Warcraft’s RTS past reimagined in a fun, casual form - Warcraft Rumble Quick First Impressions

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SHOULD I PLAY WARCRAFT RUMBLE?

Play it if you’ve got fond memories of the classic real-time strategy Warcraft games and don’t mind that formula being simplified heavily for mobile platforms and superfast one-on-one matches. Warcraft Rumble splits the difference between the more casual-friendly, tongue-in-cheek fun of Hearthstone and the more intense real-time strategy that the franchise hasn’t seen since 2003’s Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne expansion. It’s not a replacement for that classic formula, but it replicates some of the feel that made me fall in love with Warcraft back in the day—and all in matches that last less than five minutes.

TIME PLAYED

I’ve been tapping away at Warcraft Rumble on my Android phone for about eight hours so far. That time has included making my way through fifteen levels of the single-player campaign, grinding out a bunch of bonus quests to level up my minis, and working my way up to Bronze Spark II in the current beta player-versus-player season.

WHAT’S AWESOME ABOUT WARCRAFT RUMBLE?

• Huge amount of solo content. Not everyone is interested in PvP, so thankfully Warcraft Rumble has a lot of player-versus-computer levels to play through. There are at least seventy single-player campaign levels available in the beta, and if the world map is anything to go off, Blizzard is planning to add more in the future. I was also able to grind quests endlessly; in previous tests of the game, quests were limited to three per day, but now you can do as many as you want, though the rewards get less generous as you do more in one day.

• Fun twists. It’s not enough that there’s just lots of levels, of course. What kept Warcraft Rumble engaging for me is how the solo matches continued changing up my expectations. For example, in one match my opponent was a pirate ship, The Dreadnaught, and its long-range cannon blasts would make certain lanes of approach unsafe, forcing me to adjust my strategy. Or when I fought the seemingly invincible necromancer Morbent Fel, I had to use my minis to protect a special priestess unit who could temporarily dispel his shield.

Player-versus-player matches get changed up too, although with less regularity. Warcraft Rumble features a bunch of different maps with a variety of lane layouts for PvP. Different tower types might affect your strategy—for example, using large groups of weak units is a bad choice against Dragon Towers, which spew waves of fire. There’s even a bonus modifier that can affect matches in bigger ways. However, each of these elements is only switched out once a week at the moment.

• Fast-paced but thoughtful gameplay. Warcraft Rumble will probably get a lot of comparisons to Clash Royale, which is understandable, given the similar lightning-speed matches and strategy-lite gameplay. I’d argue that Warcraft Rumble stands well on its own, though, with tactical choices that feel in line with the same decisions I had to make while playing classic Warcraft RTS games on PC. Just spamming down every mini possible as soon as it was available was a surefire way to lose matches; I actually had to think carefully, choose which lane to play in wisely, and counter my opponent’s minis.

• Team-building strategies. Beyond the more intense moment-to-moment gameplay during matches, Warcraft Rumble also layered some extra strategy on top by making me put together my own teams. There are ten different unlockable heroes to lead teams made up of six minis, and thirty-nine minis to earn and level up. Putting together a winning team required a careful balance of low-cost fodder units and more powerful but more costly big guys, as well as carefully considering how different units worked together and covering both melee and ranged positions. I really enjoyed playing around with all my options here and look forward to unlocking more.

• Speedy PvP. When I’m playing something on my phone, I want to be able to play it in short bursts, not have to buckle down for half an hour or more. That’s part of why Warcraft Rumble’s approach to PvP clicked so well with me. The one-on-one match-ups in this game include a game clock of three-and-a-half minutes, which can then go into a minute-long overtime where things are sped up if neither side has won by then. What this means is that even at their absolute longest, Warcraft Rumble matches are done and dusted in less than five minutes. The brisk speed makes losses less devastating and makes it easy to sneak in quick matches while on a work break or waiting in line.

WHAT NEEDS IMPROVEMENT IN WARCRAFT RUMBLE?

• Unlocking your army. Across almost ten hours of gameplay, I’ve still only unlocked two of Warcraft Rumble’s ten heroes and a mere dozen or so of the nearly forty minis available. New minis can be purchased with gold earnable in-game, but the store only offers a small handful at a time, and if they didn’t have a unit I wanted, I would have to either wait out a clock for a refresh or pay more of those precious funds to try to get something new on the board. It’s better than the totally random approach of a gacha game, but if you’re aiming for a specific mini or just have one last piece to unlock to make the perfect team, this process is going to be a major pain.

• The endless grind. I love filling up bars as much as the next gamer. But with so many unit types in Warcraft Rumble, and each one having their own level growth, the grind in this game is...imposing, to say the least. On the plus side, some of the PvP modes set all minis on both sides to the same level, so it feels a lot less pay-to-win than it otherwise might. Still, there’s something exhausting about knowing that if I want to stay caught up in Warcraft Rumble, I’ll need to keep leveling all my units—plus any new ones that are added in the future—one by one, forever.

• Long-term plans. As I’ve mentioned, there’s plenty to do in Warcraft Rumble, so I’m not too worried about running out of content or getting bored during the current testing phase. That said, this is clearly intended to be a live service game with PvP seasons and presumably other additions to keep players invested for months and years to come. I’m not sure whether Blizzard intends to add in a battle pass, how often new minis or heroes will be released, or whether or not the solo campaign will get expanded as well. I’d love to see a roadmap before launch to help shape player expectations for the future of the game.

[First impressions written by TapTap editor Kef]

💬 Will you be joining the rumble in Azeroth, or would you prefer Blizzard stick to a more traditional Warcraft approach to strategy? Share your thoughts below!