How old is Sonic the Hedgehog?

I'm not generally a fan of mobile games. They're often grossly overwrought with distracting pop-ups and bright signs for you to click on and spend real money for in-game features and currencies. Not to mention, a vast majority of mobile games are just lazily developed slop with poor game design and repetitive mechanics. Occasionally though, I will come across a game that seems to have more heart; as if the game developers actually enjoy working on the game and don't have predatory contempt for the players. It shouldn't come as a surprise to me that the famed AAA studio Blizzard would be the company to come along and put out a mobile game that feels a bit more polished and premium in its design. They previously developed the wonderful online card game Hearthstone, which is still going strong after ten years, as well as publishing the controversial, microtransaction-ridden Diablo Immortal. So I think fans were understandably concerned, or at least trepidatious, when they announced Warcraft Rumble, a mobile game themed around their iconic Warcraft universe; worrying that Rumble would be more like Diablo Immortal and less like Hearthstone. I'm pleased to say that Warcraft Rumble is a legitimate blast of a game that feels like it respects the player's time and wallet, as well as paying homage to any fan that knows their deep Warcraft lore like I do.

Warcraft Rumble takes the blood-soaked, pulpy, mystical, action-packed world of Azeroth and reimagines it in the guise of a cartoonish, adorable tabletop game. Iconic regions and locations are shrunken down and converted accordingly for the gameplay style of Rumble, often with an appropriate franchise-famous hero or villain serving as the boss of the level. You'll venture through almost every zone from the original two continents: Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor. There are even dungeons and raids, based on their World of Warcraft counterparts, though these aren't multiplayer; you pick your team of units and battle through a few stages and against dungeon bosses. I recently did a dungeon run of Blackfathom Deeps and enjoyed it quite a lot. It was awesome seeing the dungeon reinterpreted into Warcraft Rumble's unique aesthetic. The raids are every bit as challenging and involved as they are in World of Warcraft. There are also Sieges, which are co-op battles with another player against AI. I haven't had the chance to try one of those yet, but I love the idea of the game having more cooperative game modes.

The biggest compliment I can pay the game comes from the perspective of being a longtime lover of the franchise and someone who is a deep enjoyer of the lore and universe of Warcraft. The development team behind Rumble has paid wonderful respect and homage to deeper aspects of the lore by utilizing characters and factions from the original Warcraft real-time strategy titles from the 1990s, as well as pulling in minor beasts and races from the world of Azeroth. It feels like they have both an in-depth knowledge and love for the world, as I do, and want to employ the use of more characters than just the franchise stalwarts like Arthas, Illidan, Thrall, etc. I was thrilled to see classic, lesser known characters like Tirion Fordring, Grom Hellscream and Cenarius make an appearance, and I can't begin to express how excited I was to learn during the recent Warcraft 30th Anniversary stream that two of my favorite characters, Orgrim Doomhammer and Anub'arak are coming to the game soon.

While I could fangirl and geek out over the wonderful fan service of Warcraft Rumble until the sun burns itself out, I don't think that would satisfy a reader who ultimately is likely just seeking a brief review of the game and whether or not they should spend their precious time playing it. The game is genuinely fun.

It taps into the wonderful, time-tested gameplay of the tower defense genre, which I've always greatly enjoyed. The camera sits at a top-down angle, giving you something of a birds-eye view over the battlefield, where you can plan out what lanes you want to send your troops down and how to divvy up your various unit types to best counter what your opponent is sending from their side of the field. There are chokepoints in most lanes, typically in the form of Towers, that fire down on your troops as you enter its radius of control. The Towers hit hard and can one-shot a few different unit types, so you have to plan to send either an overwhelming horde of units that can knock down the Tower before they get sniped, or send some beefy, tank-type troops that can withstand the heavy fire of a Tower and bowl over it to keep moving toward the boss. Towers do recover health as well, so you have to plan to overwhelm the dangerous obstacle in one fell swoop, otherwise you'll be forfeiting precious time and resources on a wasted assault. The awesome feature regarding Towers is that once you knock one down, it will rebuild under your control, giving you command over that portion of the lane, where your opponent previously held down the chokepoint. Towers and Meeting Stones (the other structure that you will come across on a lane) also serve as spawn points. Instead of your units having to start their slow march back to the action all the way back at your base, they can drop in at these Towers and Meeting Stones and quickly resume the battle, as you push onward to the boss of the stage.

