Review: Worms 2 Armageddon

Having been peddled essentially the same game for 14 years – with no sign of relent – people tend to be a little indifferent towards new Worms games. It's safe to say the series peaked with Worms: Armageddon back in 1999 in terms of presentation, gameplay and modes, but since then the follow-up releases have been a little, for want of a better word, uninspired.

If I'm brutally honest, last year's XBLA version of the belligerent annelids was an all-time low for the series – cutting a reprehensible amount of the weapons that defined the game as a whole, and, most importantly, delivering frequently unstable online play, which, as I'm sure most will agree, is where Worms is in its element. Nonetheless, the title sold by the bucket load, further inflating Team17's confidence in the original formula and supplying them with enough money to simply do better next time.

And Worms 2: Armageddon is the result. Though still the instantly-recognisable turn-based strategy game in all the right places, Team17 has gathered together all its money and thrown it at improving pretty much everything: The old weapons are in, alongside some new ones. There are new maps, new modes, an actually interesting single-player campaign and, much to our delight, wonderfully functional online play.

Big-Up!

The main blight on an otherwise great release is this awful screen that ruins the flow of the game.

Conducting upgrades on practically all areas breathes new life into the linear but proven style of Worms.

The advent of new weapons such as the sentry gun, electromagnet or Buffalo of Lies are all as stupidly amusing as you would expect from these games, but they are also indispensably tactical with the correct execution. How the Worms series manages to marry this type of humour with sincere artifice is what has made it so popular – It's the right amount of laughs with the right amount of challenge.

Along with new weapons comes new maps and game modes. The most predominant change to the terrain sets is vertical maps - an interesting mix-up since predecessors, as veterans will agree, offer only a horizontal and sometimes repetitive experience. But Worms 2: Armageddon gives players the opportunity to do away with fluky grenades or rockets and pay closer attention to the wind direction in order to land a rewarding shot. As the handful of vertical maps in the campaign will attest to, they are substantially harder to master than the style of yesteryear, but, naturally, with greater difficulty comes greater accolades.

Lordy!

Once you've conquered the single player – which consists of 35 missions, including deathmatches, basic puzzles and Ninja Rope and Jet Pack races – it's time to check out multi-player: With up to four teams – both online and locally – you can duke it out with friends in all the modes from single-player, obviously bar the puzzles, and with the addition of the self-explanatory Fort. You can tweak each mode to your needs, such as worm health, fall damage and weapon load-out, or you can simply set up a quick game which abides by the reasonable pre-set difficulty modes. During my many hours of online play I experienced none of the bugs that plagued the previous Live Arcade release, and so the riotous deconstruction of your enemy's HP can occur without hindrance.

Right On!

Each player's team is also customisable with their names, appearance and voice. Along with the all new sound effects, the variation and comedic value of the worms' voices is simply superb. The only problem is deciding which one to opt for as they're all stereotypical and highly amusing, as with the new-found hats. The coins you gain from completing campaign missions grant you the ability to purchase new headgear as well as weapons, maps and missions for your worms, and though essentially useless they provide a cheap source of comedy - the only regret being the minimal diversity. But let's hope some DLC will expand the current set.

Worms 2: Armageddon is also a fine looking game; a marked step-up from last year's version. You'd think there's little to improve on vibrant 2D graphics, but Team17 has upgraded both the particle effects and background complexity, giving a much greater visual fervidness. Splash effects look better; fire looks better (and burns for longer) and the teleport effect is just lovely.

I still miss the days of tinkering with Worms: Armageddon with The Fiddler, crashing my machine after setting the Banana Bomb to expel a thousand smaller bananas, forcing a reboot, but Worms 2: Armageddon is by far the best version since then, even if it has that console feel to its menus and depth of customisation. Why Team17 didn't just make this game the first time around instead of last year's abomination, I don't know, but it was worth the wait. Fortunately, this time it's actually worth looking into.