Worms Ultimate Mayhem is a 3D take on the classic worms franchise The Worms franchise is one that seems like it has been around a long time. The first Worms game only came out four years ago. Since then 22 games have been pushed out by Team 17. Worms has not really changed since its first game, and Worms Ultimate Mayhem puts Worms in 3D and 3D is not how Worms should be made.
First of all the basic game play of all Worms games is as follows; you are a worm, your objective is to kill other worms with weapons such as the bazooka, dynamite or a exploding sheep. Other than Worms Ultimate Mayhem I have not played a Worms game before, but I have seen quite a bit of Worms being played. Ultimate Mayhem is not the first Worms game to come to the xbox 360, but it is the first brand new. In 2D the “finding a way to kill all enemy worms” is easy as you see all worms at all times, in 3D you must navigate your way through the levels to find your enemies. The problem with this is that the controls are horrible.
There are multiple control styles, but the main control scheme is “A” to jump “B” to pull up weapons menu and right trigger to fire the weapon you chose. Other then the jumping the controls are perfectly fine. You maybe wondering if only one part of the control scheme is broken how does that make the controls horrible. That is because the navigation part of the game is the majority of the game. You are always moving and jumping to get into position to murder your enemy. The jump is insanely floaty and Team 17 most of the time requires you to use much more precision than the floaty jump allows. Going through the “story” mode (and I only use story to describe the mode because that is what they use) there are some missions where you are the only worm and if you miss a jump it can lead to you reloading the level multiple times. And this is where my other complaint comes in.
The loading times are horrendous. They are on par with the load times that one might have had while playing Dead Rising 2. It was bad for Dead Rising 2, and that game had a huge open world with many many zombies and items in the world. In Worms Ultimate Mayhem neither of those things are present which makes the long load times inexcusable. With a game that has not really upgraded graphically since it has came out the load times should be near instant, like in the recent Resident Evil 4 HD.
There are a few good things that can be said about Worms. One is that the customization options are just crazy. You can customize almost every aspect of the game. You can make your own Worms team, they special weapon, levels and game styles. For the teams you can name the six worms that are on your team as well as their, voice, head,eyes, face, and hands. You can make the worms look pretty ridiculous and kind of awesome at the same time. The part that ruins it for me is the voices. If you have ever heard a worms game you know its a worm game, because the voices are high pitched and winey. During the normal game-play that is almost the only thing you hear. So that lead me to not listening to the game pretty quickly.
Other than the customization options a “good” thing to say about Ultimate Mayhem is that there is a lot of levels and modes to play. You have the “story” mode and the Worms 3D Campaign, which other than different levels I honestly do not know the difference other than its a different option on the menu. The same goes for the challenge mode. There is also a versus mode which you can play online and offline. This is what you would expect from Worms. It is the “story” mode just with another human controlling the other team of worms.
Overall Worms Ultimate Mayhem is a game that maybe only a hardcore fan of the Worms franchise will like. As mentioned earlier I do not have any affinity for past Worms game. I believe that the Worms franchise is a game that is full of re-releases and rehashes. I believe other than an arcade cabinet that Worms has been release on every platform. If you like 2D worms and have an electronic device you probably can play a worms game on that. Worms in 3D is a game that I think does not work. If they were to make the jumping less floaty and more precise that it is possible Worms Ultimate Mayhem could be a decent game. And is the norm for my reviews the achievements in the 30 version of this game are OK. Playing through the single player you will get around 130 gamerscore. The rest will require you to find hidden items, play the multiplayer or play the game in a way that is not normal. Ultimate Mayhem is 15$ and at that price I do not recommended that anyone purchase it, even the hardcore Worms fans.
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