 

Once you've finally managed to pave your route through the lanes and approach the boss itself, you will be in for a whole new challenge. The vast majority of bosses feature some unique move set or ability that can serve as a serious strategy check to the player. Some of these bosses kept me fuming and swearing like a sailor at my phone for hours, trying and retrying the battle over and over, praying for better luck, or trying a new strategy out. I've seen a boss that teleports your units away as soon as they get too close, which made ranged units absolutely necessary. There was a recent boss that I conquered who could wipe out any of my units in two blows, regardless of their hp. Even my hero unit or my tankiest troop would get annihilated.

 

Units fit cleanly into various types and families that pair with certain heroes. Currently, the units are filtered into six distinct families: Alliance, Horde, Beast, Blackrock, Undead and Cenarion. Each family favors certain traits, and works best when paired with units of a similar typing, but truthfully the game is designed in such a way that you can build similarly functioning teams regardless of the family. A great deal of the strategy is hinged upon pairing appropriate units with your hero of choice, as the heroes have passive abilities that can completely change how a battle unfolds. For instance, the Horde hero, Grommash Hellscream functions as a melee tank unit that deals high damage, and gives his ally units a bloodlust ability that increases their movement and attack speed. If you pair this appropriately with certain units, it can turn your team into an unstoppable flurry of fast-moving, swift attackers that can chop down whatever comes into their path.

Each and every unit also can be upgraded several times to improve its stats. Upon leveling up, a unit has trait slots that unlock, and you can buy passive abilities that are unique to each specific unit to place into those open trait slots. For example, one of the best units in the game is the Harpies; a trio of horrifying bird ladies (true to their nature in the greater Warcraft universe as well) that are extremely fragile, but can shred enemy troops to pieces in seconds. One of the abilities that can be unlocked for the Harpies is that it adds a poison effect to their attacks; when combined with their brisk attack speed, the rapid rate at which these bird broads could take down a tank unit would be shocking. There are so many combinations and pairings that you can experiment with and try to create the ultimate team for every challenge. Warcraft Rumble is the epitome of a game that is easy to learn and difficult to master.

 

There are a couple of other features in the game that I want to touch on; the first being the player-versus-player mode. I think I'm one of the few people who don't typically spend a great deal of time in PvP. It functions exactly like the standard gameplay, but instead of playing around an AI, you have to try and strategize against an unknown quantity: another player. This other player might have heavily upgraded units with powerful abilities that would be able to steamroll you, if you're not prepared. This does add an intriguing, exciting element if you're tired of the more predictable campaign missions. PvP matches do add some slight variations to some of the conventional gameplay elements, such as Towers that function differently, as well modifiers that effect how Gold is accrued, how strong your units are, etc. 

 

The last thing that I wanted to address is the game's inclusion of Guilds. In World of Warcraft, guilds are large groups that you can join to build a community, organize group activities and work toward common goals. In Rumble, the resources that you and your guild members acquire go toward challenges that reward you with experience for your units. Guilds are somewhat lackluster in this game, but it's worth joining one just to get the rewards for doing missions that you would've been working on anyway. I would love to see them one day build off of the Siege game mode and add some real co-op functionality to raids where your guild can join together to take down challenging bosses.

Whether you're already a Warcraft fan, or you've never touched the franchise, I highly recommend checking out Warcraft Rumble. It's a delightful to play and extremely satisfying to get better and overcome challenges with your own tenacity and strategy. The game has been around for just over a year, and it was recently announced to be receiving a PC port, with the beta set for December 10th, which I think will definitely help the game reach a wider audience. Most people, myself included, don't generally enjoy playing games on their phone, so to finally have access to the game on a bigger screen, with the ability to use a mouse will be quite nice. But, for now, I will swipe away at my phone screen and count down the days until Anub'arak and Orgrim Doomhammer join the game. I cannot wait.