Worms 2

Published by Sold Out Software
Designed by Team 17
PC CD-ROM
Out Now
Price £4.99

Games should be fun, simple to pick up and play and have enough depth so that in many ways you can never master the game completely. All too often today the games are either too difficult for the casual gamer to get into or are that easy that you get bored of winning with almost no effort at all. An example of what a fun game should be can be found in Team 17's Worms 2.

Taking the DOS based Worms and revamping it really paid off for Team 17. The visuals improved no end and luxuries such as parallax scrolling made the whole experience far more satisfying than the original game. In fact it is fair to say that Worms Armageddon and Worms World Party, which followed Worms 2 did little to improve the game and simply offered more gameplay features/variations.

The basic idea of Worms is to take a small team of maniacal worms, place them on a bizarre backdrop such as a mountain of cheese or giant letters and then try to get them to annihilate the rival team of worms. Combat is turn based (you get sixty seconds per worm to carry out an attack) and your worms' arsenal consists of incredible weapons such as the Holy Hand Grenade, the Banana Bomb and the Mad Cow.

The game is absolutely fine for deaf gamers. The only speech within the game is the taunts that are given by the worms. These taunts range from evil laughs to remarks like 'stupid' when you've missed one of the rival worms. These taunts aren't subtitled but to be honest they add very little to the gameplay and can get repetitive for hearing gamers. You do get text phrases such as 'Baz now sleeps with the fishes' after you've knocked a rival worm in the water and for me these comments are better than the taunts are far less repetitive.

All in all Worms 2 is a game everyone should own. Only if you own Worms Armageddon or Worms World Party should you not seriously consider this game. Worms 2 improves on the original game in every single way and is an absolute must at the small asking price of £4.99. With a Pentium 75 as the minimum requirements for the game it is there for everyone to enjoy and enjoyment is something you'll get a lot of from Worms 2.

Recommendation: Highly Recommended. An essential purchase.
Suitability for deaf gamers: Suitable. Only worm taunts are not subtitled.

Overall Game Rating: 4.5/5