The Worms series has been around since 1995 and has gathered a sturdy following of fans who enjoy controlling the tiny pink crawlers and destroying other worms. There have been quite a few installments in the series that aimed to give fans an experience similar to the first game. The biggest leap came in 2004 when Worms stepped into the third dimension with Worms 3D.
Worms Ultimate Mayhem is a combination of both Worms 3D and Worms 4: Mayhem. It contains content from both of the games yet does not look to solve any of the problems that they contained. Will these problems make for an unplayable game? Here are the Hots and Nots of Worms Ultimate Mayhem.
Hots
Content
Worms Ultimate Mayhem contains a ton of content for you to play around with. The title comes bundled with the story mode for Worms 4 as well as the story mode for Worms 3D. There are also challenges for you to compete in that test your skills in shooting targets and maneuvering around a map. The story missions tend to be on the short side but if you have played a Worms title before this is to be expected. The game also gives you the ability to customize your own Worms team as well as weapons and terrain.
There is also a ridiculous variety in the weapons you will get to play around with in Worms Ultimate Destruction. Nothing beats lobbing an exploding sheep/Super Sheep or granny at your foes, dropping a concrete donkey on top of them, or going straight mob status and blowing them away with a shotgun. You can also poke an enemy off a ledge for the ultimate middle finger.
Great Game To Play With Friends
Worms Ultimate Destruction is an absolute blast when you play it with your friends. The game offers up a variety of different modes that allows you to vary up the way you play the game with them. You can decide what weapons and tools are available, what the match settings will be, how long rounds will last and even what will happen when the game reaches sudden death. It definitely creates a great deal of laughs and strategy when you get 4 people to play this game together either on the couch or online.
The multiplayer game modes include everything you would normally find in the quick match settings including deathmatch as well as any customized options you have created. It is a heap of fun to have each player create their own team of worms and weapons and take to the battlefield. Having one player create their own airstrike dropping cows while another player creates their own sidearm makes for a great deal of diversity in the matches.
Graphics
The graphics in Worms Ultimate Mayhem have seen a slight improvement since the last Worms outing on the PC. While there are some clipping issues here and there, they tend not to detract too much from the experience. The camera will give you problems at times and can even cause some fatal mistakes, but more on that later. You will have more issues with the camera than you will with the graphics.
Nots
Clunky Camera
The camera system in Worms Ultimate Mayhem tends to not work in your favor at times. If the map that you are playing on has an sort of taller building you may find yourself staring at the back of that rather than at the back of the worm. This can make it difficult when you are trying to maneuver on the ground or using a jetpack and can cause some unnecessary deaths at times.
Navigating Menus Doesn’t Feel Right On Gamepad
The menu system in Worms Ultimate Mayhem was built for use on the PC. Weapon selecting takes a great deal of time when you have a plethora of weapons to dig through and you will find that you wasted half of your turn just trying to find the right weapon to select. The difficulty in navigating the menus outside of the game also begins to become a pain in the neck. It is obvious that the menu system was built for use with a mouse.
Verdict
Worms Ultimate Mayhem is a solid Worms game that brings the good with the bad. The game gives the player tons of content, is a great deal of fun to play with friends and gives a slight improvement in graphics, but is still riddled with camera issues and has a menu system that does not play well with a consoles game pad. Those who have played Worms 4 on the PC won’t really find much new to play with here but fans of the series on console may want to give it a whirl.
[Editor’s Note:Worms Ultimate Mayhem was reviewed on the Playstation 3 hardware. The game was provided to us by the publisher for review purposes.]
