I must admit I am surprised to see this game show up on the Xbox Live Arcade. It was only 2 months ago that Team 17 released a version of Worms for the PSN, which I thought was going to be the last Worms on consoles for quite some time. Well I am wrong as we now have Worms 2: Armageddon for the XBLA.
Worms 2: Armageddon is the ultimate Worms experience. Worms for the XBLA came out in 2007 and had minimal features and weapons; it was basically a gimped version of Worms. About 2 months ago Worms for the PSN was released and featured significant upgrades from the XBLA version, but still lacked some of the features that the PC Worms games offered. Well Worms 2 on XBLA has all of the features of its PC counterpart and more.
If you’ve never played a Worms game before you need to get out of your cave. And once you’ve gotten out of that cave you’ll see that Worms is a turn-based strategy game where teams of worms *usually 4 per team* battle other teams of worms. You have a variety of weapons at your disposal as well as environmental hazard to take advantage of. You take control of a different worm each turn until only one team of worms remains. That team is the winner.
The levels in Worms 2 now have a sense of verticality that was lacking from the previous Worms. Sure there levels that had two tiers, but it’s nothing compared to what we have with Worms 2 on XBLA. Levels can have multiple tiers, and the placement of your worms is now more important than ever due to the expanded size of the map.
Worms 2 has a lot of levels. New levels include a moon made of cheese, a construction level, and a level set in the medieval days. Team 17 claims that between all of the levels and their variants that there are 130 possible levels. You can choose to have a ceiling, multiple levels, narrow strips of land, water hazards, and more. There really is something for everyone.
Dead… All Dead…
Worms 2 also has a tremendous selection of weapons. New weapons include an extremely useful Sentry Gun, a Bunker Buster, an Electro Magnet, a Trojan Buffalo called the Buffalo of Lies, and the Super Bunker Buster. The sentry gun is good, and the more weapons the better, but there isn’t a whole lot of originality in these new weapons.
Other weapons in Worms 2 include the Super Sheep, the Concrete Donkey, the Napalm, the Petrol Bomb, the Holy Hand Grenade *a personal favorite*, the Parachute, the Drill, the Armageddon, the Baseball Bat, the Earthquake, and the Poison Strike. Most of the weapons appeared in the PC versions of Worms as well as the PSN version of Worms but it’s great to see them in the second version of Worms on the XBLA. As I noted the Holy Hand Grenade is awesome as is the Concrete Donkey. Oh and the Bat is quite possibly the most satisfying weapon to kill another worm with.
Each weapon has a different effect on the worm being hit. Some are a single explosion like the Grenade, some have homing abilities like the Homing Missile, some have small spread damage like the Shotgun, some have massive spread damage like the Banana Bomb, and some take out entire columns of worms and the environment like the Concrete Donkey. Also new to Worms 2 Armageddon is the ability to set things on fire. Certain weapons will set the ground on fire after exploding such as the Molotov Cocktail where any worm caught in the fire will suffer significant damage as the ground continues to burn below them.
Worms 2 features a large set of achievements as well as the ability to represent your team using your Xbox 360 avatar. There are several ways to customize your worms such putting sweet hats on them and giving them specialized voices and graves once they die.
Another big feature for Worms 2 is the single player. Worms on PSN had a short single player that basically amounted to an in-game tutorial. Worms 2 on the XBLA however has a fully fledged single player that consists of battles against worms controlled by the AI as well as puzzle like environments that your worms must traverse.
Worms 2 has a great online multiplayer mode for up to 4 people. There are leaderboards as well as leaderboard objectives. There are a ton of environments and customizable parts for your worms to unlock by playing the single player and multiplayer.
The 411
Hey I thought we agreed no chemical warfare?!
If you already own Worms on Xbox Live arcade or Worms on PSN than this $10 sequel might be pushing it. There are a lot of new features, especially if you only had the first XBLA version, but the fact remains that the core gameplay remains the same. Worms is Worms. The core gameplay remains the same. The new weapons and levels are fun but once again they don’t change the gameplay but rather the look of the game. If you don’t yet own a version of Worms than this is definitely the version to get but otherwise you’ll want to try out the free demo before deciding whether or not to buy Worms 2 Armageddon.
Graphics
8.5
Everything looks crisp and clean.
Gameplay
8.5
It is the best edition of Worms to date. There is nothing else on consoles that can compare.
Sound
5.5
Other than some generic elevator music and squeaky voices there is no sound to be found.
Lasting Appeal
8.0
If you have friends to play with or a subscription to Xbox Live than you will get some heavy mileage out of this one. The community is alive and well.
Fun Factor
8.5
If you enjoy Worms or turn-based strategy games than you are going to like Worms 2. If you do not, this will probably not win you over. But this game is for the fans.
