Worms 2

Released in 1997, I think that it is fair to say once you played Worms 2 there was no going back to the original game. Do not get me wrong, Worms was awesome, however, this game took things to a whole new level and in reality, laid the groundwork for what would follow with Worms Armageddon and even to what we have with the franchise to this day!

One Worm To Rule Them All

The idea of the game is the same as it was in the previous installment. We have warring teams of Worms and the idea is that you want your team to be the last one that is standing strong. I would say that Worms 2 is at its best when you are playing with people. However, to be fair the AI can put up a hell of a fight on higher difficulties. There is a lot of tactics at play here, but they never come at the cost of the fun.

Each of your worms has its own health bar and the idea is to kill the enemy worms. You can do this in a few ways most notably depleting all of their health with various attacks or knocking them into water.

Super Model Worms

With Worms 2 they changed the way the Worms looked. While today when we think of the Worms, we think of them as these cute and very personality-driven little characters. Well that all started here. The Worms here have a much more cartoon appearance than they did in the first game. I know that graphics should not matter in theory, but the fact that the Worms have far more personality now and they are able to express it more makes the game more fun.

The Perfect Arsenal

One thing that I have always loved about this series is the weapons. You have weapons that are based in reality. These are weapons such as a shotgun, a bazooka, and so on. However, it is the over the top more cartoony stuff that I love to use. A sheep that can blow up, a stone statue of a donkey that can crush other Worms, and a banana bomb are just a few of my personal favorites.

Make Your Own Worms

There is a lot of player customization options at play here. To start with you can make your own squad of Worms. You can pick the Worms you want and then you can give them names. This is something that you have to do when you are playing with your friends as it makes the matches so much more personality and you will get really invested in the battles even more.

I will admit that I am not really someone who dabbles in this kind of thing, but there is also a pretty impressive level editor for you to screw around with here too. Luckily one of my friends who I play this with loves this mode so he was always coming up with fun new levels for us to wage war on.

As far as the early games in the series go, Worms 2 is massively important. While I will admit that I do prefer Armageddon. This is still an awesome game and one that set the tone for what the series would become. It is a joy to play and it is just as much fun to play now as it was over 20 years ago!

Pros:

• I love how the Worms have a more cartoony look to them
• Plenty of awesome weapons to make use of
• The game overall looks much better
• The level editor is a great idea
• You can make your own squad of worms

Cons:

• I do feel that overall Armageddon is a better game
• You have to play with other people to get the best out of it

Now Worms 2 is here, with new things added and old things taken away. There's local network and Internet support now available for the posh office types among us, but it's the 'friends round' situation that still makes Worms 2 entertaining. In addition to the new weapons, a number of changes have been made to both the pre-game options and existing game accessories. Thankfully, for those of us who can't hack traipsing through numerous option screens before playing a game, there's a Quick-Start feature to love. On the other hand, for everyone who enjoys clicking on small arrows and sliding icons, there's an absolute plethora of new and improved options that makes reading the in-box pamphlet necessary.

There in body

With the default settings switched on, Worms 2 very much resembles its mother: a simple, enjoyable, frustratingly playable game that makes up in gameplay what it lacks in visuals. For beginners, with the patience to persevere and learn how to play, the thing is a joy, but for the seasoned professional, appeal only lies in its improved 'party trick' capabilities.

Build a team of up to eight worms, name them and let the fun begin. It is now possible to select computer opponents of varying intelligence with varying accents or languages, choose from six levels of screen detail (affecting the speed the whole thing runs at), or take on missions ala 'Worms: Reinforcements. The actual 'options' game menu resembles an encyclopaedia and appears to contain little more than a variety of switches and dials that change times and wind strength etc. However, closer inspection reveals some odd additions, such as a friction level setting (friction apparently being the reaction of Worms or weapons to the scenery). To list even half of the strings and pulleys and explain them in detail would be impossible in two pages, which to a certain extent is a failing of Worms 2, but does make reading the (informative) manual very important.

Of all its overbearing menus and options, it's the most basic looking and easy-to-use new filling to the Worms 2 cavity that's the most enjoyable. 'Graffiti' is the nickname given to the simple level designer included in the Worms 2 package. Select a brush size and you can have fun designing islands with crevices and caves to play on (or write words such as 'arse' in big letters and play on them like I did).

