Worms 4: Mayhem
Posted November 6, 2005
The Worms series has been a staple of the strategic player's collection for years now, and like clockwork, developers are churning out more updates to the series. The latest is Worms 4: Mayhem, another foray into the third dimension.
For the uninitiated, Worms is a game series that essentially takes small fire teams of worms, and arms them to the teeth with weapons ranging from baseball bats and grenades, to cluster bombs and sniper rifles, and pits one team against another in a last worm standing battle. The battle takes place in a turn based fashion, with teams alternating attacks on one another. It's not as simple as pointing a cursor at another team and firing, because here you have to take the wind, and all three dimensions to account when lining up for the shot.
Gameplay:
Worms is best played with a friend, or friends. But of you don't have any pals available to play with, Worms 4 offers you a fair number of options to keep yourself entertained alone. The main way to play by yourself is through Story Mode, which basically has your selected team of Worms working their way through multiple levels, taking on other worm teams. The story is a loose thread based around the premise your team is heading out on field trips (you're in university), taking on other teams. Basically, the story mode is an excuse for more maps to play on.
Multiplayer mode is where you would probably spend the most amount of time, if you are a Worms fan. Here you can select from different game types, like Deathmatch, destruction and survivor to name a few. Up to four people or teams can play at once, and yes there are options to play this mode against the CPU, so if you don't want to sit through story mode and just want a quick battle, you can take on the CPU here. Also, you can take the game on Xbox Live and duke it out with other Worm-heads in the various multiplayer modes. Live play is actually decent when you find a good couple people to play with.
The final method of play is Challenge mode, where you can select different challenges to attempt in a time limit. Challenges range in task from collecting crates using a jetpack, to being able to eliminate a specific number of targets with a sniper rifle in 2 minutes. As you progress through challenge mode, you unlock more difficult challenges, and not just difficult because of muddy sluggish controls either.
Yes, the controls are very sluggish and make the game move along very slowly. Worms by nature are not fast moving animals, but for Pete's sake, why can't they move at a decent clip in a game. To help position your worm for an attack can sometimes take a couple minutes, and if you need to jump to get somewhere, be prepared for the ultimate in frustration. If you are standing too close to where you want to jump to (up a wall or ledge), sometimes you'll bounce backwards which can lead to a large fall which causes damage, or worse you could fall into water and die instantly. Even aiming your weapon of choice is a frustrating experience with the controls mapped to button that seem very unnatural, and more than I care to mention I ended up canceling my attack turn because of pressing the wrong button at the wrong time.
While playing you earn points which can be used in the Worms Item Shop, a place where you can unlock new maps, multiplayer game styles, or even costumes for your worms. You want them to wear Groucho glasses for the next battle? You can do it here, providing you want to spend your points on that. Also for the collectors, you earn trophies during play for accomplishing certain feats, such as landing a "4 bagger", where you take out four worms with a single attack, or a massive damage trophy for causing massive damage to the map.
Graphics:
Looking at the graphics for Worms is actually quite nice. The game takes on a cartoonish tone with the nicely colored cell shaded approach. This fits is very well with the overall Worms theme (Worms with guns). The maps were not enormous by any means, but what was there was detailed enough to keep your eyes treated. The worms are cute little fellows, outfitted from the get-go with afros, mustaches and cowboy hats. They are animated quite well too, with giggles and reactions to being hit with a blast.
Audio:
One thing was really odd here was that Worms use their own language, which is even worse than the simlish that the characters in the Sims use, and to make matters even worse, you can't skip over scenes with talking, even if you've finished reading the captions.
The accompanying music and blast sound effects were effective in capturing the feel of the game, and aside from the sub-par "voice" work, I have no complaints with the audio.
Conclusion:
Marred by sluggish gameplay, I personally found Worms 4: Mayhem to be unenjoyable, even when playing with friends online or in my own home. The load times between maps is dreadful for a game of this type, the developers really should have tried to speed this up to get people back into the game that much quicker.
The biggest thing Worms 4 has going for it is the level of customization that it offers. You can create new worm teams, game types and even weapons for use in the game. If you want a helicopter to come in for an air strike that consists of a payload of cheese that pummels the opposition, you can do it here.
Overall though, I found the game far to slow and the controls far too finicky on the Xbox to be enjoyable. It could be much better suited to the PC, as the mouse is way more accurate than the control stick for aiming but with the equipment available, this game doesn't get a passing grade from me. Skip it.
