Reviewed: November 4, 2005
Reviewed by: Jeff Gedgaud
Publisher
Majesco Games
Developer
Team17 Software
Released: October 11, 2005
Genre: Strategy
Players: 1-4
ESRB: Teen
8
8
6
9
7.8
System Requirements
Recommended System
Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
Worms 4: Mayhem is one of the zaniest games I have played. Imagine being able to control a cartoon fight between two gangs of worms. That's what you get in this fun turn based game that pits your group of worms against another whether you play against the computer or other players.
Worms 4 features:
- Multiple game modes including the 25 mission Story Mode, Multiplayer, and Challenge Mode.
- Explosive turn-based strategy gameplay for up to 4 players
- Customize, customize, customize! Build your own teams, weapons and game styles!
- Hilarious manic mayhem; from cybernetic worms to explosive grannies
- Gigantic selection of fully destructible environments
- Take the Mayhem online with Internet/LAN Play
Worms 4 Mayhem has many ways for you to combat the opposing worm forces. Worms is a turn based game where you take your turn and then the other team gets theirs with a pause before each turn to change control to the next player and orient yourself that they call hot seat time. In your turn you can move your worm around by crawling or using things like ninja ropes or parachutes to move and then you can use one of your weapons or objects to fight the other worms.
There is a wide variety of weapons and objects like bazookas, grenades and even a section where you can create your own. The weapons are a bit hard to use at first and can be sometimes difficult to aim. Wind plays a part when using some weapons like the bazooka and there is a meter to show wind direction and speed.
In Quick Game you can fight against the computer or other players on a random map with a large number of crazy weapons like the Holy Grail hand grenade or exploding sheep.
In Story mode they have a story line to follow with different objectives in each game to accomplish. These can range from just fighting other worms to collecting objects while worms are fighting you. The story is rather silly but the objectives get to be increasingly more difficult as it continues on.
The Multi player mode lets you go head to head on your computer with other players in whatever game type you like. You can pick from death match, homelands, destruction, statue defender and survivor with the names of each being basically what the game is about. You customize these games in a screen to add different things to each type of game like the team names and of course the maps you will be playing in.
There is network play where you can fight with others over the Internet through Gamespy.com or over your own local network. There is a chat on the Internet play section for you to talk with others interested in Worms and you can decide things about the games before you join or just shoot the breeze with other wormer's. You can select to join someone else's game type or you can create your own for others to join.
There is also a Challenges mode where you must complete certain objectives before going on to the next. You can also use the Challenges in a death match against each other with the one who completes each challenge first the winner.
No matter what game type you play the concept is basically the same. Your group of worms fights against the others and you try to survive, sometimes with objectives to accomplish but mostly just blasting away at the other teams. Although it is a pretty basic concept the challenge comes from fighting using such an odd and large assortment of weapons and the fact that it is turn based. You have to fight but you also have to worry about what the next guy will do to you after you shoot.
The environment is destroyable meaning that weapons will cause parts of buildings and the ground to disintegrate. You can use this to your advantage by damaging other worms through walls but you can also get stuck in holes or on ledges.
This is the one point of the game that can be annoying and frustrating. In the story mode you have objectives to accomplish but to get them done often requires things like hopping up cliff ledges or onto other things. Your worm often gets hung up on the ledge or bounces off when jumping causing you to miss the jump. But it requires some extra work to get the things accomplished and you can get them done, it just takes more effort and time.
Worms 4 is a bit like a cartoon with graphics to match. There are very little to no shadows or shading but the game doesn't really need any. The whole game is more about the fun of fighting worm against worm so they spared the graphics and made the environments more about the fun and game play. There was some glitches that I noticed when you could see the bottom of the world from below or see through things when your worm was close to objects but this was only on occasion.
There is some background music but little of interest for sound in Worms 4. At times the worms say the funniest things but then they have loops of some silly saying while your playing. It can be funny but when you hear the same thing again and again it seems like they added something just to make noise in the game. But they do have some really fun sayings in the game when you hit others or just miss. Other than the occasional comment or the explosions there is not much remarkable about the sound.
With so many different maps and the several game types, Worms 4 Mayhem is a really good value. The story line will take awhile to make it through even though the story itself is a bit on the silly side.
But the game was made for playing against other players and gives a lot of customizable sections to make play fun. There is a mode called Wormpot that generates games for you with all the different settings in the game created randomly. You can use this in the multi player section for even more game play fun.
Worms 4: Mayhem is a fun game, with all kinds of silly cartoon like action. There is a wide variety of game types and all kinds of customizable parts with added fun like silly hats and glasses for your worms. Some of the controls for your worm can get to be frustrating like climbing up stairs but the game is really fun. The best part of course is worms against worms with other players using the wide variety of fun and goofy weapons.