A very quaint combination of Hogs Of War and Worms, two very beloved games I hold dear to my heart (both in childhood and adulthood), whilst adding some new quirks to make it its own unique game! This is Wardudes, the game where 'zany' ragdoll based army militia men battle it out for the victor's spoils.
Notably speaking, this is a well thought out game. As mentioned, it takes the dark, edgy humour of Hogs Of War (and name-calling inspiration from various regional Hogs inputs) and the destructible terrain aspect of Worms (as well as a couple of functions such as the teleport mechanic). But in order to add its own spin on things it has entities like sharks, aliens, destructible cameras, rat bombs, map interactions and 'headshots' and 'nutshots' to name a few.
In addition to these interactive features, the characters have zany models, with lots of featured interactions, such as salutes, flatulence and even flipping the bird at enemy combatants.
You can also create custom replay tapes, thanks to the in-built recorder. Two points of contention for this, however, are; you'll need to activate the replay function, before you start a match, and, to my knowledge, it can only record up to 10 minutes worth of footage in one replay tape.
I have been playing it on and off during its early alpha days, so I've seen some major improvements in this game, and therefore would like to recommend to anyone who loves the turn-based strategy genre. Whether you like Worms, Hogs Of War or both, you'll definitely get a kick out of the amount of replay-ability. I often create 1v1 matches, via local multiplayer, which takes me back to my youth, as a Hogs Of War connoisseur and a Worms superfan.
Just a few things I'd like to address; if you have a less beefy computer, then you'll have to reduce some quality settings in order to get some smoothness in gameplay; I'm hoping that can be fixed in the future. That said, if you ever record any footage from a third-party recorder, such as OBS (which I tend to use to record trickshots, in particular), then this could advantageously reduce some of the problems. I originally had problems with Wardudes making my computer fan whirring like crazy, like it was about to explode. And then I started recording footage, and it has alleviated a few of the issues. So, in case if that ever comes to light, feel free to give that a try.
Moreover, this game is also quite vulgar, in terms of its humour to put it in an advisory term - swearing and heavy stereotyping is found a lot in this game, partially inspired by Hogs Of War's acts. So if you're under 16 years old, it might be advised to turn voices off if you want to avoid foul-mouthed toilet humour. Don't get me wrong, as someone who grew up with both subjects oif inspiration, I appreciate the gags. But, younger audiences might not enjoy them so much. And so, I will stress that player discretion is advised. In other words, tread carefully with that one.
Furthermore, there is a fair amount of blood for this game, which once again, for a turn-based game, might deter younger focus groups away, considering that neither Hogs Of War nor Worms necessarily have blood as an asset.
Now, seeing as I have been playing this game for a little while, will there be any more content to come at this stage, considering beta production is to come? Well, from what I've heard, they do plan to add more content to the game in the future, such as a full-on story mode. So this game still has plenty on the table to offer. If you'd like more on that, check the Wardudes Steam page.
All in all though, I do hope to grind more playtime with Wardudes in the very future! And I'm looking forward to seeing what more this game has to offer, as we head into its next phase.
