Worms Armageddon: A Nostalgic Review

Worms Armageddon is a classic game from '99 that derives some strategy and arcade concepts, and it has gained very positive reviews on various gaming magazines throughout the world. No wonder. Being the successor to Worms 2, it improved much. Nonetheless, it is still a fun game that you can play with the whole family and friends. Many interesting weapons to choose from, different schemes, colorful maps, speech banks and obviously single-player missions to accomplish should make it enjoyable for everyone. You can even play it online, I can guarantee that there will always be someone to join your host!

The game holds its weight even after over 15 years. Extremely fun, very challenging, and a lot of fun to play turn by turn with your spouse, children, siblings, friends, be it on LAN or on the same screen together taking turns.

It rivals Chess in its strategy, having so many different variables to use to conquer your opponent, and so many different ways to go about doing so. The campaign is fun and all, in my opinion, by my greatest pleasure has been playing with friends and family, and in my own time, playing progressive death match against the PC. Each game you win it gets harder and harder with the odds more against you.

Not to mention full custom course creation, as well as team creation. Name 8 team members and choose the team flag, their accent/voice, and their grave stones for when the lil' guys die for you, even choose the victory song that plays at the end of a match. Go even further and choose the amount of ammo you start with, what guns you start with, the time for each turn, round, match, falling damage on/off, mine timer duration, crate drop occurrence, power of each weapon (nothing better than having a bow and arrow cause more damage than a HOLY HAND GRENADE but seriously, this game gives very little limitation to creating the perfect match for you and your friends.

Gameplay:

Gameplay is where this game becomes a timeless classic, as it is more or less a game of chess with so much complexity. It feels like a turn based fighting game, as you need to take out the enemies, while holding favorable ground, and requires a lot of forethought. So many factors have effects on the outcomes of your actions.

Many weapons that have different effects, many of which make craters and are (sometimes) accompanied by a blast radius, and depending on how close you hit an opponent, and the incline of terrain they're on, and if there is any overhang or terrain features for them to bounce off, of if there are barrels and mines, the wind, the momentum of their inevitable flights and the possibility of sending one worm into another for a tackle, etc etc long run-on sentence.

There is so much to learn, so much to experiment with: I think this game should be available to all school computer labs for little kids just to give them all a good lesson in physics (as well as coming up with creative problem solving).

This game is really deep though, and it can actually be very daunting for someone who hasn't put the time to learn all the many facets of this game. Like learning the best digging techniques, how to be mindful of having the proper coverage at the end of your move to mitigate a too severe reprisal, efficient movement and how the terrain can be either helpful or detrimental (I hate you GRASS), how to take advantage of the pleasantly wonky ninja-rope physics, and more.

What Worms Armageddon Brings To The Table:

• Highly customisable matches, solo AND multiplayer (and with maps you can create using a built-in tool or some advanced free programs in the community);

• Huge arsenal of weapons (even compared to modern Worms games);

• Online Multiplayer (Yes! There're people still playing this 1999's game online. It's that good!);

• Local Multiplayer with up to 6 teams and 48 worms (Thanks to the 2010 upgrade);

• 33 solo missions that will gradually test your skills;

• A Training session that can help you a lot;

• A Deathmatch mode to entertain good players and make the hardened ones try to finish it;

• Extras and Rewards that are given to you as you complete trainnings and missions (and can be easily unlocked with mods, if you wish);

• Many, many, many Addons and Mods from years of community;

• Many (new) graphic options to suite your pc configuration (but it doesn't replace the classic art style);

The game received a big upgrade in 2010, is updated from time to time, and can run in all machines (Windows, Linux and Macs). If a problem occur (which in unusual) you just need a quick look on google to find a solution.

Pros:

• Timeless, humorous 2d graphics that make even the most gruesome worm death look funny.
• Rewarding turn-based game play that focuses on strategy and being careful. One small mistake can kill your whole game up.
• Randomly generated levels provide a new experience every single game, and if that's not good enough for you, you can even make your own levels.
• Customization options up the air you can set your team of worms to speak Chinese or even Polish for christ's sake. Although granted the Polish voice is annoying as heck.
• The soundtrack kicks ass even after 2 decades. There's nothing like sneaking around and setting a stick of lit dynamite under a worms ass while some super sexy bass line plays in the background.
• The developers, Team 17, still and I mean STILL support this game. It's 2016 and they're still releasing patches and fixes for this game man. Now that's dedication. This ain't like modern games where the devs abandon that after like 2 months. These guys are the real deal. Team 17, just for that, I'll let all of you bang my wife. Free of charge. You guys earned it.

Cons:

• The AI is infamous in this game because it blatantly cheats. Jesus Christ, I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to punch a hole through my monitor over the years because some smug computer-controlled worm threw a grenade across the level that just so happened to land right next to my worm. I can't really complain about this though because it just makes the game more challenging and fun.
  

Final Verdict:

95/100

Armageddon (and World Party) is the quintessential Worms game. Strategy, accuracy, creativity and fun all mix together. The weapons are varied and satisfying (or frustrating if you miss that carefully planned shot!). You can "git gud" and snipe someone with a bazooka from 50 meters away or you can play for the fun of it. Also, the ninja rope is witchcraft.

Customization is the game's biggest strength, letting you set everything from your team's accent and victory song to the rules of each round, the damage and scarcity of every weapon... lets you draw your own terrain or import it as a BMP. Lets you create presets of everything. A game that treats you like a PC gamer. And none of that "streamlining" or DLC or "consolidation" or "tabletisation" (I'm looking at you, Worms Reloaded.) It's the full package. It doesn't hold back to condescend to you or slowly squeeze your wallet.

I recommend this game to everyone, even if you're not a fan of the genre. At it's price and content, it has something for everyone!

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