Worms 4: Mayhem review

Worms helped me make a mess of my degree. But I don't hold grudges. I rather enjoyed those spring nights of 1996, my flatmates and I sat before my shiny new PlayStation until the wee small hours of the morning. What made the original game so great, once you got past the humour, was the ease by which you could pick up and play. It took all of a couple of minutes to get the hang of the controls and from then on, at least in our student household, it became a game of deep strategy.

Our games took on something of the Somme. Faced with withering fire and a wealth of new death-dealing machinery, we dug in, and dug in deep. So deep that single matches would continue for hours as we tried to extract each other from well dug-in positions and deep defensive mines. It's a gameplay mechanic that is clearly only possible within a two dimensional setup and I mention it for the following reason. Worms as it exists today is a very different kettle of fish and should be reviewed as such rather than harking on about the supposed glory days. The addition of the third dimension makes the game much more action oriented, and so in the words of Admiral Nelson, "Never mind manoeuvres, go straight at them."

Holy Hand Grenade

If you've played any of the previous games there's much that's familiar here. You have a team of worms and you take turns in moving them around the levels and dealing death upon the heads of your enemies. You begin each level with a basic arsenal of weapons, some unlimited, others limited in number and there's the possibility of collecting other weapons that are dropped periodically by parachute onto the levels.

The levels themselves do make great use of the third dimension in that there's plenty of opportunity for gaining cover behind objects, the landscape or inside buildings and objects. Thankfully in this latest Worms game the scenery is destructible, and while it does not allow for the kind of digging-in gameplay of the 2D game, this is a really welcome return for the feature. Hurting an enemy worm is much more satisfying when there's a great big hole in the scenery to show for it.

Scouse Weaponry

The level design isn't without its problems though. So strewn with objects are many of these new designs, that the levels can seem confusing and cluttered. It's a pain in the backside trying to move your worm around numerous obstacles and often the turn clock is run down, not by indecision, but by getting caught up in the scenery.

Matters aren't helped by the camera, which is sluggish and fiddly, especially with the notoriously poor PS2 analogue controls. Many of the weapons are aimed in first-person mode, and while novel and rather pleasing to the eye, it is also confusing. When switching to this view you most commonly are greeted with a view of the sky, and the camera most be moved down towards the action, wasting valuable turn time. There is an instant overhead blimp camera, but it doesn't make up for the shortfalls in using the first-person view.

Missed

Much of the weaponry is great silly fun, and due to the open nature of the 3D gameplay, you may as well use the powerful weapons as soon as possible rather than some kind of saving strategy.

The long-term mainstays of the game, the bazooka and grenades are rather fiddly to use in 3D, especially when trying to make allowance for wind, and so Worms sadly is no longer a game you can get your none-gaming friends to have a quick go of.

It takes a while to learn to use weapons such as this, and that's not time you have when returning from the pub. Rather than delight newbies who just fancy a quick go, it's more likely to frustrate.

Swimming with the Fishes

That's not to say Worms 4 is poor, because it certainly isn't. There's plenty to see and do and most Worms aficionados will take great delight in working through the single player aspects of the game. Of course, these are also the best way of getting to grips with the controls and the use of weapons - eventually some skill with the bazooka will be acquired.

The graphics are colourful and bright and it is a very good looking game. Some of the weapon effects are very pleasing to the eye. I particularly like the small mine laying machine that expands, cartoon style, before popping out more mines to randomly populate the level. Explosion look great, with cartoon smoke which I found really attractive. As for sound, well it's just as you expect, lots of funny silly dialogue from the spineless warmongers.

I'll Get You

What we have in Worms 4: Mayhem is the best version of the game so far in 3D. It's churlish to expect the same gameplay as the 2D version. Yes I'd love some of that old strategic gameplay, but I've no idea how it would be accomplished in the 3D setting. Yet there is room for improvement in the franchise. Clearly there needs to be some kind of aiming aid added for post-pub matches with friends who haven't the time to learn the fiddly aiming mechanics of the bazooka.

Water deaths come all too easily too, though I do welcome some of the mad landmine chain-reaction nonsense that made the original 2D game such a giggle. Worms 4 works great in multiplayer if you've a group of friends who have some skill with the game to make the basic weapons work well; otherwise there is an entertaining single player mode. Worms 4 Mayhem is not a great game, but it is a good, and one perhaps you should try before buying.