Review: Worms Collection

What’s better than having a copy of Worms on the 360 at your disposal? How about a copy of Worms 2: Armageddon with all the DLC? What about Worms Ultimate Mayhem too? Sounds perfect and thanks to the Worms Collection it’s now a reality.

When you first throw in disc you are prompted with a splash screen asking you which title you want to play, there is also a neat option giving you a chance to install all of the 6 DLC Packs for Worms 2, they take about 30 seconds each an then you can be on your merry way.

Let’s have a look at the games themselves. First up, the original, the classic, Worms. In case you didn’t know already Worms is a 2D strategy game where you control a team of 4 fearless worms take on other teams across randomly generated terrains. The objective? To dish out some pain to opposition using a wide range of weapons ranging from Bazookas, to Cluster Bombs to exploding sheep, there are loads of weapons missing from the PC days but there is more than enough to keep you going. Our poor little worms aren’t the greatest movers in the world and on top of the various treacherous terrains there are landmines and worse of all water to deal with. You can still make use of girders to help them reach those hard to reach places as well using their nifty little backwards flip to jump a bit higher.

This game is perfect for some pass the controller action between friends, especially as games against the AI can be quite time consuming, there is nothing more annoying than waiting 20 seconds for the opposition to decide they are going to pass. There is some online action to have too but you’ll have to hope for a lag free match and an opponent who quit as soon a something doesn’t go their way, a rarity on Live these days. The game still looks good though a bit more variety on the backgrounds would have been nice.

Worms 2: Armageddon is the original games bigger and prettier sequel and makes big improvements this time around. Control wise nothing has changed, the worms are still limited in their movement but they have bigger range of weapons to unleash on their enemies. This time a round they have much more personality and players can customise their team’s appearance and sound, there are a large range of dialects to choose from. I was always a big fan of the Cockney Worms (a’wight Guv’nor!). The game in general looks better too, backgrounds are less static and are more varied and after effects from certain weapons can cause your worms grief when your turn is over. For example exploding barrels will leave burning embers that will burn your worms if you get too close.

One thing Worms 2 does boast is a single player campaign which contains 35 missions, some are easy, but some are quite a challenge. Some levels require you win a deathmatch where there others require brain power as well as fire power as there are puzzle that need solving. It adds an interesting element to gameplay as well as giving the player a chance to learn more about the game. Completing stages provides you with cash you can use to buy new weapons and costumes.

The online side of the game is much improved too; four players can now take each other on via live or locally and there are now more game types to play too. Deathmatch is there as well as Forts and Race modes. Forts mode is just like deathmatch except teams are buried into their own forts so you’ll have to plan well to get to the enemy. Race mode however doesn’t require you to defeat your opponent but race to exit point in the shortest time possible. Again planning is key but it is quite a fun mode. Players can also customise their team just like in single player. The good news is that online experience is much improved. Leaderboards have been introduced so you can compare yourself to your online buddies and also check the achievement list and see how close you are to getting each achievement

If the huge single player and well executed multiplayer wasn’t enough, The Worms Collection is bundled with six sets of DLC, which is a lot in the world of worms. It’s all really good quality content too, all concentration on different parts of the game, for example the Battle Pack adds new weapon, doubles the size of the single player, brings in new forts and more speech customisation for you worms. Other packs include the Retro pack which will see missions picked from the original Worms title, there is also a forts pack, a puzzle pack, a mayhem pack and finally a Time Attack pack. Worms 2 is a big improvement on the original and was by far my favourite game in the package, it looks good, plays better and there is enough DLC to keep me going for a really long time.

The final game to make up the collection is Worms Ultimate Mayhem, which brings a whole new dimension to playing Worms. Ultimate Mayhem is made of Worms 3D and Worms 4. If you have played any of these game before little has changed, all of the story missions from Worms 3D (and most from Worms 4) are here with no enhancements or anything. There are six different modes for single player – quick match, two story modes, two challenge modes, and a tutorial. There are various mission types for you to encounter, such as defeating the opposition, stealing tools or destroying bases but thanks to the fiddly control system it doesn’t produce a lot of fun.

The game feels very slow and it isn’t help by how cumbersome our dirt loving friends are. It’s also fair to say they are pretty stupid, either the worms have perfect aim, taking you and your team out with the ease or they are blowing themselves up. If it isn’t the worms it’s the camera, it’s a bit of pain. You can move from third to first person view, but most of the time I was amazed if I ever got a shot near the opposition.

Of course the best experience of Worms is when you take it away from single player and head online. There are loads of maps to battle against your friends on, but matches could take a long time as you’ll miss each other more than anything thanks to the camera problems. Of course you can customise your Worms and teams, the usual host of outfits & new accents are there and as you complete missions you’ll earn coins to unlock even more.

The game looks good and the online handles well and if the camera problems could be addressed you would have a fun title here, but until then it’s a bit of letdown, especially for fans or the series.
Overall the Worms Collection is a great package especially if you don’t own any of the titles on the Xbox. Worms 2 is the icing on the cake especially with the huge amount of DLC available to you, and you know it will always be a ‘blast’ with your mates.

Review: Worms Collection Results