Worms Rumble is a battle royale game with cross-play. It’s basically Worms without having to wait for
your turn and available on Steam and Playstation 4 and 5.
There are three different modes, ten weapons, a handful of items (different grenades, a jetpack, etc.), and
three maps. You can customize your character with innumerable cosmetic items and your weapons
with different skins. You level up by playing the game and unlocking new cosmetic items which you then
buy for coins. You can’t buy coins with real money.
There are no microtransactions in the game!
Gameplay
Deathmatch is one of the modes available to play. It works just as in every other game. 8 minutes,
respawns, and the one with the most kills wins. On the map are several crates with loot in them. That way,
you can find better/different weapons, med-kits, grenades, and more. You also recover some health after
time.
In the beta, you had to wait 15 seconds or more ’til you could respawn. Fortunately, they changed it in the
full game. You can now immediately respawn. It’s a quite nice improvement and shows that the devs
listen to the community.
The main attractions of the game are the battle royal modes – Last Worm Standing and Last Squad
Standing. The first one lets you play alone against 31 other worms. Just like in other battle royale games, the map
gets smaller after some time.
In Worms Rumble, you don’t immediately die if you’re out of the safe zone.
The map shows you which area gets toxic and you’ll lose health every few seconds if you’re in it. There’s
enough time to leave the area if you pay attention.
Losing early is kind of frustrating since the matchmaking takes a bit longer here. The game recommends
starting this mode if you reach level 10 which indicates you’re not a beginner anymore.
Last Squad Standing is a battle royale with teams of three players. You can either invite your friends to
play or get random teammates. One of you decides where your team spawns on the map. After that, it’s
the same as Last Worm Standing. This mode is recommended for players who reach level 5 but you can play both modes immediately after starting the game for the first time.
Worms Rumble is a multiplayer-only game. Steamcharts shows that the player count is pretty small right
now (not even 1,000 players on release day usually indicates the game is dead in a few weeks/months).
Thanks to cross-play you don’t have to worry about that. The game is well alive and matchmaking takes
30 seconds at the most.
The game is free if you have PlayStation plus which secures a healthy player base.
Having that many customization options is a good thing. Especially since there are no microtransactions
and you can get everything by playing the game. It’s also very playable with a controller and there is no
real advantage for mouse and keyboard users which makes it a casual experience overall.
It’s a competitive game for sure, but easier for everyone who never got a chicken dinner in similar battle royale
games. I even got first place in Deathmatch in the beta after playing like five matches and chicken dinner
in Last Squad Standing in my second match with random teammates, with me having the most kills, and I’m not a pro player by any means.
Summary
The game is fun and these little Worms are as charming as ever. The one thing we have to wait for is
longevity. Will they add more maps, weapons, or even modes for free in the future? Maybe tournaments,
special events, or challenges? (There are daily challenges, at least for now.) If they can deliver new content
fast enough, they can make it worth it.
Otherwise, I’m not quite sure if the game will be fun for solo players in the long run. Playing with friends is
a blast though and it’s definitely worth it if you got friends to play with!