Worms Armageddon

If you are searching for the ultimate Worms experience, look no further! It has a single player campaign, but in multiplayer, where this game really shines! Build your own map, customize your team, use all the silly weapons like the Old Woman, the Supersheep or the Concrete Donkey. Let the carnage begin! Hallelujah!

So what is Worms? I'm disappointed that you don't know, but hey, there's no time like the present to learn! Worms is a game where 2 or more teams of up to 8 worms, armed with bazookas and grenades, battle it out over a 2D, destructible map. Eliminating all enemy worms is the goal, achieved through either dropping their HP to 0, or knocking them off the map and into the waters below. During a match, players take turns using a single worm. The first part of a turn is spent maneuvering around the map; picking up stray item crates and setting up for the second part of the turn, using a weapon. The weapons are quite varied, ranging from the grumbling Old Lady, to the explosive Holy Hand Grenade. After selecting your method of murder, take a glance at the wind gauge, then line up the cross hairs and fire away! Sound like fun? Well it is! But remember, Worms is a game that shouldn't be taken too seriously. Worm positions and crate drops are random, and sometimes a little unfair. If you're not careful, you'll blow yourself up, or plummet to your death with a mis-spaced jump. That's all part of the fun though, and since a match lasts about 15 minutes you can always win the next one. When not playing you can keep busy tuning aspects of your team (including names, super weapon, sound-set, gravestone, flag, and victory anthem), creating maps to battle on, and tweaking match settings (like weapon power/distribution, crate drops, worm health/number, suddendeath type/length, etc) to the perfect mix (infinite ninja ropes ftw!) There's also a single player mode, but to quote Sgt Shultz "I know nothing, nothing!" I mean, with so many good single player games, why play a multi-player one by yourself? Why buy Armageddon in particular? It's certainly better than Forts or Worms 2, but I can't comment on the others as I haven't played them. Final Fun Fact: My username comes from this game. Once, in a hurry to get playing, I created a team with names Leonard 1-8. Guess who was the best?

This is the best version of Worms, with a still active MP base on Wormnet and still actively patched. If you're going to buy a Worms game this is certainly the one to get, for Online MP alone.

The common opinion among the "Worms" fans is that Armageddon is the "pinnacle of the series". Now, tis true that it was the first game in the series to feature the layout and customization used in later title, but for the most part, compared to "Worms World Party" for example, it differs little. The gameplay remains the same as in the entire series (shame on you if you don't know anything about it :P); the premise is simple - each player (up to 6 both online OR as hot seat) control a team of up to 8 worms and take turns in trying to annihialate the opposing teams (mind you, you can form teams with other players, playing 3 on 3, 2 on 4, 1 on 3 etc.). During the match crates are dropped that either increase your worms' health, provide accessories that make playing easier or contain new weapons (including super ones), which you can collect. Whoever has the last worm standing wins the round. Dependable on the setting, you can play just that one round or more. Not particularly complex, but it sucks you in, making you totally forget about the outside world ;) As with most titles in the series, Armageddon is highly customizable - you can choose which weapons are accessible to you (well, that is true for MOST weapons available - some super ones, like the Concrete Donkey or the titular Armageddon you'll just have to gain through crates, sorry). You can also greatly customize the setting for the match - the length of a round and turns in it, how many wins are required to be the ultimate victor, wether or not you can place your worms before the match or allow the game to do so randomly... the list goes on. Some features aren't provided (even to this day), like in stead of wins required to complete the game, I would personally prefer for the game to let me set an actual number of rounds (say 5, regardless to who wins each), but generally that is personal preference. The game retains its humorous take on the topic, providing players to pick voices for their teams, most of which are hilarious (you can have your worms talk like robots, gangsta or flirtatous women to name just FEW) and weapons themselves tend to be outrageous as well - you can send mad cows at your opponent, launch a flying sheep or sew chaos with exploding banana. The arsenal is wide and takes a bit of getting used to, but that's part of the fun. Compared to later titles, the game lacks features added later, though most of these are "flavour" rather than something ground-breaking; "Reloaded" for example allows you to give your worms a special, victory dance and put hats on them, while "World Party" pushes match customization even further, allowing you to add extra rules for its duration. All of it nice, but not particularly neccessary. Basically, few important changes were brought to the series after "Armageddon" (possibly the biggest ones being "Clan Wars" with worm classes and the recent "W.M.D." with vehicles, buildings etc.), so you can treat this game as the shining example of the best Worms has to offer. If you never played Worms than first - where the heck were you the past, couple of decades? :P Second - Armageddon is a good place to start. If you don't have any Worms' game, you MAY consider going for World Party (also available on GOG) as it provides the same experience, only slightly more customization. But which ever you choose, I don't think you'll regret the decision - Worms as a whole (aside from the 3D instalments) is tons of fun, especially if you have PEOPLE to play with you, cause that is where the series truly shines. Just don't take it too seriously ;)