the computer switches to an aimbot that lands the well-known perfect grenades into your lap every shot. You eans "money" from the missions which you can use to unlock hats, forts, weapon options etc. with, which is quite charming though.

The music consists of remixes from older songs. There are actually quite good and significantly better than the original versions of these tracks. However, I remain of the opinion that Worms 1 had the best music tracks of any Worms game to date.

Another thing, one familiar to Worms veterans, is the lack of customisation the game gives you. Worms 2 had a huge list of weapon parameters but you couldn't change much about the game itself, and Armageddon was notorious for giving you almost no customisation of weapons at all. Here, you can only tune the amount you get of *some* weapons and nothing else. The game parameters are roughly as customiseable as in Armageddon. However, every menu or selection consists of one option, so if you have to scroll somewhere you have to press one button to maneuvre to that option which sometimes take way too long, something that seems inexplicably fiddly. Also, worms teams cannot contain more than four members EVER (though finally you can write some medium-sized names).

Between the rather absurd mechanics and the, to say the least, disappointing amount of weapons (which are by the way organised into an extremely hindered screen like in Worms 3D, where it doesn't even tell you the shortcut for each weapon (and the weapons are also not ordered by category anymore) and where every weapon icon is so huge, colourful and complicated that you can't very easily oversee the weapons menu) and the feeling that this game somehow lacks playability and flow which WA was so well-known for, the game is kind of a sham IMO. The hats are quite nice and the new accents are quite hilarious at times, but I'd say this is a waste of money.

I've actually managed to already stop caring about a game which hasn't even launched yet in its pre-order 24-hour early access time. Wow.

Chyros, on 9 Oct 2010, 15:25, said:

I didn't ask dependant on my tastes, I'm asking what you thought!

Im guessing since you thought it would be better suited as an FPS that you didnt use any biotic powers, or just went straight for the soldier class?

AJ, on 9 Oct 2010, 16:42, said:

OK then, I'll rate it .


Mass Effect 2 - 8/10

Awesome game. Obviously.
It's very immersive - luckily it's not as big as the first one in this regard since ME1 had so many side-quests and things to explore that I was all over every nook and cranny and this caused immersion to turn into drowning. ME2 has plenty of opportunity for exploration and side missions but deals with this quite well since a lot is quite linear so at least you don't get lost or get sidetracked too easily, and optional missions are usually done quite quickly, easily and don't distract you too much from the game itself.

The combat system is... temperamental, but will appeal to a niche of players I'm sure. Personally I think it's a pity you can't go into FPS mode in combat instead of being bound to TPS, and the combat itself it based on lots of taking cover and firing from there while bullets are rather inaccurate and very slow so killing enemies isn't as straightforward as some other games. Despite this what I'd call fiddlyness (the combat is not the game's strength) the game is very charming and lots of fun to play.

One note: the game uses several minigames that you need to complete to open, for example, safes and lockers and some doors. These are rather simplistic and sometimes a bit frustrating, it's a pity they had to rely on these. Room for improvement here.

All in all, this game is most definitely worth your time. I'd recommend playing at least a bit of ME1 - even though I didn't go very far at all, at least you get a feeling for the universe, characters and story of the game. The ME2 tutorials are very lacking at best so some mechanistic info from ME1 is also very welcome.

Pav:3d, on 10 Oct 2010, 2:52, said:

You know me too well . Guilty on both counts .

Chyros, on 10 Oct 2010, 10:42, said:

There's your problem Try a different class and it really changes the way you play.

How is Mass Effect 2 too short? It lasts for a good 25+ hours, ME1 only lasts for about 15 (20 if you're lucky).