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Now in 2012 we see a Worms game which is subtitled Revolution and shockingly enough it isn’t a revolution. The game has 3D environments but still plays in 2D. It does add 4 classes to choose from: Heavy (takes more damage but can’t jump as high or move as fast), Scout (Low health but high jumping and quick movement), Scientist (Weaker than other Worms but regenerates health each turn) and Soldier (All Rounder). I would say that the Heavy class has issues when time limits are stricter and not being able to jump out of dangerous areas is a big handicap in this game, but otherwise I don’t see a major difference with them.
On the main title screen the “o” of Worms is a water balloon and water has been a focus of change in this instalment. The new weapons in the game are a water balloon, a water pistol and a water air strike. These weapons are mostly about causing worms to slide down into the water at the bottom of the map but you can also drown worms with water on the land if they are trapped with the water level above them. The developers had to re-create the physics engine for this addition which also has changed how the bazooka fires so you may have to get used to how much power you charge when aiming.
The game seems to have removed the Accent customization of the worms so you no longer have Scouse, Geordie or Rasta worms which provided some humour but the worms still have a selection of comments and insults when playing which can be amusing.
The AI still hasn’t changed from the previous games meaning that the Single Player campaign eventually puts you against worms that are pin point accurate from anywhere on the map and it feels pretty unfair. There is some single player fun to be had in the puzzle mode where you are restricted to specific weapons and given a task to overcome. Multiplayer is fun with friends as it always has been.
Jagex are more famous for their browser based MMO Runescape, but I believe that their best game is Arcanists.
Arcanists is Jagex’s version of Worms, but instead of worms they are Wizards. The Wizards are drawn in a similar style to worms as well. Like Runescape this game has a Free-2-Play option as well as membership but Members have access to a far wider number of Spells which add variety to the gameplay and Membership allows you to play ranked matches.
The game encourages you to replay matches in a similar way to Call of Duty as you obtain Wands for playing matches. These wands are used to unlock Spells from one of the 10 spell books: Nature, Overlight, Stone, Seas, Fire, Storms, Underdark, Frost, Arcane and Cogs. Once you have unlocked all the spells in every book you can “Prestige” which makes you lose all your spells but you get a bigger hat above your Mage. You unlock the Book of Cogs after you prestige the first time, but apart from that the only incentive to Prestige is a bigger hat.
Many of the spells in Arcanists are the same across all the books and they are similar to the weapons in Worms: Each book has a standard projectile like the Bazooka in worms, most have a bomb similar to a grenade, some books have homing missiles similar to the Homing Pigeon, bolt spells which fire rapidly like an uzi, Aerial abilities like air strikes and only a few have a melee ability to send them flying across the map. However there are quite a few additions to Arcanists that make it stand out.
You have a Spell Book customization page which allows you to pick and choose 16 spells from all the spells in the books that you have unlocked allowing you to have a mix of Fire, Stone and Light. However the spells have levels so picking a level 1 spell unlocks a specific level 2 spell in that book and to access level 3 spells you need 5 spells (three level 1’s and two level 2 spells). Each spell book has 12 spells so you can use an entire book and still have spells from other books.
If you decide to use all the spells in a single book you will have the option to drain your health and gain a familiar which gives you benefits dependent on the book e.g. the Book of Underdark allows you to put your health in a “Soul Jar” so that when you die you will respawn with the health that was contained in the jar or the Book of Seas gives you a seahorse familiar that allows you to walk on water. Having all the spells within a book gives you access to the most damaging abilities which usually destroy large chunks of terrain such as a Volcano (Fire book), Earthquake (Stone book) but some max level abilities have different effects like the Underdark spell “Lichdom” which allows you to heal from the damage you deal and you also heal in decay auras or the Overlight book which allows you to become invulnerable for a few turns or gain permanent wings.
The main change from worms is that all the books have their own minions to summon which have their own spells and you can directly control them. Some of them have abilities or auras which last for a number of turns such as a shock shield or an aura of decay. These abilities don’t end your turn so you can ram your opponent with a creature and then move them out the way so you can continue attacking. You can summon Dragons and mount them so that the Dragon will take damage from projectiles instead. The Overlight book has the summon Pegasus which can be mounted by some of the summoned creatures which have trouble jumping over terrain. Some summons can be charged up by casting spells on them such as Imps which gain health from arcane damage. You can then detonate them so that they cause as much damage as their hp or Water trolls which increase in size when you cast a hydration spell on them causing them to hit harder as well.
Having Minions adds more depth as you may have to position yourself so that minions can jump on you to cross terrain or you can use minions to trap opponents against walls.
All of the books allow you to Tower which makes you immobile but takes a large amount of damage before it is destroyed. The tower’s health is added to your own allowing you to go above maximum health.
The game has 9 maps with each of them having their own environmental hazards which trigger later in the game such as Comets raining from the sky or Volcano’s bursting from below so that eventually if a game goes on for too long the whole map can be destroyed. Players have control over the maps they play and the time given to make a move so ranked players usually pick times and maps that suit their books e.g. there is a map where arcane arrows fire from underground so the environment may aid in charging Imps up for you if you use an Arcane book.
The only other spell addition that is different from Worms is that the Arcane book allows you to create a Portal on the map allowing you to throw projectiles through them to hit your opponent. The only addition that Arcanists could have taken from Worms is the “Super Sheep” which gives you complete control over the direction of a projectile which is a pretty cool weapon that with practice becomes more accurate than homing missiles.
Ultimately Worms Revolution goes with the “If it ain’t broke” mentality and if you enjoy classic worms it is a good option. However, considering Arcanists was released in 2008 Worms is a bit late to the Revolution party.
