2020 marked Worms’ 25th anniversary, along with Team17’s release of Worms Rumble. Over the years, there have been numerous Worms games, including ventures into 3D, handheld, and mobile versions, as well as spin-offs like Worms Crazy Golf.
Worms Rumble is a real-time action game available for PC, PS4, and recently PS5 in December 2020. Assuming control of a worm, players must compete against each other in fun game modes like Death Match, Last Worm Standing, and Last Squad Standing. Think Call of Duty and Fortnite meets Worms, with Sheep Launchers thrown in.
Worms Rumble: Gameplay
This new twist on a Worms classic promised excitement and admittedly a little anxiety, given the developers seemed like they were jumping on the battle royale bandwagon.
After I dived into my first battle, I wasn’t entirely sure how I felt about it. Worms is a game that I’ve played since a kid, and something about it just didn’t sit right with me. Where was the destructible terrain and teams of outrageously-named worms?
When I pulled myself out of the 90s and sunk some more hours into Worms Rumble, my doubts were diminished. While it doesn’t offer the best parts of Worms that I’ve always loved, it does provide some fun gameplay. The weapons were an absolute blast and there was something magical about shooting random players in the face with an oversized cartoon projectile.
Although the slapstick nature of Worms remained in place, there were a few frustrations too. The controls weren’t that intuitive, but that could be said for a lot of newly-played games, especially those with as many actions as Worms Rumble. Although, I have been playing on Steam with a keyboard and mouse, I imagine it would feel a lot better with a controller.
There’s definitely an opportunity to plan attacks, but nowhere near as much strategic methodology as other Worms games. The battlefield felt very chaotic at times, likely due to being able to bounce off walls and other acrobatic advances.
Worms Rumble: Character Creation
Character creation in Worms Rumble is something which I spent far too long exploring. You can change your Worms’ character skin, eyes, teeth, and emotes.
Being able to personalize your Worm gets a big thumbs up from me. What’s more, you can customize your weapons with fancy skins! I’ve been known to spend literally hours doing stuff like this, and Worms Rumble was no different. Who doesn’t love creating a French worm with a ginger beard?
Much like Fortnite and other battle royale style games, Worms Rumble allows you to unlock new character creation items as you level up. You can even upgrade your gamecard to include up to 3 new stat slots to show off your kills.
Worms Rumble already has a long list of character DLC available, including the New Challenger pack, Legends pack, Emotes pack, and more. It’s by no means a pay-to-win game, but it does pull you in with tempting skins that are hard to say no to.
Worms Rumble: Is Online PvP Really Better?
Worms Rumble has been a nice change. I’m not sure I’d class it as a new Worms game as it feels more like a spin-off to me. Rumble is a pure PvP online game, with no option to play offline like previous games. While this is a positive move for Team17, I wonder how much longevity Worms Rumble poses. Like many online-focused PvP games, I fear it may lose a consistent player base, not allowing it to reach its full potential.
At the moment, online PvP is a saturated market, with many gamers forced to stay at home due to COVID-19. Worms Rumble offers a fun space to let loose in a tongue-in-cheek manner with its cartoon charm.
I’ve had a lot of fun playing Worms Rumble, and I’ll definitely keep returning to it. But for me, nothing beats the nostalgic value of classic Worms.
When you first start up the game, it seems like you have to complete the training, once you have completed the training course, it continues, seeming like there is more to do, which is not the case.
If you press the training button above play, you can choose another game mode, and completely bypass the training altogether, something which took me a moment to figure out.
