Worms Battlegrounds Review

"Them Next Gen Worms"

Campaign/Worm Ops

This is of course the first entry for Worms on the next-gen platform and players will immediately see that the price of the game is rather high. I will mention this quickly as that at times is a real turn away for players that enjoy the more arcade or virtual store that the consoles offer. The campaign for Worms Battlegrounds centers around exhibits of the world and helping this very nice sounding lady to track down the evil lord Mesmer which has stolen some magical carrot.

You will do this by collecting your squad of worms and slaughtering the enemy ones that are standing in your way throughout the various levels. There are minor challenges or little objectives to collect and any weapons you accumulate through the levels are carried through as you progress. I didn't really find this mode the strongest, though it did offer some alternative style of play for the game. Furthermore I found the enemy AI to be a tad slow in movement which made the levels stretch on a bit longer then they really should have which most players really dislike.

In addition to the campaign there's a mode called Worm Ops which tasks you with completing a number of various tasks while on the clock which were quite challenging and made for the most hardcore of worms players. I also noticed that there's a certain achievement for finishing this mode in about 8 minutes, so really best of luck to anyone that goes after that particular one. You would usually think that these modes would be the largest chunk of the game, but I really find the multiplayer aspects are where Worms really shines.

Multiplayer

For multiplayer we have a number of modes from straight up battle to forts or even a more intense clan matches area. I'll start with the regular battle mode where four players go head to head with their collection of worms in a very intense situation. Every turn players are trying to annihilate one another in the turn based style this game plays by.

It's a great mixture of frustration, tactics and strategic luck needed in order to win this mode. On top of that it's also the absolute most fun or was for me, I just played it over and over meeting a couple of worms veterans in the process. So enough on that, we also have forts where it's a lot more competitive style of play and your worms start off in their respective bases.

The clan mode is present with all of this allowing you to group with friends to gain community points while levelling to show off the best groups of worms around. The multiplayer was actually quite expansive and will definitely have me sitting there playing out matches for a long time to come.

Gameplay

This should be quite a large amount of discussion as I go over all of the finer points that make up Worms Battlegrounds. Worms is a turn based worms assault came that has you use a hilarious set of weapons to destroy each other with from summoning clouds to shoot lightening or throwing a holy grenade. It's just a crazy bunch of weapons that is quite massive in terms of choices and they all effect the world differently.

Now the environment was something I had some major issues with, I absolutely loved the destructible world though the graphics were quite awful for what I expect out of this generation. There just doesn't seem to be anything in the game that went for all out shine and I even had some screen color issues at times though not enough to be alarming. From there I will go on to say that the customizing options in the game were amazing.

It was great to personalize all my little worm troops with costumes and names to then watch them out on the battlefield. I was even a little heart broken when Cortana got a bat to the back of head and was launched into the water in almost every match. The little worms even have a number of small catch phrases which had some humour and keep the violence light. The clan customizing is also well welcomed as you can really create your own group identity online as you battle others for supremacy.

The Conclusion

Worms Battlegrounds is a solid calm and relaxing game for you to play whenever you want to just have strategic quiet time. There's a ton of personality in the game to experience and the worms are just awesome.

My Sky Force team always bravely followed my into the battlefield and did whatever tasks I request of them. It's just these nice minor touches that make a really robust game. The price is a little high for the game, but once you're playing it you will hardly notice with all the gameplay time you get out of it. The graphics honestly should be a lot better with the hardware it's running on, but it does present a vast number of things for you to do.

The campaign and worm ops are worth checking out, but I honestly feel that the multiplayer is the absolute strongest point in this title. Despite being somewhat under the radar I think this game should get a little more of a show-off with what it brings to the marketplace.

Worms Battlegrounds Review on Xbox One
Review code provided by Microsoft

Rating Overall: 7.7