Worms Battlegrounds

Worms Battlegrounds
Developer(s)	Team17
Publisher(s)	Team17
Series	Worms
Platform(s)	PlayStation 4 Xbox One
Release date(s)	^NA 3 June 2014[1] ^EU 30 May 2014
Genre(s)	Artillery, strategy
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer

Worms Battlegrounds is an artillery strategy video game developed and published by Team17. It was released on 30 May 2014 for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and is largely a console port of the PC game Worms Clan Wars. Set within a world history museum, the single-player story follows the player's worms attempt to retrieve the concrete donkey's stone carrot from Lord Crowley-Mesmer, a worm who is using it to try to take over the world. The game is narrated by Tara Pinkle, who is voiced by Katherine Parkinson.

Gameplay

Worms Battlegrounds is an artillery strategy game. Gameplay follows on the earlier games of the series, in which teams of worms take turns to use a variety of weapons and items in order to eliminate the opposing teams. It continues to use the brand new mechanic that was introduced in Worms Revolution, where players could select their worms from four different classes: Soldier, Scout, Scientist and Heavy, which all had different play styles unique to each class.

The game includes a total of sixty five weapons and utilities, which is the same number used in two older Worms games, Worms Armageddon and Worms World Party. Among the ten new weapons is a teleport gun, which was created in response to criticism that the ninja rope wasn't authentic compared with older Worms games.^[2]

The Xbox One version enables Xbox SmartGlass to keep track of stats, while the light bar on the PlayStation 4's DualShock 4 controller changes its colour depending on the status of the player's worm.^[3] The speech from the worms can also be heard through the DualShock 4's internal speaker.

Additional content

The first additional downloadable content pack for Worms Battleground was titled 'Alien Invasion', and added various new items to the game. It was released in January 2015. The pack adds a new game mode called 'Body Count' in which the player scores points for killing worms, as well as adding more campaign levels for the player to complete. In addition to this, new weapons were added to the game, such as the Plasma Blaster, Energy Orbs and a UFO Strike, as well as adding various new customisable items to decorate the player's worms. The pack also added an additional five trophies and achievements to its list. 'Alien Invasion' was released on January 12th for the Xbox One and January 21st for the PlayStation 4.^[4][5]

Reception

Worms Battlegrounds received mixed reviews. It has a Metacritic score of 62/100 and 70/100 for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions respectively, and the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions received 64.81% and 70.54% respectively on GameRankings.^[6][7][8][9]

References

1. Phillips Tom (19 May 2014). "Worms Battlegrounds gets May release for PS4, Xbox One". Eurogamer. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
2. Reynolds Matthew (31 March 2014). "Worms Battlegrounds on PS4 and Xbox One the "biggest" entry yet". Digital Spy. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
3. Kubba Sinan (18 May 2014). "Good morning, how are you, I'm Worms Battlegrounds". Joystiq. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
4. "Alien Invasion DLC Xbox Store Page with release date.". Microsoft. 12 January 2015. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
5. "Alien Invasion DLC PlayStation Store Page with release date.". Sony. 21 January 2015. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
6. "PlayStation 4 Metacritic". Metacritic. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
7. "Xbox Metacritic". Metacritic. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
8. "PlayStation 4 GameRankings". GameRankings. Retrieved 16 June 2014.
9. "Xbox One GameRankings". GameRankings. Retrieved 16 June 2014.