Worms Armageddon
Published By: MicroProse

Reviewed by Strider
08/31/1999

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First Impressions:

Worms Armageddon is a turn-based strategy game, in which teams battle across unique, randomly generated landscapes or custom designed levels. Each team of 1-8 worms takes turns trying to annihilate the opposing team, using a vast array of weaponry and special utilities. Currently a PC game, versions for Sony Playstation, Sega Dreamcast, Nintendo 64, and Colour Gameboy are in the works.

When I first heard a description of Worms Armageddon from Trillian, I was very interested in giving the game a try. Little did I know that this is at least the third?? installment of the Worms series. It is a shame that this game can only be found in the dustiest corner, at the lowest shelf, of Electronics Boutique. It truly deserves shelf space next to the best games in the store.

Graphics:

The graphics are zany and cartoon-like, as you can probably tell from the screen shots on the right. If you have a good enough video card, you can play the game at resolutions up to 1024x768, although the highest resolution setting makes the worms to small on a seventeen inch monitor for my tastes (On the other hand, you can see more of the map, which helps in targeting opponents that are farther away).

The single player game uses over 30 custom maps, while the multiplayer game uses over 30 backgrounds and many different terrain's to randomly generate a virtually unique battle ground for each game. If that's not enough, you can also use the included terrain editor to make your own maps, or download additional terrain's from the Worms Armageddon website.

To summarize, the graphics suit the whole premise and style of the game to a tee. However, it would have been nice if the terrain's and backgrounds had more detail. As you might have surmised from the minimum requirements, Worms Armageddon was designed to be run on both low and high end machines. Still, it would have been possible to provide higher detailed maps/terrain's for higher end machines.

Sound:

There are 11 ambient sound tracks that you will hear in the game. Each one has a slightly mysterious, spacey feel to it. The sound tracks are just enough to fill in the empty spaces, but not so obtrusive as to become repetitive or annoying (I can still humm Mario Brothers to this day). You won't be turning the speakers down, even after playing for many hours. Well done!

As the next section will explain in more detail, you create your own customized team of worms. One of the ways that you can customize your team is by choosing a language that your worm team will speak. To get an idea of the options available, you can select languages that range from Angry Scotts to Whoopsie.

Gameplay:

Before you start to play, you should create your own customized team of worms (a team has 8 worms). The customization allows you to name your team, name each individual worm, pick custom sounds for your team, choose a special weapon for your team, and more. Once the game starts, both teams are positioned on the map in various locations. Using the terrain, your weapons, and other utilities, you do your best to kill your opponents worms. Each worm has an energy level, with different weapons inflicting varying levels of damage. Unless you set the initial energy level to something below the default, it will take at least two good shots to kill one worm.

You have quite a range of weapons at your disposal, from the grenade to the sheep launcher. In fact, you have 31 normal weapons to choose from, as well as 1 of 8 special, extra deadly weapons. In addition to weapons, you have various utilities you can use to help mobilize your army of worms. Some of these utilities include the jetpack, the teleporter, the bungi cord, the parachute, and the ninja rope. Normal worm movements include forward jumping, back flips, and walking. No matter where you start on the map, you can always find a way to move around.

It's quite easy to blow yourself up, especially with the special weapons, so expect to be your own worst enemy at first. Hint: keep the manual close at hand so you can learn how to use each weapon.

Enjoyment:

Wow! This game is so fun, addictive, and easy to play that you'll find yourself disappearing in your computer room for hours on end. The first night you bring this game home, dinner will get cold. It must have taken me twice as long to write this review, because I kept finding myself playing against the computer for just "one more" quick match. You'll find that the maximum amount of enjoyment comes from playing against human opponents. Read on to the next section for details on the options available for multiplayer.

Multiplayer:

Worms is best enjoyed when played against human components. After a couple of hours I found the most difficult CPU opponent to be fairly easy to beat. Because the game is turn-based, you can have multiple players using only one computer. This mode of operation is called "hotseat". After each turn a timer starts (configurable), that gives each person a chance to get settled before the turn timer begins. Both IPX and TCP/IP protocols are supported for network gaming.

Connection to a free, online league is also provided with the game. The whole process of joining the online league is simple. There are two "main" leagues, a professional and amateur league, as well as a number of other "channels" that host various other Worms Armageddon games. As you win over other opponents in the amateur league your ranking increases, until you eventually earn your way to the professional league. If you are into multiplayer, you might want to download the updated list of sites hosted by Hasbro Interactive.

Overall Impression:

It could write a small book on the range of parameters and customizations that can be made to Worms Armageddon. If the options available are not enough within the game, you can download a program that gives you even more access to game parameters. I think I've already mentioned how fun and addictive this game can be, and I have not really had much negative to say.

My major gripe with Worms Armageddon is that a couple of areas of the interface are far to un-intuitive for my tastes. It took me and a friend over a half hour to figure out how to setup a IPX lan game. Maybe we were both having a bad day? Luckily, setting up a game across the Internet using TCP/IP was a breeze.

This I can say for sure, you must read the manual to understand how to fire configurable weapons like the grenade or use utilities like the bungie cord. I'm embarrassed to say how many times I killed myself before realizing you must press and hold the space bar down to launch grenades (the longer you hold the space bar, the harder you throw the grenade). It would have been SO simple to include weapon/utility operation instructions along with the weapon/utility list within the game. Say a status bar at the bottom perhaps? "To launch, depress spacebar, choose numbers 1-5 to set delay...". There are a couple of more interface issues I could gripe about, but I think I've said enough.

Marketing Efforts Towards Women:

To any biologists out there, do worms have a gender? Seriously, this game should appeal to a broad range of demographics and to either the hard-core or newbie gamer.

Cheats, Hints, and URLs:

Goto the worms home page: http://worms.team17.com/loband.html

Download the demo here.