Gamename: Worms 2
System: PC
Score: 9
Review:
Game: Worms 2
System: PC
Score: 9/10
Reviewer: aneurysm

Another classic game from a classic (if not slightly over-milked) series of games. Worms 2 is the sequel to Worms and is in essence the same game; you still control a team of worms trying to annihilate any opposition, you still have a large arsenal of weird and wonderful weaponry and you still wonder what the guys at Team 17 were smoking when they thought this beauty up…

Gameplay: 95%
So you are the commander of a team of up to 8 (amusingly named) Worms and your mission is to be the last team standing. The worms are spread across an island or in a cavern with your opposition and you must make use of weapons (for example; exploding sheep) in an attempt to kill off the enemy worms. Each worm has a certain number of hit-points that can be lost through being hit by exploding weaponry, burns and falling long distances. You can play against other teams on your computer, either computer controlled or manually controlled or you can play over the internet (once you’ve downloaded the patch). There is also a series of single-player missions in which you battle against the computer.
The number of different weapons is endless and each weapon is unique: a bazooka and a grenade will do the same amount of damage if they land in the same place but the bazooka is affected by the wind and the grenade is not, also the grenade has a timer (up to 5 seconds) and the bazooka doesn’t. There are variations on real life weapons; the homing pigeon is a more accurate homing missile and the ‘mail strike’ is an Air Strike affected by the wind. Then of course there are the made up weapons such as the ‘Super Sheep’; a sheep that when you press fire a second time is given super powers and can fly, you then fly him to an enemy and blow him to smithereens. There are certain ‘secret weapons’ which will only appear in battle including my personal favourite; the Concrete Donkey…

Storyline: 70%
Although there are single player ‘missions’ there is no real plot to these, you simply fight the CPU controlled teams in progressively harder battles. The only essence of story is in the codes needed to access each level; when written out the codes tell a story.

Graphics: 95%
The graphics are two-dimensional graphics, almost platform game style. The scenery is big, bright and cartoon-like and the worms are cartoon worms. The animation is smooth on a fast enough computer, however I have found when running Worms 2 on my old 486 the animation was very jerky.
There is a variety of graphic’s schemes for the levels ranging from ‘Sports’ to ‘Cheese’, these schemes change the look of the land and the objects found strewn across it. While in a game you can toggle the background detail from a black sky with one layer of water to a gradient sky, many layers of water, another landmass visible on the horizon and falling objects (affected by the wind).
Even though this game is a few years old it is still very good graphically, the later Worms games have done very little to improve the graphics since Worms 2.

Music and Sound: 100%
The in-battle background music is the kind of music that you don’t notice as you are playing the game. It does what background music should, stays in the background, which is good. There are several different tracks played in the background and I don’t find them in any way annoying or overly repetitive.
The sound effects, in my opinion, are one of the best parts of the game. There are many different (high-pitched) voice-schemes which you can give to your worms which mock certain accents or people, my favourite is the Sean Connery piss-take Double-Oh-Seven. Each scheme includes dozens of witty comments, insults and observations which your worms will make at appropriate times in battle. Also the sound effects of the weapons are quite comical, the ‘Baaaa’ of a Sheep or the mumbling of an Old Woman before she is detonated, blowing a huge crater into the land and (hopefully) send a few worms into orbit.
Another great thing included in this game is the ability to record and save your own voice-schemes to give to your worms. Yes you can make your worms squeal obscenities at each other!
I couldn’t ask for any more form this game musically or sound-wise.

Replay: 95%
Everything in the game is fully customisable, you can generate your own terrains by typing in a terrain code, simply click ‘Random Terrain’ or design your own terrain in the ‘Terrain Editor’. You can also customize and save your own weapon and option schemes and of course there is always Internet play. All of these guarantee that it’ll be a long time before you tire of Worms 2.

Mean Rating: 91% (9/10)