I remember playing the original Worms on release and me and mi bezzy mate had a 'whale of a time' playing it. But time's passed but we still play Quake, Quake II and Doom haha :¬D
You'll get a GAD for this .... ;¬)
Now in 2012 we see a Worms game which is subtitled Revolution and shockingly enough it isn’t a revolution. The game has 3D environments but still plays in 2D. It does add 4 classes to choose from: Heavy (takes more damage but can’t jump as high or move as fast), Scout (Low health but high jumping and quick movement), Scientist (Weaker than other Worms but regenerates health each turn) and Soldier (All Rounder). I would say that the Heavy class has issues when time limits are stricter and not being able to jump out of dangerous areas is a big handicap in this game, but otherwise I don’t see a major difference with them.
On the main title screen the “o” of Worms is a water balloon and water has been a focus of change in this instalment. The new weapons in the game are a water balloon, a water pistol and a water air strike. These weapons are mostly about causing worms to slide down into the water at the bottom of the map but you can also drown worms with water on the land if they are trapped with the water level above them. The developers had to re-create the physics engine for this addition which also has changed how the bazooka fires so you may have to get used to how much power you charge when aiming.
The game seems to have removed the Accent customization of the worms so you no longer have Scouse, Geordie or Rasta worms which provided some humour but the worms still have a selection of comments and insults when playing which can be amusing.
The AI still hasn’t changed from the previous games meaning that the Single Player campaign eventually puts you against worms that are pin point accurate from anywhere on the map and it feels pretty unfair. There is some single player fun to be had in the puzzle mode where you are restricted to specific weapons and given a task to overcome. Multiplayer is fun with friends as it always has been.
Jagex are more famous for their browser based MMO Runescape, but I believe that their best game is Arcanists.
Arcanists is Jagex’s version of Worms, but instead of worms they are Wizards. The Wizards are drawn in a similar style to worms as well. Like Runescape this game has a Free-2-Play option as well as membership but Members have access to a far wider number of Spells which add variety to the gameplay and Membership allows you to play ranked matches.
The game encourages you to replay matches in a similar way to Call of Duty as you obtain Wands for playing matches. These wands are used to unlock Spells from one of the 10 spell books: Nature, Overlight, Stone, Seas, Fire, Storms, Underdark, Frost, Arcane and Cogs. Once you have unlocked all the spells in every book you can “Prestige” which makes you lose all your spells but you get a bigger hat above your Mage. You unlock the Book of Cogs after you prestige the first time, but apart from that the only incentive to Prestige is a bigger hat.
Many of the spells in Arcanists are the same across all the books and they are similar to the weapons in Worms: Each book has a standard projectile like the Bazooka in worms, most have a bomb similar to a grenade, some books have homing missiles similar to the Homing Pigeon, bolt spells which fire rapidly like an uzi, Aerial abilities like air strikes and only a few have a melee ability to send them flying across the map. However there are quite a few additions to Arcanists that make it stand out.
You have a Spell Book customization page which allows you to pick and choose 16 spells from all the spells in the books that you have unlocked allowing you to have a mix of Fire, Stone and Light. However the spells have levels so picking a level 1 spell unlocks a specific level 2 spell in that book and to access level 3 spells you need 5 spells (three level 1’s and two level 2 spells). Each spell book has 12 spells so you can use an entire book and still have spells from other books.
If you decide to use all the spells in a single book you will have the option to drain your health and gain a familiar which gives you benefits dependent on the book e.g. the Book of Underdark allows you to put your health in a “Soul Jar” so that when you die you will respawn with the health that was contained in the jar or the Book of Seas gives you a seahorse familiar that allows you to walk on water. Having all the spells within a book gives you access to the most damaging abilities which usually destroy large chunks of terrain such as a Volcano (Fire book), Earthquake (Stone book) but some max level abilities have different effects like the Underdark spell “Lichdom” which allows you to heal from the damage you deal and you also heal in decay auras or the Overlight book which allows you to become invulnerable for a few turns or gain permanent wings.
The main change from worms is that all the books have their own minions to summon which have their own spells and you can directly control them. Some of them have abilities or auras which last for a number of turns such as a shock shield or an aura of decay. These abilities don’t end your turn so you can ram your opponent with a creature and then move them out the way so you can continue attacking. You can summon Dragons and mount them so that the Dragon will take damage from projectiles instead. The Overlight book has the summon Pegasus which can be mounted by some of the summoned creatures which have trouble jumping over terrain. Some summons can be charged up by casting spells on them such as Imps which gain health from arcane damage. You can then detonate them so that they cause as much damage as their hp or Water trolls which increase in size when you cast a hydration spell on them causing them to hit harder as well.
Having Minions adds more depth as you may have to position yourself so that minions can jump on you to cross terrain or you can use minions to trap opponents against walls.
All of the books allow you to Tower which makes you immobile but takes a large amount of damage before it is destroyed. The tower’s health is added to your own allowing you to go above maximum health.
The game has 9 maps with each of them having their own environmental hazards which trigger later in the game such as Comets raining from the sky or Volcano’s bursting from below so that eventually if a game goes on for too long the whole map can be destroyed. Players have control over the maps they play and the time given to make a move so ranked players usually pick times and maps that suit their books e.g. there is a map where arcane arrows fire from underground so the environment may aid in charging Imps up for you if you use an Arcane book.
The only other spell addition that is different from Worms is that the Arcane book allows you to create a Portal on the map allowing you to throw projectiles through them to hit your opponent. The only addition that Arcanists could have taken from Worms is the “Super Sheep” which gives you complete control over the direction of a projectile which is a pretty cool weapon that with practice becomes more accurate than homing missiles.
Ultimately Worms Revolution goes with the “If it ain’t broke” mentality and if you enjoy classic worms it is a good option. However, considering Arcanists was released in 2008 Worms is a bit late to the Revolution party.