Worms 4: Mayhem

Worms 4: Mayhem is the third installment of the 3D Worms series of games, developed by Team17. It was first released in 5 August 2005 for PC, and 4 October 2005 for the PlayStation 2. It is also available for the Xbox. Its features include more detailed customization for the Worms (new additions are Worm outfits and Team Weapons, which you can customize) and a Story Mode consisting of missions where you must travel to different times, such as the Middle Ages.

Story
Worms 4: Mayhem is the first game to have its own story-line.

Tutorials
Starting in the first Tutorial, the player's chosen Worm team arrive at a college, Worminkle University, where grown-up Worms train to become powerful soldiers and soon join the military. At the university, Professor Worminkle (who resembles Albert Einstein and Doc Brown) greets you and says he'll let you join his university if you get rid of drunken enemy Worms from a rival school, who broke into the university's grounds. This serves as the basic weapons training.

The next Tutorial seems to take place some time afterwards with a football game in which the player college's team wins. But members of the opposing team seem to be bitter about this, and refuse to leave. Professor Worminkle tells the player team to deal with them. This is the first live-fire battle, it also counts as a small bit of utility training. The Professor also teaches the player about the Ninja Rope's new feature, which allows a worm to move around landscape objects, such as Crates, Oil Drums, Land Mines, and even Dynamite.

In the next and final Tutorial, Professor Worminkle is proud enough to take the player team to Mike's Secret Laboratory, where they meet Mike, the Professor's "brightest pupil", and the designer of the lab. Then, the Professor and Mike stand in front of an "enormous protective screen", but somehow they lose control of the lab and the malicious Cyberworms (which Mike created) in the containment pods escape and start rampaging, although Mike did not intend to program the Cyberworms to attack anyone. During the battle, the player can learn a little more about advanced weapons (a Sentry Gun is available too, in a Weapon Crate). After the player team defeats the Cyberworms, Mike is upset about his lab being ruined from the battle which took place, while Professor Worminkle states that it was just a test and he and Mike were actually under complete control of the lab (although it appears that he was lying). The Professor congratulates the player team and tells them that they're ready for the real missions.

Story Mode
Worms 4: Mayhem has an actual Story Mode with more details, unlike the Campaign Missions of previous Worms games. Instead of just a few minor quests, detailed background and narrated introductory cut-scenes show the correct information about the background of the mission. After the Tutorials are complete, Story Mode begins. There are five Themes in Story Mode (and in the overall game too), the first is Construction (Present Day), second is Camelot (Middle Ages), third is Wild West, fourth is Arabian, and fifth is Prehistoric (Stone Age). There are five chapters, and each chapter has five missions, with the final mission of the chapter being the "boss fight". The final mission of each chapter can only be unlocked by completing the other four missions first, which can be completed in any order.

In the cut-scene before the player gets to play the missions, Professor Worminkle is seen reading a letter in his office. The Professor quickly hides the letter and greets the player's team once again. He then explains some random mission objectives to the player's team, and states that they must not fail, and that failure would shatter his reputation. He promptly dismisses the class, and now the player can play the missions. In the first chapter of Story Mode (which takes place in the Construction Theme), the player usually has to destroy enemy buildings and their property. After the final mission of the first chapter, Professor Worminkle is revealed to own a Time Machine, which he used to travel back in time with the player's team (in order to run away from the enemy agents) to the Middle Ages (Camelot Theme), where the second chapter begins.

As the Professor and the player travel back in time to the Middle Ages, the Time Machine takes a hit and some parts are missing. Four wizards retrieve the missing Time Machine parts, and the player team must defeat those four wizards and get those parts back. In some missions, the player team must also battle knights. In the final mission of the second chapter, the Time Machine is almost fixed, but a large group of knights begin to swarm the machine. So the player team have to protect the Professor while he fixes his Time Machine, and hold off the enemy until the Round Time expires, which is when the Professor fixes his Time Machine. The enemy Worms will spawn infinitely, no matter how many times they are killed, and can only be defeated once the Round Time expires. After fixing the Time Machine, the Professor and the player team travel to the Wild West. But after their travel (which ended in a crash landing, but strangely leaving the Time Machine unharmed), the Time Machine runs out of fuel, which is pure gold. Then the third chapter begins, which takes place in the Wild West Theme.

Throughout the chapter, the player team collect gold nuggets, which is used as the Time Machine's fuel and is mandatory to continuing their adventure. The primary antagonist of this chapter is the infamous cowboy outlaw Boggy the Kid. In one of the missions for this chapter, the player team face a mini-boss, Tin Can Wally, another criminal cowboy. In the final mission of the chapter, the player team battle Boggy the Kid's gang, but for some reason not Boggy the Kid himself. The Professor and the player tem get all the gold they need and escape with the Time Machine. Boggy the Kid and another cowboy chases them, but they both fall off a cliff while doing so, and presumably die.

