Worms: Open Warfare 2 (DS) Review

In Worms Open Warfare 2 the little critters make a grand return to the Nintendo DS. With a talented development team and higher budget, Open Warfare 2 provides gamers with the first portable Worms game to finally meet its full potential. The 2D turn based strategy game will grip new, current and retired Worm fans with classic gameplay, rich new additions and online multiplayer.

Unlike the original, Open Warfare 2 is a great game. The moment the true-to-Worms introductory video plays and the tutorial kicks in, the game makes its good intentions known. Worms is ripe with content including full single player, multiplayer and customisation options. The game is coated with a level of polish and charm which lets it boast as the best in the series.

Single player in Worms is made up of campaign, puzzle and laboratory plus the generic quick and custom match modes. Multiplayer is both online, offline and possible on a single console. Medals are earned by accomplishing certain milestones and demo download allows you to share the game with friends. A barrage of prebuilt and customisable content brings the game huge length and enjoyment.

Campaign will have you play through scenarios from different periods of war throughout history with the goal of killing all the worms on the opposing team using quirky weapons which are the staple of the Worms franchise. The AI for single player is competent but no substitute for a human; thankfully the single player modes are deliberately designed for the AI and the missions provide a thoroughly entertainly experience reguardless of the AI’s inhuman strengths and weaknesses. The game contains a large amount of puzzle mode missions which are as much the single player experience as the campaign. With puzzles the player must achieve a goal like reaching a portal or collecting crates scattered across difficult terrain. The game boasts over 100 single player missions across all modes. There are also quick match and custom match options if you are not after an objective game that is more in line with classic Worms.

The laboratory provides three mini-games utilising the Nintedo DS’s unique features. Blow involves navigating a parachuting worm into a portal, gaining necessary altitude when you blow into the microphone. Draw begins with time frozen and a worm planted near a mine. After using the stylus to draw terrain in key places you start the timer and hope the worm will get bounced into the portal. Explosion again has you guiding a worm to a portal, but by causing explosions with a tap of the stylus. Each mode is extremely well executed and it is a shame there is only 10 of each.

Players can choose to name their team(s) and all 4 worms individually, as well as select a voice, colour, victory dance, gravestone and flag. Flags can be drawn with the stylus in the flag editor and terrain drawn in the full-blown terrain editor. The terrain editor includes everything required to make terrain and some fantastic and customisable auto-generation abilities. Terrain can be saved and used when playing against friends both online and offline. Plenty more customisation options can be unlocked in the game’s shop by using credits earned in the single player modes.

The graphics are surprisingly functional on the Nintendo DS screen. Everything is instantly recognisable and animations are both fluid and faithful. Creatively rendered 3D backdrops compliment new foreground terrains. The hardware only struggled during rare, large 16 Worm matches. Faithful audio accompanies all areas of the game; many of the sound effects and voices are direct rips from Worms 2. Worms has top presentation.

Controls are sharp and it would be difficult to improve them. The touch screen has little use outside the laboratory, although it is a nice optional control method for selecting weapons and scrolling the terrain. Its primary use is in the flag and terrain editors. The rest of the time it is best to play the game using the D-pad and face buttons, occasionally swapping the top screen from extended view to over view map; neither is more important than the other. Swapping the top screen is a necessary part of gameplay.
The new additions to the arsenal are great. They enhance gameplay by focusing on function rather than the quirky Worms theme. The sentry turret is a sort of mine meets mini-gun, activating when a worm gets too close. The magnet has the ability to push or pull all nearby metallic objects, drastically altering strategy when one is placed. They blend into regular gameplay seamlessly and segue into the puzzle modes of the game where the magnet in particular has a large role to play.

Multiplayer is a complete package: play freshly generated or user made terrain in deathmatch, race and fort game modes with custom rules sets and up to 4 teams. The game also contains single pack, multi-pack and demo download options plus the ability for multiple players to play on a single Nintendo DS console. Unfortunately due to some kind of syncronisation bug, local multiplayer has extremely bad connection problems and roughly 50% of games are interupted by devastating game splits.

Online play is divided into ranked, unranked or friend/rival matches. Unranked and ranked are similar, although in unranked no records are kept and you can choose to have more than 1 opponent and the terrain type and a preset rule set. Friend and rival matches are the only online mode where you can play using user created content. Online matches run flawlessly thanks to the lagless nature of turn based gameplay and since the game is easily enjoyed with 1 opponent matchmaking is very efficient in ranked matches. Thankfully the online multiplayer does not suffer from the same syncronisation bug the local multiplayer has.

To complete the online experience are surprisingly comprehensive leader boards: top 10, personal standing, friends and rivals. These leader boards contain normal statistics like most wins, worms killed, time played and also more obscure records like most boring, most strategic and most disconnects. Other than Nintendo’s normal online restrictions this game meets all of its online potential.

Worms Open Warfare 2 succeeds at all it tries to accomplish. With classic and modern Worms gameplay in all positive respects it should be able to pull in both new and lost fans of the series. The execution on the Nintendo DS console is supurbly done. Other than the crippling local multiplayer synchronisation bug the game has absolutely no missed potential. It is considerable value due to its high replayability, longevity, originality and portability. It is a great game and the definitive Worms title.