Team 17 are back with another one of their hugely successful Worms games, this time its called Worms 2: Armageddon which for those that follow the series will know was originally released on the PC ten years ago under the guise Worms: Armageddon. But fear not this is not just some old PC game ported over to the Xbox Live Arcade, this is probably the most feature packed version of the game yet with over 40 different weapons (some new, some old), updated HD graphics, new customization features and over 30 single player levels.But If that’s not enough there’s even achievements and a multiplayer mode that supports up to 4 players either over Xbox Live or Local Play. But do all these tweaks and new additions make Worms 2: Armageddon a Cop or a Flop read on to find out.
As soon as you launch Worms 2: Armageddon you are asked to create your own squad. The squad consists of 4 worms which you can customize to your hearts content with things like names, animations, grave stones, victory dances, colors and head gear. After you setup your team you are then greeted with the tutorial option which takes you through the basics of the game. Being a man who doesn’t like doing tutorial levels i chose to bypass the tutorial and head straight into the action.
As i said before the single player campaign features 30 missions with another 5 to unlock as you play throughout the game. Most of the missions are the usual beat the other team type missions with a few puzzle and timed maze missions thrown in to break up the monotony. After finishing a level you are rewarded with gold, which when you have collected enough can buy you new weapons, hats, landscapes, gravestones and those other five levels. To be honest the single player is what you would expect from a worms game, its fun for a while then it starts to become a little boring, the only reason i kept knocking out the campaign levels was to get enough gold to unlock all the stuff in the shop.
The whole Worms series is known for its weird and wacky weapons and this one is no different. There are over 40 weapons on offer including the welcome return of the fire based weapons from older games and the almighty Holy Hand Grenade. The vast selection of weapons available really brings the gameplay to life but as always a well placed shot from your trusty Bazooka can usually deal the most amount of damage to the enemy team. Overall i was pleased with the selection of weapons on offer, with my favorite destruction dealers being the exploding sheep and the Buffalo Of Lies, which not only damages your enemies but also causes damage to the environments, which is handy.
Now we move on to the multiplayer. Most of the game modes you should be familiar with from the single player campaign. The standard deathmatch is the games bread and butter but there are a few new modes available for you to play. These include Rope Racing, Crazy Crates and Fort. Rope Racing as you can probably guess involves racing through a series of mazes using only the grappling hook, Crazy Crates is much like the standard deathmatch but you begin with limited number of weapons and after each turn weapon crates drop from the sky and Fort is pretty self explanatory.
Fans of the series will no doubt love playing against other people through the various game modes but i found it rather boring. My main gripe with the online game was the 30 second time limit for each turn. I felt like i was waiting forever for other players to take there turn even when they standing right beside you.As for Lag, well it was virtually non existent and i had no problem finding other players to fight against.
Overall Worms 2: Armageddon is a good buy for fans of the Worms series but for your average player i suggest you look at another game in the vast Xbox Live Arcade library. The single player will no doubt become more of a chore than a fun filled explosion fest and the multiplayer can be frustrating especially when you encounter that one player who takes the full 30 seconds to decide what he is going to do.
