Worms: Open Warfare

Aaron Gray

The Worms video game series has come a long way since it was first conceived back in the 80’s. Two or more armies of pink little worms face-off on terrain as varied as snow-capped hills to palm tree-filled beaches.

You can play Worms as a single player campaign, but it is the multiplayer aspect of later instalments of Worms which shine. There’s no better way to breathe new life into the game by having it on a portable gaming device, the PlayStation Portable (PSP).

The latest incarnation is titled Worms: Open Warfare, where the sound and visual effects have been polished to take advantage of the PSP’s wide screen and PS2-like processing capabilities.
Team17 made the right move to present Worms: Open Warfare in 2D view combined with 3D sprites and background. This gives the game a dynamic way for the worms to interact with the terrain (think explosions – lots and lots of it).

You can also zoom in and out of the whole battlefield with the L and R shoulder buttons to get the best view of the overall action. Even the water surrounding most of the terrain looks good, though your worms would hate it. Why? Because worms can’t swim, silly.

There’re a few short video clips you can watch (selectable from the game menu), which are all about the hilarious antics of the worms as they try to outsmart and kill their opponents.





Some of the preset groups in the game can be used as your main combat team, but you also have a choice of creating your own team, complete with naming your team and team members in any names you like. Of course, your dismayed cries of “Noooo! Not you too Tumbleweeds!” would definitely make the game more interesting, accompanied by stares from the curious/surprised crowd at the LRT station.

You can even customise your team of Worms how they speak from the language packs included on the UMD – I found the Stiff Upper Lip and The Raj to be highly entertaining… ;)
The single player campaign in Worms: Open Warfare throws 25 missions at you. Although quite fun and challenging to play through all the missions, Worms veterans might be disappointed with the limited choice of weapons to choose from. The Sheep and Homing Missile were available, but great ones like the Old Woman and Holy-Hand Grenade were sorely missed in this release.

Players each take one turn to move one of their worms around, from positioning it away so that particular worm would not be an easy target, and to loading off your most devastating arsenal on the opposing team. The default Setting gives you limited weapons, stock and ammunition, so do try to conserve and use each one wisely for maximising its (deadly) potential.

The fun really starts when you have a friend or two to play Worms: Open Warfare with. The PSPs can utilise the Ad-Hoc mode to wirelessly connect to the device hosting the game via the WiFi connection – this beats the lone experience of crying desperately for your worm team as they go down under enemy fire. Only one PSP available? No problem – Worms: Open Warfare supports hot-seat games where you pass on the PSP to your friend after you’ve made your move, and he to another friend, and so on.

It is quite unfortunate Team17 did not include an Infrastructure mode into the game, which would’ve been the de facto for Worms fans to get online and kill each other across the world. Well, there is another way you can do this via the PSP’s Ad-Hoc mode, provided you have wireless broadband at home, a WiFiMax USB dongle with the latest driver and a copy of XLinkKai installed on your PC.

Overview
More weapons and Infrastructure connectivity would’ve made Worms: Open Warfare a much sought-after game on the PSP, but it’s still one of the better strategy games that does justice to the term “cartoon violence”. Where else can you maim, blast, blow up and drown your opponents and still look cute doing it?