Worms World Party Remastered (PC) Review

Anyone who has played the Worms games from the late 90s and turn of the millennium will be familiar with the range of weapons that are available and how enjoyably explosive each round can be. The gameplay is simple as players take a group of worms and use items such as miniguns, air strikes and explosive sheep to decimate up to five other teams and the landscape itself. Gamers can play locally with friends (hot seating on the same computer); online against the world; or against the AI, as it takes control of a team or two. Working carefully to aim bazooka shells at an enemy worm or creating tactical defences with girders and pneumatic drills can lead to countless scenarios, full of hilarity.

Each match can be customised extensively with many options - turn time, the number of rounds to win before taking the match, and the way worms are chosen can be altered at will. The vast range of arsenals can also be tinkered down to the finest detail, as it is possible to determine on which turn a specific item will appear in everyone's inventory. Creating a perfect set of rules and armaments is complemented by the team editor, which includes a variety of flags, graveyard icons and speech packs to give everyone their very own worm army.

If that wasn't enough, the Wormpot grants access to hundreds of different game styles on every map, both online and offline. These are enabled by choosing up to three different modes that affect the gameplay on any given landscape. Choices include increasing the damage of certain weapons; changing the friction levels between worms and surfaces; and even a fort mode, which demands long range assaults, as combatants are forbidden from setting foot on the enemy's fort. Maps can be designed freely using the mouse to add or remove terrain, adjust the water level, and add objects and bridges to whatever has been drawn on the screen. Truly, the only limit is the player's imagination.

While the main attraction is the plethora of options available to tailor experiences to whatever is desired, there are a couple of other modes to play. Newcomers to the series will be pleased to hear that training missions are on hand to outline basic and advanced skills. It won't be long before everyone is tactfully throwing grenades into crevices or manoeuvring around seemingly impassable terrain with a ninja rope. Those looking for more structured fun can engage in one of the dozens of missions that are playable alone or with a friend. These challenges put worms into different scenarios to further test the skills learned in training or developed during multiplayer mayhem.

At its core, Worms World Party Remastered offers the same frantic fun that made the series famous decades ago. Unfortunately, this is also its downfall, as the game hasn't progressed much since its initial release. Upon starting up, it is disturbingly apparent that not much work has gone into modernising this classic, as the menus are still at a low resolution and the mouse scroll wheel doesn't immediately, if at all, work, so navigating lists is a tedious affair. Team17 has made a few changes, as the game now supports controllers, there are Steam achievements to unlock, and it is easy to get the actual gameplay to run at 60 frames per second at resolutions such as 1920x1080. Sadly, this isn't enough to justify the moniker "Remastered," as it is still very apparent that this is based on a game from 2001.