For the uninitiated, Worms is a game series that essentially takes small fire teams of worms, and arms them to the teeth with weapons ranging from baseball bats and grenades, to cluster bombs and sniper rifles, and pits one team against another in a last worm standing battle. The battle takes place in a turn based fashion, with teams alternating attacks on one another. It's not as simple as pointing a cursor at another team and firing, because here you have to take the wind, and all three dimensions to account when lining up for the shot.
Gameplay:
Worms is best played with a friend, or friends. But of you don't have any pals available to play with, Worms 4 offers you a fair number of options to keep yourself entertained alone. The main way to play by yourself is through Story Mode, which basically has your selected team of Worms working their way through multiple levels, taking on other worm teams. The story is a loose thread based around the premise your team is heading out on field trips (you're in university), taking on other teams. Basically, the story mode is an excuse for more maps to play on.
Multiplayer mode is where you would probably spend the most amount of time, if you are a Worms fan. Here you can select from different game types, like Deathmatch, destruction and survivor to name a few. Up to four people or teams can play at once, and yes there are options to play this mode against the CPU, so if you don't want to sit through story mode and just want a quick battle, you can take on the CPU here. Also, you can take the game on Xbox Live and duke it out with other Worm-heads in the various multiplayer modes. Live play is actually decent when you find a good couple people to play with.
The final method of play is Challenge mode, where you can select different challenges to attempt in a time limit. Challenges range in task from collecting crates using a jetpack, to being able to eliminate a specific number of targets with a sniper rifle in 2 minutes. As you progress through challenge mode, you unlock more difficult challenges, and not just difficult because of muddy sluggish controls either.
Yes, the controls are very sluggish and make the game move along very slowly. Worms by nature are not fast moving animals, but for Pete's sake, why can't they move at a decent clip in a game. To help position your worm for an attack can sometimes take a couple minutes, and if you need to jump to get somewhere, be prepared for the ultimate in frustration. If you are standing too close to where you want to jump to (up a wall or ledge), sometimes you'll bounce backwards which can lead to a large fall which causes damage, or worse you could fall into water and die instantly. Even aiming your weapon of choice is a frustrating experience with the controls mapped to button that seem very unnatural, and more than I care to mention I ended up canceling my attack turn because of pressing the wrong button at the wrong time.
While playing you earn points which can be used in the Worms Item Shop, a place where you can unlock new maps, multiplayer game styles, or even costumes for your worms. You want them to wear Groucho glasses for the next battle? You can do it here, providing you want to spend your points on that. Also for the collectors, you earn trophies during play for accomplishing certain feats, such as landing a "4 bagger", where you take out four worms with a single attack, or a massive damage trophy for causing massive damage to the map.
Graphics:
Looking at the graphics for Worms is actually quite nice. The game takes on a cartoonish tone with the nicely colored cell shaded approach. This fits is very well with the overall Worms theme (Worms with guns). The maps were not enormous by any means, but what was there was detailed enough to keep your eyes treated. The worms are cute little fellows, outfitted from the get-go with afros, mustaches and cowboy hats. They are animated quite well too, with giggles and reactions to being hit with a blast.
Audio:
One thing was really odd here was that Worms use their own language, which is even worse than the simlish that the characters in the Sims use, and to make matters even worse, you can't skip over scenes with talking, even if you've finished reading the captions.
The accompanying music and blast sound effects were effective in capturing the feel of the game, and aside from the sub-par "voice" work, I have no complaints with the audio.
Conclusion:
Marred by sluggish gameplay, I personally found Worms 4: Mayhem to be unenjoyable, even when playing with friends online or in my own home. The load times between maps is dreadful for a game of this type, the developers really should have tried to speed this up to get people back into the game that much quicker.
The biggest thing Worms 4 has going for it is the level of customization that it offers. You can create new worm teams, game types and even weapons for use in the game. If you want a helicopter to come in for an air strike that consists of a payload of cheese that pummels the opposition, you can do it here.
Overall though, I found the game far to slow and the controls far too finicky on the Xbox to be enjoyable. It could be much better suited to the PC, as the mouse is way more accurate than the control stick for aiming but with the equipment available, this game doesn't get a passing grade from me. Skip it.