I've been taking a little bit of a break from W:A recently to focus on WMD and some other games. Here's my updated take on WMD:
So close. SOOOO CLOSE!
The game could be awesome but there's little (and some not-so-little) things about it that totally suck. Do I think it could be an e-sport title? Sure, I guess, but W:A deserves the spot more.
Anyway, check this out... this is why I think WMD is a joke:
In addition to the typical complaints about the game (rope not being identical to W:A, crappy global chat, lack of options, etc) the main thing that I do not like about the game is that it can be very luck-based. First of all, the inclusion of vehicles changes the game completely. No longer do people have to intelligently conserve movement utilities. Certain vehicles like the helicopter, mech, and Rocket League car have INSANE movement capabilities and can easily provide 'free mobility' to the tune of many, many ropes / jetpacks. In addition to that, the vehicle attacks can 1-hit KO worms in the right spots, or at the very least do quite a bit of damage and knock worms really far.
The crafting system blows because people can craft on every single turn, and depending on the scheme, there's usually enough crafting materials available via deconstructing your items and collecting crafting crates that you can craft nearly anything. Paying attention to the items that other players use isn't a skill that is very relevant to WMD, unlike the past games. Someone can burn through their ropes and jetpacks and it means nothing. You think you're safe with the high ground? Nah. Your opponent will just craft another one, or a party balloon, or whatever. Rarely in WMD are people stuck without movement utilities.
The newest and most annoying feature that makes the crafting system even worse is the 'mischevious drone.' It is a new item that was recently added to the game. It is a drone that you can launch like a nade, but the drone is totally controllable and can grab crates, spy in buildings, activate mines, etc. The range of the drone is pretty crazy, and with it one can easily grab several crates on one turn, all without having to move their worm! The worst part is that the drone is very cheap to craft, so if there's 1-2 crafting crates on the map, using the drone literally pays for itself and deprives other players of grabbing the crates, even when they are way closer. What this means is that people can use several drones over the course of a match, collect a ton of crates without having to use any movement utilities or expose their worm(s). It's so imbalanced that it makes playing WMD a joke currently. Sure, sentry guns can shoot down drones, but 95% of the time, that's not an issue.
In order for me to enjoy playing WMD, I have to host a custom scheme that has crafting disabled, vehicles disabled, and crate drops set to a minimum amount - or completely disabled.
For example, the other day I played a match with 5% drop rates for crates, no vehicles, and a pretty balanced starting inventory with no super weapons / cheesy noob weapons. (Like bunker busters, etc.) It was a 5 player FFA and by the end of the match I had a pretty strong lead, not to mention the best positions on the map. The last opponent standing had done nothing the whole match but spam drones and hide. I had 3 worms and he had 2, and I had far more HP. Thanks to the drone, the guy was able to craft an OMG Strike which insta-killed 2 of my worms (in the best positions), which left me with 1 worm. As if that wasn't lame enough, on my next turn I went to chute over to one of his worms, which I could have plopped with a fire punch as it was SD and the water was rising. His other worm was trapped underground and he had no teleports left, so it wasn't a threat. It should have been GG, but the f@#!ing chute didn't respond to key inputs, which caused me to sink too low, land right next to a mine, and plop myself. A sure win turned into an aggravating loss.
For now, we do not have the ability to manually select what items can or cannot be crafted in a match, so we can't just completely exclude drones. Crates of any sort obviously do introduce a measure of luck into any scheme, but I think that it's generally more fun to play schemes with at least a minimal crate drop chance, just to spice things up... however, with the drone being a part of the game, I find myself wanting to completely disable crate drops, or at least disable crafting crate drops. (Btw - the ingredients contained in crafting crates are random, so you can never know what someone just got.) The coin crate system in Revolution / Clan Wars was superior because it was easy enough to keep track of how many coin crates a player has collected, so you could know what that person could possibly craft and prepare for it. With the crafting system in WMD, certain classic player skills (like keeping track of your opponent's inventory) are basically irrelevant. It doesn't matter what someone has used because they can just craft more... and craft *exactly* what they need situationally in order to go from losing to securing a win. It's a f@#!ing joke. You have the high ground and your opponent has used their movement items, air strike, and homing missile... you feel safe taking that spot on top that you know they can't hit? Well too bad, they crafted another homing missile. You're dead. Or a rope, party balloon, whatever.
On top of all of that, the community really sucks and other players will gang up on you if you show that you have skills / really know what you're doing. The 'fair play' concept in W:A doesn't exist in WMD. Generally speaking, people tend to stick to ABL, or at the very least are sensible enough to realize that focus firing on one person isn't an effective strategy 95% of the time, especially if that involves leaving yourself exposed to other players, wasting movement utilities, wasting weapons, etc.
Anyway...
WMD is a bit of a weird game because it has so much potential to be awesome, but every time I play it I am reminded of how it's off the mark. If WMD had the worm classes and water from the last couple of games INSTEAD OF vehicles and crafting, it would be a must-buy for all W:A players. For now the overall balance of the game caters to casual players and features present within the game make it far easier for lesser-skilled individuals to be able to stand a chance against pros. I dunno how many times I've been robbed of a win due to some lucky, lame shit. Yeah, I'm salty, but I'm also pointing out truth.
Hopefully they will nerf the drone and/or increase its crafting cost. It just kinda sucks that in order to play a game in which cheesy, lucky gameplay isn't a factor, I have to disable the new features of the game, lol. The real problem is that most people LOVE vehicles and crafting, because it gives them a better chance of winning, and/or they are simply ignorant of the features and gameplay of the other titles.
That said, I don't think that WMD is terrible. It looks great and CAN BE fun to play, but you just have to keep in mind that anything can happen at any time. I also don't think it's worth $30. The price is keeping a lot of people away. It should be a $20 title, as there's tons of games around the $30 mark that most people would rather buy.
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