Hedgewars Review

Hedgewars is an open-source turn-based strategy game similar to Worms. Players take turns controlling several little hedgehogs armed to the teeth with bazookas, grenades, guns, airstrikes, explosive cakes, other bizarre and deadly weapons.

 

Pros: Open source, humourous, good gameplay, original weapons (and inside jokes)

Cons: Poor AI, glitching campaign mode

The gameplay is simple: use your hedgehogs to blow up your opponent's hedgehogs. Every turn, players take control of a single hedgehog and use an arsenal of weapons to destroy their opponents in the most ridiculous and creative ways possible. Explosive cakes, remote control airplanes, and even portal guns - the possibilities are endless.

There's also online multiplayer. There's a surprisingly high number of people in the lobby. It's relatively easy to find a game, and if you can't, spectating is almost as fun because you can laugh at other people's failiures. And watching people fail is particularly funny in this game.

Fail.

A turn is executed as follows:

1. Move

2. Select weapon

3. Aim, adjusting for distance and wind

4. Shoot

5. Optional: Run away

Poor vulture.

There are also petrol cans scattered across the maps that explode when shot, showering their surroundings with fire. Health packs and weapon crates, dropped randomly across the map, also explode when shot. The terrain is completely descructable, making for even more interesting gameplay.

You can also customize your 'hogs, giving them different names, appearances, and even a different voice.

Australian hedgehogs with British accents pwn.

The biggest problem with Hedgewars is its AI. It seems AI units either make perfect shots or fail them completely. They never make mediocre, somewhat effective shots. It doesn't completely destroy the gameplay, though. If you want to play against a more human opponent, you can do it with a friend sharing a keyboard, or online.

Also, the game's "campaign mode" never progresses past level 1. But that's not really that bad; the campaign mode is rarely the main feature in games like Hedgewars.

Score:8.5

I give way too many games a score of 8.5, but it's true. Hedgewars' gameplay is really good, as well as the addition of new equipment, but the gameplay could be a tiny bit more fluid. But it's a very good game, and being open-sourced adds to the awesomeness of it all.