But not in soul

Strangely though, the old skool idea of being able to kill an opponent by knocking a worm off-screen is now impossible, for the simple reason that water always surrounds the computer/player designed arenas. The introduction of caverns has balanced this out, adding a new strategy element to Worms, simply because air strikes cannot be used underground, thus making sudden death a sometimes violent affair as the land begins to dwindle beneath your slimy team of soldiers. To cap it all, once a level's been chosen/designed, selecting one of 14 scenarios will instruct the computer to lump huge objects randomly around the land mass. While this is a nice idea the sheer size of these objects can often box one of your worms in, once you've run out of teleports and ninja rope.

The beauty of Worms I was that it didn't really matter that the graphics weren't exactly up to much. Quite why it wasn't left this way is a mystery. Instead the game has been redrawn and made to look like some kind of cartoon offshoot. The new-look Worms do ooze character and there are some lovely animated weapons, but now the Worms, objects and arenas are a bit too big. The view is a bit restricted because of this. It's while trying to aim at an opponent, that it becomes difficult to see where you're firing, and Worms 2 becomes annoying. With no 'zoom out' feature this often makes it a case of 'hit and hope' - leaving single-player games in some of the smaller caverns sometimes stultifyingly dull. It would be easy to describe Worms 2 as depicting an iconoclastic fraternity, deseminating ribald proletarian zealotry. For what it's worth I say this: big pictures spoil a potential classic. Which is a shame.

Overview

When I received Worms 2 in the mail a couple of weeks ago I thought to myself "Oh great, the shelves must be really bare at GameFabrique." To my surprise, Worms 2 turned out to be a very addictive and enjoyable piece of work.

The basic concept of the game is to either kill or be killed. Worms 2 is a turn-based strategy game where you control up to eight worms on a team and try to be the last team standing. As with the first game of the series, there are a multitude of different weapons at your disposal. There are the normal weapons, as the shotgun and minigun. Ho-hum. Then you also get the crazy weapons like the banana bomb and little old lady (who blows up after complaining for awhile). What could be more fun than blowing up your friends with a holy hand grenade or a mad cow?

Gameplay, Controls, Interface

Gameplay and controls for the game are so simple it took no time at all to master them. Firing the weapons takes a little practice because you get to control how hard the weapon is fired and the distance the projectile will fly. It takes a good eye and a little luck to hit your target right on the kisser.

A good move that I like to use is the bungee cord dynamite drop. If you do it right, you can bungee down the side of a ledge and drop a stick of dynamite beside a unsuspecting foe and then spring back to the ledge without getting hurt in the explosion. Not only is this maneuver effective; it also gets a little chuckle out of me every time I do it.

The only thing that I wasn't too fond of in the game was the fact that the computer opponents were a little too accurate with their shots. It would take me about two to three tries to figure out the wind velocity and get the power on the shot correct, while the computer seemed to get it right the first try.

Multiplayer

This game was meant to be played against other human players. It has support for up to five people on the same computer and up to six players on the net. If you want a fun party game to play, then this is the one for sure.

Graphics

The graphics are bright and fun to look at. Each background is drawn with a cartoonish theme, and I found them to be an original landscape to do combat on. I guess it is kind of neat to be able to play a game on a block of cheese or on a football field.

At the beginning of the game there are different cartoon movies that randomly play every time you start. They are humorous and entertaining as they show cartoon worms trying to do different things to each other.

Audio

The sounds in Worms 2 are humorous and lively. The worms always have a comment whenever you do something wrong or if you do something good. I can't count how many times I would try to play the game in peace when my son would hear it and come over to the computer to see if he could join in and kick my butt.

System Requirements

Pentium 75, Windows 95, 16 MB RAM, 2X CD-ROM drive, 50 MB hard drive, mouse
Recommended: Pentium 133, 32 MB RAM, 8X CD-ROM drive, 28.8 modem

Documentation

The documentation is fair. It tells you how to get started, but then you have to actually play to get the hang of a lot of the things that you can do with the worms. I learned most of my tricks by playing people on the Net who have been playing for a little longer than I have.

Bottom Line

In conclusion, I found Worms 2 to be fun, fun, fun. If you want a good game with a lot of replayability, this is the game for you. Once it gets a hold of you it won't let you go. But be warned, if you have a problem with staying up late and not getting much sleep then you might want to stay away from this title. The single player missions will keep you busy for awhile but you really haven't played the game until you get on the net and play against others all over the world. That is where the game really scores high.