Worms Collection – Review
In 1995 the world was introduced to it’s first heavily armed… worm. A lot of us will have seen these little mischiefmakers while growing up and now we get the chance to relive some of those moments yet again. Worms collection has been released by Team17 for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 and the package will include 3 games and a decent amount of extra DLC for Worms 2: Armageddon. Worms and Worms2: Armageddon offer us the old 2d action in a new coat, yet Worms Ultimate Mayhem offers us a new 3d experience.
Note: All games were already available seperately.
Story:
The story in all the worms games tends to be pretty much the same. Your worm army has to kill or sabotage the other worms army. (sabotage tends to mean kill too) Worms and Worms 2: Armageddon tends to show us simple text screen with some extra information about the campaign and that’s basically it.
Worms Ultimate Mayhem on the other hand treats us to some cinematic clips to get the ‘storyline’ going. All in all not that much attention is payed at the overall storyline. But then again, aren’t Worms shooting each other with bazooka’s and exploding grandma’s already awesome?
Graphics:
Worms and Worms 2: Armageddon offer us almost the same look when it comes to the style and overall appearance of the game. The maps look very pretty and you get to choose out of loads of themes (which aren’t that extra-ordinary I know but still the extra options are nice!) which can be chosen when playing custom matches and most of them will appear during your campaign aswell to go with the ‘story’. Your army of worms looks great and has enough emotions to keep you entertained for a while. Worms offers us a lot of extra options to even customise our worms. (skin color, hat, tombstone, …) All in all small option but they tend to make a huge difference to add up to the attractiveness of the game.
Worms: Ultimate Mayhem takes all of the above and does an effort to offer us the same atmosphere as the Worms games as we know them. The succeed, for the most part that is. There are still a clear amount of glitches and the areas tend to feel a lot more empty than their 2d counterparts. Don’t get me wrong, there are enough obstacles or things to climb on… but it’s missing something I can’t put my finger on. It’s probably the feeling of not being used to having a lot of empty spaces in the 2d games.
Sound:
All 3 games have their own decent soundtrack, with many sfx that get recycled through many of their games. The music never gets old or annoying and the voices of our worms tend to stay entertaining during the many matches. (and you will play many!) The costumisation that was spoken of earlier also counts for the voices of your worms. You get to choose out of tons of voices to suit your personal army of worms. The sfx of the weapons aren’t too shabby either. Again the 3d version offers us with a little less options when it comes to picking your favorite voice and tends to have a little less quality when it comes to the overall sound, but still no reason for any complaints.
Gameplay:
The overall goal in all worms is the same, you try to wipe out the enemy team of worms with the weaponry you have or collect throughout the match. Each team takes turns in controlling one of their worms to try and eradicate an enemy worm. Your turn will only last around a minute so you will have to make haste to position yourself and make a proper attack. To make a decent attack you will have to learn to work with all the weapons the game has to offer because some of them have different ranges, they have to be thrown, are dependant of the windforce, have a timer, etc… A decent challenge to master all the weapons in the game, especially when you are offered weapons such as exploding sheep, banana bombs or even Ye Olde Art of the baseball bat.
In Worms and Worms 2: Armageddon everything works as it should, moving around is easy (though the ninja rope and jumps are hard to master) and taking aim works as it should. These games consist out of basic deathmatch action for up to 4 players. (on 1 screen, which is rare nowadays) Worms2: Armageddon is pretty much the same games as Worms but offers us a lot more when it comes to weaponry and extra game modes. But that being said the extra game modes in Worms 2 are pretty much the same as a normal Deathmatch with some extra weapons or a little difference when it comes to starting positions. (For example forts is the same as deathmatch but both teams start on a different island.) There is also a mode called ‘Ninja-rope’ which is simply getting through a level by using your ninja-rope taking as less time as possible. Not really the reason you’d buy the game but it’s certainly a fun thing to try when playing with friends.
Worms: Ultimate Mayhem pretty much works as it should work aswell except for some minor details which can turn out to be very annoying. During my playthrough I’ve gotten stuck several times on a flat surface and even jumping did not help in freeing my worm. Only hoping to get shot by the enemy team seemed to be the only solution at those times. Quite a big bug that should not be in a game like this. Also something which is a lot harder to get the hang of than the 2d games is aiming with a weapon where the projectile fires with an arch. (Bazooka, grenades, …) It’s amazingly hard to calculate the distance and the correct amount of power needed to make the shot. (After quite some time you will get the hang of it… more or less… kind of…) Then a minor thing that annoyed me, but it might be something personal. To aim with a weapon you can switch to first person view, but when you release it you go back to third person. Minor detail but it would have been so much easier to make you aim and adjust everything without holding that extra button. Like the 2d games Worms: Ultimate Mayhem offers us with different modes than deathmatch but all in all they are a fancy way of saying go and kill each other in a different way.
Conclusion:
Worms collection is a must have for the real Worms fans out there but if you are doubting just to buy a single game out of the pack, Worms 2: Armageddon is the best choice. Worms 2: Armageddon will keep you occupied the longest.
Worms Collection - Review,
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