The spineless and unassuming critters that star in Worms Armageddon epitomize the game itself. You'll quickly notice that the worms in this game are not as meek as they appear and instead are funny, ill-tempered, and wickedly clever. At about the same time, you'll find that while this game may look cute, it is in fact as sophisticated and enjoyable as the very best strategy games out there. It's also highly polished, easily customizable, accessible to all ages, and perfectly suited for quick spells and marathon sessions alike.
That said, it's true that Worms Armageddon isn't all that different from Worms 2. Though it includes an all-new single-player campaign and fully integrated online play, as well as over a dozen new weapons and gadgets for the worms to use, Armageddon looks, sounds, and plays similarly to the last episode, which means veterans of the series expecting something totally new will not find what they're looking for. And everyone else will wish Worms Armageddon offered even more, if only because it's as good as it is.
Worms Armageddon is easy to play and control, two factors that contribute immensely to the game's success. The typical skirmish pits teams of worms against each other, all randomly interspersed throughout some sort of exaggerated landscape ranging from garbage dumps to stacks of books. You take turns with your opponents, inching your forces into position one by one and firing upon enemy worms with an arsenal of weapons, from traditional (grenade, shotgun) to makeshift (baseball bat, blowtorch) to unorthodox (exploding old woman, skunk). The worms even know a few famous martial arts moves for good measure. Most worm weapons are absurd and amusing, and effectively serve specific functions. But since many do overlap in functionality, you can be selective and creative with your arsenal rather than feel restricted by it. You'll witness the events that transpire as the worms duel to the death via a traditional 2D platform-game side view, lending Worms Armageddon a readily approachable if misleadingly simple appearance.
So although it may appear as if that one worm over there just fired a bazooka at his enemy across the screen, aiming that shot was anything but trivial. A worm, not unlike a golfer, needs to take into account such elements as trajectory, wind direction, and power, and although shooting simply involves arrow keys and the space bar, hitting the target won't be quite so simple. Even seemingly fail-safe weapons, like homing missiles and napalm strikes, require skill and foresight to be used effectively. What's more, explosive attacks, such as the bazooka, vaporize the terrain around the targeted area, likely causing the worms in the vicinity to be flung about. It's often to your advantage to try to destroy the earth from under the feet of your enemies rather than target them directly, in an effort to send them careening into the water below, since worms can't swim.
Thanks to the game's sophisticated physics and damage modeling, the results of your attacks will often prove surprising no matter how accurate you think you are. Since maps tend to be strewn with explosives, and the worms themselves explode when they die, oftentimes the results of a successful strike are anything but predictable as an incredible chain reaction ensues. This tightly controlled chaos, together with the precise targeting system and plausible physics, is also essential to this game's success. And the automatic instant replay on especially unbelievable chains of events is a nice touch.
