Worms 2: Armageddon Hands-on Preview
Posted by Russ Frushtick at 2:52PM in Xbox 360 | Comment!
After some missteps with Worms 3D and the first Worms: Open Warfare, Team17 is really getting back to their roots. Worms on XBLA was solid and Worms: Open Warfare 2 was one of the best entries in the series. The great trend continues with Worms 2: Armageddon on XBLA, which is already in Microsoft's certification and should launch in the next couple of months.
Worms fans need to know one thing: Worms 2: Armageddon was designed from the ground up for them in mind. Fan favorite weapons, maps, themes and features are all well-represented in this package. But we're getting ahead of ourselves...lets start with the basics.
The Physics
Worms on XBLA was good, but didn't feel like "classic" Worms. It was slower paced, with hardly any sliding or rocketing off after being blown up by a stick of dynamite. Jumping felt different, the ninja rope felt different...hell, just about everything felt different. Again, it wasn't bad...but the changes required Worms fans to relearn just about every tactic.
Worms 2: Armageddon has been designed to mimic the original Worms: Armageddon's physics as closely as possible. Worms slide after being hit by a shotgun on a slope. They bounce after a fall (unless they fall straight down, in which case they'll just stick into the ground). I've played enough Worms: Armageddon to know where you should fly after standing next to a mine, and Worms 2 mimics that trajectory exactly. Jump distances are the same, run speeds are the same, rope physics is the same. The developers know what people like about the franchise and have strived to match that in the XBLA version.
The Weapons and Items
I asked specifically to take a picture of the inventory screen while I was playing through the game, but Team 17's lead designer wouldn't let me, so I'll have to go off of my notes. The following weapons and items are in the game: Holy Hand Grenade, Super Sheep, Nuclear Bomb, Bunker Buster, Super Bunker Buster, Lighting Bolt, Earthquake, Shotgun, Minigun, Grenade, Cluster Grenade, Air Drop, Napalm Drop, Magnet, Auto Turret, Jet pack, Girder, Parachute, Mine, Dynamite, Baseball bat, Uzi, Fire Punch, Dragon Punch, Prod, Teleport. One new item is called the gas pump, which you can fire into tunnels, causing poison-giving gas to spread throughout. Take that, Dark Siders! Keep in mind, that's not everything...that's just all I was able to get down. In total the screen appeared to have about 40 open slots for weapons, including about 6 locked slots, which are apparently being saved for DLC.
Speaking of DLC, the current plan is to launch the game and then, some time after, launch a massive DLC pack which will add "a whole new way to play the game." No, it's not just a bunch of add-on themes.
The Graphics
Once again, Team17 went back to the drawing board here. Unlike the quasi-3D worms of the first XBLA release, these Worms look a bit smaller and more 2D (again, closer to the original PC releases). They're still fully animated and will even react with an awesome scream if an explosive is placed right next to them, but the smaller size seems to make them more maneuverable. The environments also have the classic, cartoon-inspired vibe to them.
The Modes
Worms 2: Armageddon will feature a single-player campaign with about 30 missions, with a mix of deathmatch and puzzle challenges. As you progress through these missions you'll earn cash which you can spend in the Worms store. The store houses a ton of customization options for your teams, including new voice packs, hats (returning from Open Warfare 2 PSP), colors (also returning from OW2), graves and winning cheers. You can also buy new, specifically designed maps (i.e. not just randomly generated).
Other modes include Rope Racing, Fort Battles and Crazy Crates (which starts players with hardly any items but spawns a ton of crates at the outset).
And then, of course, there's multiplayer. On and offline play has been enhanced with Avatar support (i.e. your avatar will pop up when it's your turn). There are rankings, of course, and the ranking system has been revamped from the last XBLA release, so as to encourage more skill and less luck, penalizing quitters and rewarding winners.
When Will it Be Out?
Worms 2: Armageddon is currently in Microsoft's certification process, which means that it's completely out of Team17's hands at this point (unless it gets rejected). The release date is really at the whims of Microsoft, but considering that the game is finished, the developers are hoping it'll be out before summer. Based on my time with the game, Worms 2: Armageddon is looking like it may be the best Worms game yet, so you can believe we'll be watching this one like a hawk.