Now begins the fourth chapter, where the Professor and the player team arrive at ancient Arabia. A thief named Ali Baboon steals the Queen of Sheba's jewels, and the player team are tasked with retrieving the jewels for the Time Machine (the jewels are needed for the Time Machine's "Space Time Navigation Balance Device") and stop Ali Baboon. Throughout the chapter, the player team fight Ali Baboon's goons, and in one mission, a few pirate ships that are attacking innocent villagers. In the final mission of that chapter, the player team reach Ali Baboon, but instead of battling him, they must complete his "Thief Training Course" in order to capture him. Once the mission is complete, the Queen of Sheba believes that Professor Worminkle is the one who captured Ali Baboon and returned the jewels. The Queen thanks him and lets him have some of her jewels.

Now the Professor is trying to fix his Time Machine completely, saying it won't take long. However, a small device drops a letter on the floor (which is definitely the letter that the Professor reads in the very first cut-scene of Story Mode). The letter writes:


 * Dear Professor Worminkle,


 * It is with regret that we have to cease your current research funding grant. We are replacing your university with our new research laboratory.


 * Thank you for all the research you have done but it is no longer needed.


 * Yours Sincerely,


 * The Government

The Professor quickly snatches the letter, telling the player team to go with him and head home. They travel very far back in time, back to the Stone Age (Prehistoric Theme). Then comes the sudden plot twist - the Professor reveals that he was using the player team to "save himself" (he was going to be fired prior to the team's arrival), and betrays the player team and leaves them stranded in the Stone Age. However, while the Professor is heading for home, a very small dinosaur somehow gets into the Time Machine and bites the Professor's tail. The Professor attacks the dinosaur, and while he is distracted, his Time Machine crashes into some sort of volcano/mountain. The Professor survives, but is frustrated, and is determined to repair his Time Machine before the player team catch up to him. Throughout the chapter, the player team battle Caveworms and Dinoworms. In the penultimate mission of the chapter, one of the Worms on the player team becomes lost and is stranded on a small island with a volcano on it. So the player team must rescue the lost teammate and defeat some more Dinoworms once again.

In the final mission of the game, the player team finally catch up to Professor Worminkle, who is on a nearby island, where the volcano the Time Machine crashed into is on. The Time Machine is almost fixed, and the player team must reach the Professor before he leaves. The player team first fight some more Dinoworms, and then build a bridge out of Girders to reach the island where the Professor is. As the player team reach the Professor, the Professor believes that the player team came to rescue him and thanks them, but because of the way he betrayed them, the team go on to steal his Time Machine behind his back and head home to the present day. The Professor, stranded in the Stone Age, panics and loses his mind as he is all alone on top of the volcano.

Challenges
There are many Challenges in Worms 4: Mayhem. They are included in the game to help the player improve different skills, such as usage of weapons and utilities. There are also 10 Deathmatches at the end.

List of Challenges

 * Sniper Rifle Challenge
 * Jet Pack Challenge
 * Super Sheep Challenge
 * Icarus Potion Challenge
 * Shotgun Challenge
 * Accuracy Challenge
 * Navigation Challenge
 * Crate Collect Challenge
 * Deathmatch 1
 * Deathmatch 2
 * Deathmatch 3
 * Deathmatch 4
 * Deathmatch 5
 * Deathmatch 6
 * Deathmatch 7
 * Deathmatch 8
 * Deathmatch 9
 * Deathmatch 10

Weapons



 * Bazooka
 * Homing Missile
 * Shotgun
 * Poison Arrow
 * Grenade
 * Cluster Bomb
 * Gas Canister
 * Banana Bomb
 * Fire Punch
 * Prod
 * Baseball Bat
 * Air Strike
 * Landmine
 * Dynamite
 * Sheep
 * Old Woman
 * Super Sheep
 * Tail Nail
 * Flood
 * Team Weapon
 * Starburst
 * Sniper Rifle
 * Holy Hand Grenade
 * Inflatable Scouser
 * Sentry Gun
 * Fatkins Strike
 * Alien Abduction
 * Bovine Blitz
 * Concrete Donkey

Utilities

 * Parachute
 * Ninja Rope
 * Jet Pack
 * Girder
 * Worm Select
 * Icarus Potion
 * Bubble Trouble

Trivia

 * In Europe, this game is rated 3+ by PEGI, but in America, it is rated T for Teens by the ESRB. The reason for this difference in age rating is unknown.
 * This is the first Worms game to feature weapon creation.
 * The PC version and Xbox versions had online, but the PS2 was limited to offline multiplayer.
 * This and Worms Forts: Under Siege are the only 3D Worms games (and probably in the whole series) to have telepads.
 * The enemy worms in the mission Ghost Hill Graveyard are exactly the same as the ones in the mission High Stakes from Worms 3D.