Warcraft: Arclight Rumble is a new mobile game by Blizzard that aims to appeal primarily to strategy fans. From the initial presentation, the game sounds like a mix of tower defense, hero collector, and Clash Royale. Notably, the well-known Warcraft characters are expected to play a role. It is the first strategy game for Warcraft since the release of Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne in 2003.
What exactly is Arclight Rumble? In the game, players are tasked with assembling an army that partly consists of well-known Warcraft characters. With this army, you will face various challenges:
- There are over 70 single-player missions
- There will be weekly and monthly challenges, consisting of multi-part dungeons or larger raids
- The missions can partially be played cooperatively with friends
- There will be competitive challenges
- You can organize yourselves into guilds
In early videos, players can be seen entering a mission and then placing their army piece by piece to face enemies and even larger raid bosses. As a player, you make the decisions about which characters belong to your army, how often you take the characters, and where you place them on the battlefield.
Synergies are expected to play a role.
Alongside normal army creatures, there will also be well-known heroes that you can collect, and villains that you can fight against. Characters such as Grommash Hellscream, Rend Blackhand, and Jaina Proudmoore have already been mentioned.
There are expected to be a total of 5 factions: Alliance, Horde, Blackrock, Undead, and Beasts.
The combat is somewhat reminiscent of the attacks in Clash of Clans on another village. However, you also have your own cannon that is attacked by enemies and that you need to defend. Rounds can also end if time runs out.
Overall, the developers emphasize that everything should be “chaotic” and “entertaining”. You can find the first reactions to the game here:
When is the release of Warcraft: Arclight Rumble? The game is set to be released in 2022, although no exact date has been provided. The release will be for Android and iOS, and you can already pre-register in the Play Store (via GooglePlay).
The closed beta is expected to begin “soon” in selected regions.
A first look at Arclight Rumble is provided by this trailer video:
Blizzard promises a true Warcraft experience
What does Blizzard say about Arclight Rumble? The mobile game is said to be easy to learn, but hard to master. Blizzard emphasizes multiple times that the game is intended to provide a “true Warcraft experience” and has been developed by developers who have long been loyal to the franchise.
The two game directors of the game are Adam Kugler and Tom Chilton:
- Adam Kugler has been with Blizzard since 2012 and was lead class designer for World of Warcraft until the Battle for Azeroth expansion.
- Tom Chilton was the game director of World of Warcraft and has been with Blizzard since 2004. He worked on WoW until Legion and then took over the leadership of Warcraft: Arclight Rumble.
The technical director, Monte Krol, has been with Blizzard since around 2000 and has had influence on the development of Warcraft 3 and StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty. Experience is definitely present in the team.
Accordingly, there should be many references to events in Warcraft and WoW as well as to locations there. However, the game also works without prior knowledge of the Warcraft world.
What about monetization? Fundamentally, Arclight Rumble will be a free-to-play game. However, there is a large discussion about the topic of monetization.
Games like Clash Royale have earned a negative reputation because players can use money to expand their bases and troops faster, thus gaining real advantages.
How exactly the monetization of Warcraft: Arclight Rumble will look is currently not known. According to GameStar, Blizzard is said to have assured that only progress and not characters will be monetized. It should be possible to fill certain progress bars, but characters should not be in loot boxes.
Moreover, there should be a cap on daily progress that can also be achieved through gameplay.
What do you think about the new Warcraft game? Will you have fun with it or would you have preferred a completely different genre? Feel free to share it in the comments.
Another big mobile game, Diablo Immortal, is already being released by Blizzard in the summer and even with its own PC version:
Diablo Immortal reveals release date and announces PC version: “Will be the biggest Diablo yet”
