Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

Worms: W.M.D. is at its best when everyone has one worm left, the landscape is scarred by missed shots and explosions, and a single well-judged turn can settle the match. The basic formula has not lost its bite: take turns directing your team, account for projectile physics, and eliminate the opposition before they do the same to you. It is deliberate without being dry, because every careful plan lives next to the possibility of a spectacular mistake.

The new additions give you more decisions than a straight revival of classic Worms would have. Gathering parts from special crates to craft weapons makes crate runs matter beyond immediate firepower, giving you more choices for equipping your team. Buildings are particularly welcome. Ducking inside to avoid enemy fire or using one as cover to get close changes how you read the map, rather than simply leaving every worm exposed on open ground.

Vehicles and stationary turrets further disrupt the familiar artillery standoff. They can turn a section of the map into a priority target and force you to decide whether to press an advantage or deny one to the other team. With more than 80 weapons and utilities, including oddball options such as the Dodgy Phone Battery, Unwanted Present, and OMG strike, W.M.D. has plenty of room for the kind of experiments that make Worms matches memorable.

That abundance is also where frustration can creep in. More tools mean more ways for a match to swing sharply, and the broader set of systems can feel less elegant than the leanest entries in the series. Still, the fundamentals are sturdy. Local and online multiplayer are supported, and that is where the game earns its name: it creates the kind of shared disasters and last-second recoveries that are far more fun to recount than a clean victory.

Graphics

W.M.D. returns to the series’ original 2D visual style, which suits the side-view artillery format and keeps the action focused on the changing battlefield.

Story

There is a 30-level single-player campaign alongside the multiplayer artillery battles.

The comedy comes through in the game’s war-game premise and its deliberately silly weapon names. A tool called the Unwanted Present tells you the tone quickly: this is conflict treated as a setup for an ugly surprise, not a solemn military drama.

The real stories are the ones that emerge naturally when an attempted winning shot goes wrong or a desperate tactic unexpectedly works.

Overall Experience

Worms: W.M.D. understands that the series works because it turns careful tactics into social comedy. You can play intelligently, calculate a shot, seek shelter, craft the right weapon, and still watch the plan collapse when the battlefield or physics refuses to cooperate. That tension is not a flaw. It is the joke, and it is why a close match stays exciting until the final worm is gone.

Veteran Worms fans should appreciate the return to 2D while getting meaningful new wrinkles in buildings, crafting, vehicles, and turrets. Newcomers can jump in through the simple premise, then gradually realize how much positioning and timing sit underneath the tactical clashes. It rewards patience, but it does not require perfection to be fun.

The strongest recommendation is for local groups, where every improbable hit and self-inflicted disaster lands with a reaction from the room. Online play and the campaign give it more longevity, but the heart of W.M.D. is still a multiplayer grudge match full of improvised tactics and friendly sabotage. It is not the most stripped-down Worms, but it is a confident, feature-rich version of what the series does well.

Retro Replay Score

7.9/10