TL;DR SUMMARY: This game is not bad at all - in fact, it's very solid and enjoyable, and the graphics are very pretty. But the gameplay is almost the same as Worms Armageddon/World Party, and while new elements are few and mostly cosmetic, a lot of elements (and weapons) from the older games have been removed or have been massively simplified in a bad way. Both older and newer parts of the series have a lot more to offer.

FULL REVIEW: So, Worms Reloaded was the series' return to 2D after three 3D games (Worms 3D, Forts, and Mayhem), and as expected, the gameplay didn't change massively from the famed Worms Armageddon and World Party, but the graphics are much prettier, and there are should be some new ideas and innovations... right?

Not really. Whether you're interested in playing multiplayer (most people, I guess) or single player (there's probably like 5 of us but we exist), the new elements are mostly details, while some significant classic elements are missing.

Let's start with multiplayer. As I said above, the gameplay is more or less unchanged from WA/WWP. Probably the most remarkable innovation is that the maps can now also be vertically, rather than horizontally oriented (i.e. tall and narrow map instead of low and wide), which results in quite different gameplay. There can now also be randomly placed sentry guns (automatically fire at any worms that move) and electromagnets (which seem to only work for the first two turns or so, and therefore don't do much), that also alter the game a bit. There's the good old landscape generator and easy to use manual editor, plus plenty of maps from older Worms that you can use (although they're hidden under "saved levels", which is not very intuitive). No new premade maps with castles, flowers or frogs however, all there is in Reloaded is the generator. Besides regular games, there's also a forts mode and race mode.

However, as I said, there's also a lot "less" - especially less customisation when editing game schemes, something like half of the options from the older Worms are gone (e.g. can no longer modify the power of weapons or how often they appear in crates, sudden death is only health drops to 1 and/or water rising, etc.). The "Wormpot" from Worms World Party/Worms 3D (which allowed for such craziness as permanent x2 damage or more slippery terrain) is not here either.

But the biggest "less" are weapons - I think something like half of weapons from older Worms are gone, with only a handful of new (and not very spectacular) ones. Most of the crazy superweapons like the Ming Vase or Sheep Strike are gone, but there are also some unique weapons that have been removed with nothing to fill their niche - the most notable being probably the lack of both Minigun and Flamethrower, with no similarly powerful short range weapon to replace them. Another thing that bothers me is the lack of most utilities, like the classic Low Gravity and of course the amazing, wonderful cluster♥♥♥♥ creator: Damage x2 (if you've never used a Banana Bomb with Damage x2, you don't know life, I'm sorry). The only utility left is the Jet Pack (+ Laser Sight has survived using sneaky means, it can be enabled for shotgun as an option), while items such as the Ninja Rope - which is actually a bit harder to use here, a good change, in my opinion, now you actually need to decide between the rope and the jetpack, not "rope gets you anywhere" - or Girder now drop in utility crates instead.

As for single player, of course the "less weapons" part also applies, but in this aspect Reloaded fails the most, in my opinion. The campaign here is... bare-bones basically, 3/4 are ordinary deathmatch games which only stop being tutorial-level difficulty about halfway through, and the remaining 1/4 try to be more classic "puzzle" kind of missions, but are also incredibly simplistic - the only genuinely cool and creative mission is the last, 30th one. If you've played the campaigns of older Worms (or especially the masterpiece that was the Worms 3D campaign), and thought a new, more modern engine would mean even cleverer and more intricate missions... nope.avi. A bit better is the Warzone mode, which is basically... also deathmatch, not much different from the campaign, but it does actually get more challenging later on. There's also a Body Count mode which is something actually new - a kind of "survival" mode, but there are no levels to choose from or any options to modify, you only choose the theme and that's it.

And while we're at single player, the single biggest proof of laziness in Worms Reloaded - the AI. At first I wanted to say it's "not that great", but after playing for some time, the only way I have to describe it is pathetic. The AI either misses completely (most of the time with lower difficulties) or lands utterly ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ RIDICULOUS shots such as "throw a grenade across the entire map which bounces off 4 surfaces into a narrow tunnel and lands under your worm's nose" (this is NOT an exaggeration, I literally mean it). There is hardly ever anything in between, it pretty much doesn't "hit but not direct hit". It seems a tiny bit smarter in making decisions than the old AI, but also that old AI from the 90s did a better job at trying to emulate a human's accuracy and was about 5x more fun to play against, even if it only used like 5 basic weapons or so.

On a more positive note, as I said, the graphics are very pretty - the game is very pleasant to look at and feels a bit more spectacular (even though most of the actually spectacular weapons are gone...). Bright and colourful themes are brighter and more colourful (Sports theme! <3 ), while dark and evil ones are darker and more evil. Besides that, there are some new cosmetic elements - when creating your team, you can choose your worms' skin colour and hat (yep, there's hats, and some are actually Team Fortress 2 references). But again, "less"... Only 4 worms per team, end of story.

So, that's about it. This is not a bad game at all - if this was the only Worms game ever released, I'd give it praise for being very good and a lot of fun (while also commenting there's a lot of unused potential...). But it's one of a dozen or so at this point, and it just pales in comparison with both the older and newer - whether it's multiplayer destruction and craziness you're looking for, or missions that require strategy and MacGyverish creative thinking, this game has a lot less of both. I just don't see a reason to pick Reloaded over Worms Armageddon/World Party or the newer installments, which seem to have actually contributed some new ideas to the series. (And I now feel sad having to give this game a "not recommended" rating.)

