GAME REVIEW 'Worms 3D' lets player operate camera

Because the outcome is always new, no two games are alike.
By BILL HUTCHENS
TACOMA NEWS TRIBUNE
Some games don't need to go 3-D.
The vampire adventure series "Castlevania," for instance, never should have taken that ill-fated jump into the third dimension a few games ago.
Developers found that out the hard way and went back to 2-D perfection after their try at 3-D tanked.
So when Team 17 announced that the next game in the acclaimed "Worms" series of strategy games would go 3-D, a lot of gamers cringed.
As it turns out, we should have had a little more faith in Team 17. They've put together a good upgrade that retains the fun and the feel -- the greatness -- of the 2-D versions that came before.
I'm no games developer, but in my mind, game views, or "cameras," must be difficult to manage when moving from 2-D to 3-D. For starters, in the original "Worms," there's really only one view, a flat image of the playing landscape.
In the new "Worms 3D," you need to be able to see every inch of the 3-D islands on which your worms are situated for battle. That means you'll need several views, and "Worms 3D" gives you just about everything you need. You can manipulate the game cameras from first-person (worm's eye), third-person (behind the worm) and blimp views.
Other than the need for camera mastery, players won't encounter much in "Worms 3D" that they haven't seen in the other "Worms" games.
The premise of "Worms," a "turn-based strategy" series, is as simple as this: Ready, aim, fire. Players take turns making their worm teams attack each other. Worms die when they lose all their health or if they fall into deep water.
There are hundreds of variations for each battle, but a typical turn involves selecting a worm from your team, moving that worm to a strategic position in a cluttered landscape, selecting a weapon, aiming at an enemy worm and, finally, firing.
As in the other "Worms" games, the last worm standing wins the battle for its team. Teams usually have two to six worms apiece. There are single-player battles in which you fight computer-controlled worms and multiplayer battles that can have as many as four players duking it out. The PC and upcoming Xbox version of the game have online multiplayer modes.
Skills challenges require players to master the oddball weapons and utilities they'll use in battles, such as flying sheep, jet packs, ninja ropes, mad cows and holy hand grenades.
In nearly every mode, environments are fully destructible, and that makes strategy even more important. Often, you can blow away the ground beneath a worm, causing it to fall into the drink.
"Worms" gets interesting when you begin tweaking the options to vary the power, fuse time and reloading capacities of various weapons. There are dozens of other variables to mess with as well.
The bottom line is that no two "Worms" battles are alike. You can play a hundred games with the same settings every time and still discover new ways to win, and new ways to make mistakes.
X"Worms 3D" is available for GameCube, PlayStation 2 and PC, and is coming soon to Xbox. It is rated T for cartoon violence.