Armageddon: A decisive or catastrophic conflict. What could be more catastrophic than the ongoing battle between teams of Worms? The latest offering by Team17, Worms 2: Armageddon is now on PSN and it brings an array of modes, with a full campaign; several multiplayer gametypes; a shop with upgrades; online leaderboards and hours of fun to be had. Don’t be fooled by the fact that this is a downloadable title; it’s the biggest Worms game yet.

This is still the same old Worms that we’re used to but it’s improved. If you aren’t aware of what Worms actually is then… shame on you! It’s a turn-based game where you have to control a different member of your elite team of worms each turn, using the tools and weapons provided within the time limit to cause as much carnage at possible.

The first thing that you’ll do when you start the game up is create your own team of worms, customising the team name, worms’ names, colours, hats, voices and even the fort that they’ll use in some modes. There’s tons of hats to choose from, some just plain funny and others that look simply awesome, such as the Helghast helmet or Sackboy head. The voices are hilarious, with a great variety of voices to suit your teams’ needs.

Once you’ve assembled team of worms, you can either play through the campaign, some local multiplayer or jump online for a game or two but you’re probably better off playing the tutorial, unless you’re a Worms veteran. The campaign is great; there are 35 levels of mayhem to play through, which can be completed in a few hours, or it can end up taking several hours, depending on your skill level. You’ll encounter easy levels at first, where you’ve got much more health than the enemies but you’ll get to some extremely frustrating levels as you get closer to the end, where you’re outnumbered ten to one and you have to think tactically to defeat the opposing army of worms.

Puzzle levels are dotted around the campaign, in which you’ll have to get your worm to the exit point with limited weapons. These need a good strategy, such as in the first one where you’re stuck to the spot and you actually have to use a mine to blast your worm to the exit. There’s also levels where you have to race to the exit before the time runs out, using a Ninja Rope or a Jetpack. Sadly, if you get stuck on any of the levels, there’s little variety in the way the enemy worms attack, as long as you’re sticking to the same tactics.

After completing a campaign level, you’ll be awarded with money which you can spend in the shop. You can buy new hats to customise your team and show off online, weapons such as the Holy Hand Grenade; Concrete Donkey or the fabled Armageddon, different landscapes for fresh gameplay, forts for the Fort multiplayer mode and you’ll have to purchase the last five campaign levels to play them.

The weapons themselves are fantastic, there’s the classic bazooka, grenade and shotgun; the über powerful (and also hilarious) Holy Hand Grenade, Banana Bomb and Super Sheep; then there’s Armageddon. This fires meteors and destroys everyone that isn’t right at the bottom of the level, so it can only be used when you feel the need to absolutely end the match, and it’s very rare to come across. Sadly, some of the weapons that you have to aim (such as the Homing Missile) are hard to get an accurate shot with, as the controls are very sensitive.

The multiplayer brings the awesome gameplay of Worms to the online battlefield, or just to your room with some friends. It’s a great alternative to the campaign, as the AI doesn’t make simple human errors, or take everything it can see into account (although it tries very well). There’s several modes to play, with either ranked or unranked options. The best of these modes is the Crazy Crates, which is the standard Worms gameplay, but around four crates will drop between each turn, containing random weapons, tools, or just being a health pack.

Standard mode is simply standard Worms gameplay. Then there’s Pro mode, in which you have less time each turn and limited weapons, for people who enjoy playing Worms competitively. Fort mode is very interesting, as you choose a fort for your team as you’re creating it, then you’ll have to fight – fort to fort – with the enemy team. Other forts can be purchased from the shop, as mentioned, and it’s really up to you to work out which fort provides the best defence.

Ranked modes are always two teams but unranked modes and local modes can be played with up to four teams. The only other difference between ranked and unranked or local is the Rope Racing mode, which can’t be played in a ranked lobby. You have to take turns using your Ninja Rope to get to the end and if you fall, it’s the other player’s turn. The person who gets there in the quickest amount of time wins. The only downfall of the multiplayer mode is the fact that the online modes sometimes takes a few more seconds to load between turns but it’s very smooth otherwise.

Leaderboards are present but sadly only for the online part, so there’s no competition in trying to get the fastest time in a campaign level. The game sounds great, with all the worms’ dialogue being hilarious and spot on, although the music sometimes cuts out and restarts if you’re taking a long time in a level. It looks good, too. It’s really fresh and has lots of vibrant colours. The level design is another thing that’s spot on. If you like Worms, and you’re wanting a updated version that’s almost enough to be a disc-based game: buy this.

Pros:

• Full campaign, feels like a full disc-based game
• Great customisation and choices of voices for your worms
• Multiplayer is sublime
• Fantastic variety of weapons

Cons:

• It’s still just the same Worms gameplay
• AI isn’t always smart

Worms 2: Armageddon is basically the same Worms game that you’ve been playing for years, with tons of content thrown into the mix. There’s a lot of variety in every part of this game, and it meets the price tag. It’s the best version of Worms I have ever played, and there’s hours of content for people to enjoy. The multiplayer modes are great and the campaign is lengthy and varied. There’s really nothing unforgivably bad about Armageddon and the conflict is top-notch.

Score: 9/10