One War, Three Points-of-View
Then a crate fell from the sky, bestowing four jet packs on the team, who rocketed to the bunker and blasted their opponents with shotguns and Uzis before finally eliminating them with well-placed Fire Punches.
No, it’s not a long-lost Monty Python sketch. It’s the first mission in the single-player campaign found in Feral Interactive’s Worms 3D, the latest installment in the popular series of tongue-in-cheek games starring anthropomorphic annelids who find all manner of creative ways to dispose of each other. The game’s turn-based action requires a bit of strategizing as well as a steady trigger finger.
He’s a Cheeky One. Grenade tossing requires just the right touch.
More Monty Python Than Mainstream
“I think Worms’ continued success is due in no small part to the fact there’s nothing like it on the market,” says Paul Kilburn, Worms 3D producer for developer Team 17. “It’s simple to play, yet it’s very competitive and there’s plenty of one-upmanship involved. It also taxes you on several levels, including tactical thought and it’s very funny.”
“It’s very easy to say ‘My idea would be really easy to implement’ without realizing the delicate balance that a game like Worms needs.”
- Paul Kilburn, producer
While previous entries in the Worms series, such as Worms Blast, took place on flat 2D landscapes, Worms 3D brings the action to an interactive environment that randomly generates before every game and can be altered by exploding weapons. However, it doesn’t drop the British sense of humor that made previous installments so memorable.
Beach Landing. Storm the bunker in this homage to D Day.
“I suppose the comedy the game is steeped in is more Monty Python than mainstream,” agrees Kilburn. “It has a reputation as a very funny game, and the Worms’ dialects definitely add to the appeal. Of course, it has a British sense of humor since it’s developed in England.”
From D Day to Jaws
The 35 missions in the single-player campaign take you a variety of environments, from the faux Normandy invasion look of the first one to a field full of crop circles with UFO-riding Worms overhead to a pirate ship raid in which you must steal the vessel to escape. Each mission presents you with a series of objectives that don’t always involve defeating all of the other Worms to be successful.
Cheeky pop culture references also find their way into a series of single-player challenges that pose a variety of intriguing scenarios. One, for example, requires you to defeat another Worms team as quickly as possible in an environment pulled straight from the movie Jaws, complete with a defaced billboard, a sand crab-riddled hand, and a dead shark with an air canister still sticking out of its mouth.
Game Hardware
Check out our systems for your best gaming experience.
Game Media
Fleshing out the single-player side of the game, which was not as robust as the multi-player action in previous Worms installments, was tricky, Kilburn says. “We always wanted to make the game’s AI mimic human players as accurately as possible,” he acknowledges. “The deforming landscape made this tricky, because the AI had to calculate where it could go every time a new turn started. Our AI coder spent countless hours tweaking the computer-controlled teams, in addition to noting and ironing out any problems found after several years of 2D play.”
How Fast Does a Worm Fly? Let’s find out when we shoot him off this castle wall.
Gamers looking for multi-player action can find that too, of course, by setting up a LAN session or heading to GameRanger to take on opponents from all over the world. Two to four teams can participate on the same landscape, which you can randomly generate by modifying such variables as the number of objects and the distance between land masses. You can also modify other settings, such as the frequency of crate drops, or use the Wormpot feature to randomly set up one of more than 10,000 different types of games.
“I suppose the comedy the game is steeped in is more Monty Python than mainstream. It has a reputation as a very funny game, and the Worms’ dialects definitely add to the appeal.”
- Paul Kilburn
Delicate Balance
Given the huge number of Worms fans who couldn’t wait for the new game, Kilburn says that his development team took their input into account while tweaking the robust features found in Worms 3D. “We held several focus tests that involved members of the Worms community,” he says. “They provided useful feedback from the people who were Worms mad.”
Nobody Expects a Bombing Run! The perfect way to dispose of a worm or two. Or three.
“Sometimes, though, the “Worms mad” players don’t always understand that a game needs to be as fully defined as possible before you start. Such is the cost and risk of game development. It’s very easy to say ‘My idea would be really easy to implement’ without realizing the delicate balance that a game like Worms needs.”
Sound advice to consider if you think you have the perfect idea for the next Worms installment. Kilburn says the plans for that one are in the works but can’t be divulged yet. There’s no need to fear that the series could become stale, though: he says that while “it’s rare to actually like games that you work on, after nine years of being involved with Worms I still really enjoy it.”
If you liked this game, check out:
Can of Worms
Read on to learn about the weapons and utilities available in the game.
|