Worms 2: Armageddon 360

Neil Aldis' review of Worms 2: Armageddon. Subscribe to this column via RSS or Newsletter.

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Column:
Multiplayer Gamer

Format:
360

Genre:
Fighting

Style:
Turnbased
Competitive
Cooperative

Written on:
17/02/2010

Worms has been enthused over since it's original, multiformat version arrived in the mid 90s. It's a bone fide classic beloved by armchair generals the world over, but is this latest installment worth adding to your multiplayer collection?

This was meant to be an opportunity to go back in time and relive my golden days of videogaming when all night sessions were par for the course. When five hours of Worms on a Monday night with an eight o'clock start the next morning was nothing out of the ordinary. But that was back when online console gaming wasn't even a pipe dream. If memory serves me well I have played Worms on the Amiga, Megadrive and PS1 Ð we even played it on work PCs back in the 90s when no one was looking. It's like riding a bike, I thought, once you learn you never forget.

And in many ways it was exactly like that bike riding maxim. Only the bike had one wheel, half a handlebar and a seat made out of fork tines. Sure, I thought I'd be a little rusty, but I didn't factor in the expert nature of my opponent's skills.

I knew I was in trouble the first game I played when the lobby informed me that my opponent had played over 200 online games and had won 135 of them. My score was 0 and 0. Five minutes later that had turned into 0 and Ð1. And it went on like that.

This losing streak shouldn't have been too much to handle, it's only expected that I'd need some combat experience before I could feel comfortable with the game. Except I'd forgotten just how frustrating and humiliating Worms can be when you're on the losing side.

For those who don't know, Worms, and Worms 2 Armageddon, is a 2D, turn based war game in which you command a team of four nematodes with a kit bag of weapons at hand to deploy against your enemies. With up to four players allowed on the same map at any given time, you need your wits about you Ð death comes from every direction.

Perhaps with enough time per go I would have had a better chance at winning, but turns last 45 seconds, and they usually turn out to be the most panic filled 45 seconds videogaming has to offer. There are two skills you need to master if you're to succeed with Worms: using the ninja rope, whereby you swing from a cord, picking up weapons crates and health boxes, dropping dynamite on your opponents and reaching those hard to get to places; and being able to throw a grenade properly. Wind speed, direction and fuse length all play a factor in grenade tossing, and it takes a lot of practice to get this right. Getting it wrong means death.

Half an hour after firing the game up I had lost every match and become a ball of raging fish bait hanging off the edge of the sofa. Half of me was mad at my own inadequacies and the other half was spitting daggers at my opponent's warrior class worms.

There is just no way you'll be able to pick this game up and get a half hour's worth of gaming pleasure from the online content. You need about four to eight hours of solo practice before you could begin to challenge any internet players. And the truth is that playing Worms alone for four hours just isn't going to happen. Plus, every single player I came across had played over 100 online games Ð half of them saw my puny stats and left the game before it started. Which means, unless you have a penchant for humiliation, Worms 2 Armageddon is best left to those with the time and dedication to master it. It is a great game, a classic in every sense of the word, but it is not to be taken lightly.

Best Multiplayer Moments

Getting together with some old adversaries to play our own, private, can't remember how to play this, suicidal worm fest game.

Multiplayer Verdict

Worms is made for multiplay, but the truth of the matter is that you'll need to log a lot of gameplay hours before you can take on the online competition. Getting just one shot wrong can snowball the frustration into avalanche proportions very quickly. There aren't that many games going on anymore, only the hardcore remain.

Game People family video game reviews support Association of Family Gamers. They also offer niche and anecdotal dad, mum, teen and senior video game reviews.

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