It has been more than a year since we have heard anything fresh about Warcraft Rumble, Blizzard‘s take on its iconic real-time strategy turned MMORPG giant in mobile form, but that’s about to change. With a global launch set for 3 November, the team took some time to speak to Geek Culture about what’s going to make players excited both for the launch as well as the immediate future of the mobile action strategy experience.
Instead of sprawling worlds and chaotic battlefields, the action in Rumble takes a more adorable form. Beneath the Hearthstone tavern lies a mystical, mysterious machine, where heroes and villains of the Warcraft universe get brought to life as tiny, 3D miniature toys, powered by Arclight energy that allows them to engage in combat. It is within this premise that the mobile title sets players off on a multitude of game modes.
There’s a lengthy campaign mode that brings together famous locations and over 65 pieces to collect to form the best army for the job, drawn from the varying groups of the Alliance, Horde, Beast, Blackrock, and Undead.
“Warcraft has been around for 30 years almost at this point, I believe. So we have a lot to draw from when it comes to bigger, more well-known characters like Cairne Bloodhoof or Grommash. But when it came to making choices for the other characters or bosses in the game, sometimes it was designed and driven based on the type of creature or character that we needed,” shared Jeremy Collins, the Art Director of Warcraft Rumble.
“But other times, it was wanting to shine a light on some of the lesser-known quest-givers from World of Warcraft. Azeroth is just filled with a tonne of stories; we want to make sure we were telling all of them, basically.”
Leaders are essentially an archetype for any constructed deck that brings special talents to the table, further augmenting the rock-paper-scissors element that governs the combat in Rumble. Having a well-constructed army allows players to attack objectives confidently on maps that are wildly varied and more importantly, interesting. This is a more vibrant take on the usually more grim nature of warfare between opposing factions set against a larger political picture, even if some of the enemies are going to be familiar faces.
“I think that Rumble is a space where we can kind of explore and has like an irreverent kind of fun feel to it. We’re leaning very heavily into like the joyful chaos that Warcraft has. So we’ve tried to find these little stories within the Warcraft universe and express them through joyful chaos and gameplay,” added Game Producer Elhora Davis.
Aside from the campaign, Blizzard is committed to giving players plenty to do. Archlight Surge adds a twist to zones that players may have already played, throwing in modifiers and special conditions each week to freshen things up, testing the mettle of those who dare.
There are also Dungeons, described as “lovingly miniaturised versions of one of WoW’s” which is a series of three back-to-back levels that players have to overcome with a selected leader, imbued with powerful relics that can dramatically change how things play. Naturally, the bosses are going to be “pretty advanced and require a lot of forethought and planning for your army to make sure you’re going to be victorious.”
Should that not be enough, Heroic difficulty is where the top players will cut their teeth. Handcrafted in distinct ways to challenge the player, the affectionately named “mean mode” will hopefully bring about a level of satisfaction when players overcome the tweaked levels and enemies.
Furthermore, Warcraft Rumble will feature PvP that is thankfully not revolving around character meta, but more dependent on the various maps and towers, keeping players on their toes when it comes to strategy and planning. The enjoyment with friends and strangers is further enhanced with the presence of guilds, so expect to see more activities to engage with like a shared War Chest that will make playing together more rewarding.
All of these will definitely appeal to a Warcraft fan, but for new players, Blizzard is confident that the product represents an enticing proposition even if you have not tried anything related before. As Davis puts it, “one of the strengths of the Warcraft universe is that it is vast, so you just have like many different ways that you can play the game and expand your collection or progress or challenge yourself” as part of Rumble.
“Warcraft is for everybody and we want to make sure it feels like it is for everybody. And so there were some deliberate choices that we made from a gameplay perspective; we really wanted to make sure it was easy and approachable. And people could just jump in, learn how to play the game and hopefully pick it up quickly,” Collins said.
The choice to go mobile is also one of the key considerations that drove the team, even if it requires a different way of thinking when it comes to hardware restrictions and the like. Optimising the experience across a variety of devices was something the team will continue focusing on, laying the foundations for the pick-up-and-play nature of Rumble to shine through.
With a soft launch in selected regions providing valuable feedback to the team, Blizzard is gearing up for the global launch in November in the best of ways. Even with the caveat that it is a mobile title, Warcraft Rumble looks set to benefit from sustained support both in the short and long term, with player feedback being central to consideration.
While this may not be the return to the RTS roots that many are clamouring for, the game offers something different with a tinge of familiarity. Perhaps success for Rumble will finally push Blizzard to revisit its past in a more meaningful way, but in the meantime, there is always the comfort of unleashing vibrant and striking miniatures into battle to get that whiff of nostalgia.
Warcraft Rumble will be available on both iOS and Android devices this 3 November.
Jake is a full-time trophy hunter and achievement gatherer on consoles, and part-time Steam Sale victim. He has a thing for Batman and awesome statues, and running out of space for both. Send help.
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