[b]TL;DR SUMMARY[/b]: This game is not bad at all - in fact, it's very solid and enjoyable, and the graphics are very pretty. But the gameplay is almost the same as Worms Armageddon/World Party, and while new elements are few and mostly cosmetic, a lot of elements (and weapons) from the older games have been removed or have been massively simplified in a bad way. Both older and newer parts of the series have a lot more to offer. [b]FULL REVIEW[/b]: So, Worms Reloaded was the series' return to 2D after three 3D games (Worms 3D, Forts, and Mayhem), and as expected, the gameplay didn't change massively from the famed Worms Armageddon and World Party, but the graphics are much prettier, and there are should be some new ideas and innovations... right? Not really. Whether you're interested in playing multiplayer (most people, I guess) or single player (there's probably like 5 of us but we exist), the new elements are mostly details, while some significant classic elements are missing. Let's start with multiplayer. As I said above, the gameplay is more or less unchanged from WA/WWP. Probably the most remarkable innovation is that the maps can now also be vertically, rather than horizontally oriented (i.e. tall and narrow map instead of low and wide), which results in quite different gameplay. There can now also be randomly placed sentry guns (automatically fire at any worms that move) and electromagnets (which seem to only work for the first two turns or so, and therefore don't do much), that also alter the game a bit. There's the good old landscape generator and easy to use manual editor, plus plenty of maps from older Worms that you can use (although they're hidden under "saved levels", which is not very intuitive). No new premade maps with castles, flowers or frogs however, all there is in Reloaded is the generator. Besides regular games, there's also a forts mode and race mode. However, as I said, there's also a lot "less" - especially less customisation when editing game schemes, something like half of the options from the older Worms are gone (e.g. can no longer modify the power of weapons or how often they appear in crates, sudden death is only health drops to 1 and/or water rising, etc.). The "Wormpot" from Worms World Party/Worms 3D (which allowed for such craziness as permanent x2 damage or more slippery terrain) is not here either. But the biggest "less" are weapons - I think something like half of weapons from older Worms are gone, with only a handful of new (and not very spectacular) ones. Most of the crazy superweapons like the Ming Vase or Sheep Strike are gone, but there are also some unique weapons that have been removed with nothing to fill their niche - the most notable being probably the lack of both Minigun and Flamethrower, with no similarly powerful short range weapon to replace them. Another thing that bothers me is the lack of most utilities, like the classic Low Gravity and of course [u]the amazing, wonderful clusterfuck creator: Damage x2[/u] (if you've never used a Banana Bomb with Damage x2, you don't know life, I'm sorry). The only utility left is the Jet Pack (+ Laser Sight has survived using sneaky means, it can be enabled for shotgun as an option), while items such as the Ninja Rope - which is actually a bit harder to use here, a good change, in my opinion, now you actually need to decide between the rope and the jetpack, not "rope gets you anywhere" - or Girder now drop in utility crates instead. As for single player, of course the "less weapons" part also applies, but in this aspect Reloaded fails the most, in my opinion. The campaign here is... bare-bones basically, 3/4 are ordinary deathmatch games which only stop being tutorial-level difficulty about halfway through, and the remaining 1/4 try to be more classic "puzzle" kind of missions, but are also incredibly simplistic - the only genuinely cool and creative mission is the last, 30th one. If you've played the campaigns of older Worms (or especially the masterpiece that was the Worms 3D campaign), and thought a new, more modern engine would mean even cleverer and more intricate missions... [i]nope.avi[/i]. A bit better is the Warzone mode, which is basically... also deathmatch, not much different from the campaign, but it does actually get more challenging later on. There's also a Body Count mode which is something actually new - a kind of "survival" mode, but there are no levels to choose from or any options to modify, you only choose the theme and that's it. And while we're at single player, the single biggest proof of laziness in Worms Reloaded - the AI. At first I wanted to say it's "not that great", but after playing for some time, the only way I have to describe it is [i]pathetic[/i]. The AI either misses completely (most of the time with lower difficulties) or lands utterly fucking RIDICULOUS shots such as "throw a grenade across the entire map which bounces off 4 surfaces into a narrow tunnel and lands under your worm's nose" (this is NOT an exaggeration, I literally mean it). There is hardly ever anything in between, it pretty much doesn't "hit but not direct hit". It seems a tiny bit smarter in making decisions than the old AI, but also that old AI from the 90s did a better job at trying to emulate a human's accuracy and was about 5x more fun to play against, even if it only used like 5 basic weapons or so. On a more positive note, as I said, the graphics are very pretty - the game is very pleasant to look at and feels a bit more spectacular (even though most of the actually spectacular weapons are gone...). Bright and colourful themes are brighter and more colourful (Sports theme! <3 ), while dark and evil ones are darker and more evil. Besides that, there are some new cosmetic elements - when creating your team, you can choose your worms' skin colour and hat (yep, there's hats, and some are actually Team Fortress 2 references). But again, "less"... Only 4 worms per team, end of story. So, that's about it. This is not a bad game at all - if this was the only Worms game ever released, I'd give it praise for being very good and a lot of fun (while also commenting there's a lot of unused potential...). But it's one of a dozen or so at this point, and it just pales in comparison with both the older and newer - whether it's multiplayer destruction and craziness you're looking for, or missions that require strategy and MacGyverish creative thinking, this game has a lot less of both. I just don't see a reason to pick Reloaded over Worms Armageddon/World Party or the newer installments, which seem to have actually contributed some new ideas to the series. (And I now feel sad having to give this game a "not recommended" rating.)