Blizzard recently revealed Warcraft Arclight Rumble, its first fully-mobile Warcraft game. Though no release date has been announced yet, Warcraft Arclight Rumble will soon blitz onto Android and iOS, joining Hearthstone and Diablo Immortal in the ring of Blizzard mobile titles. The upcoming strategy battle game has been marketed by Blizzard as a “Tower Offense” game — a fast-paced and rowdy take on the Tower Defense genre. Players will be able to collect dozens of iconic heroes, villains, and units as they build armies to tackle PvE challenges, PvP skirmishes, or co-op battles and raids against recognizable Warcraft monsters and locations.
Game Rant spoke with Warcraft Arclight Rumble’s technical director Monte Krol and vice president and executive producer Vik Saraf about the upcoming mobile game. They shared the design philosophy that went into the concept of Warcraft Arclight Rumble, and the long history of Warcraft strategy games it borrows from. In addition, the developers talked about some tactics and strategies players could look forward to when the game reaches their hands.
Warcraft Arclight Rumble’s Roots in Real-Time Strategy
Though many fans entered Azeroth through World of Warcraft, the Warcraft franchise got its start as a real-time strategy game series. The struggle between humans and orcs that began in 1994 blossomed into a generation-spanning exploration of the Warcraft universe through different types of media and game genres. Krol asserted Warcraft’s roots in strategy games are first and foremost in the development of Warcraft Arclight Rumble — from its genre to its art style.
“Warcraft strategy games are a deep part of our DNA. We go back to Warcraft: Orcs and Humans. I think a lot of the games we love and draw inspiration from go back to the early strategy genre… I think you have to decide what you see in it, but I look at it, and I see a Warcraft game.”
Though the formula differs from game to game, Warcraft games have always contained certain core real-time strategy elements. “Our strategy games have been about building a base, defending a strategic point with troops or buildings and emplacements, then building an army and making an offensive push,” Krol explained. “We've retained those great strategy elements.
Warcraft Arclight Rumble is a very different game than Warcraft 3 or its predecessors, but according to Krol, Blizzard is committed to creating a new strategy experience for a new era of Warcraft. Instead of building a base, players capture towers, gold mines, and buildings already on the map, and fight over strategic areas. Instead of researching technologies to improve their units for a single map, they can train them over time to become stronger, forming greater synergies within their armies. Despite its differences, Krol believes veteran Warcraft players will recognize the beloved formula that made them fall in love with the franchise in Warcraft Arclight Rumble.
“I think [that formula] is a core essential element of strategy games. It hearkens back to our strategy roots, and I think it will feel very authentic when you get a chance to try it.”
Krol has been with Blizzard for over 20 years, since the era of Warcraft 3. In that time, he has worked on Warcraft titles every year, even when on other projects. He is both a long-time fan and developer of the series, and his infectious excitement and passion for Warcraft Arclight Rumble was more than apparent in the interview. “I love Warcraft,” he confessed. “I love our roots in this. We have so much DNA in strategy and Warcraft, and I’m so excited to bring this new experience.” He is not the only one; the team producing Warcraft Arclight Rumble has deep roots with the franchise. Though it may not be Warcraft 4, Warcraft Arclight Rumble seems like it will be a spiritual successor to the proud legacy of Warcraft strategy games.
The Strategies of Warcraft Arclight Rumble
Warcraft Arclight Rumble claims to be an “easy to learn, but hard to master” game, with tons of different strategies for players to discover. The game has three collectible elements — Leaders, Troops, and Spells. Leaders are powerful units drawn from iconic heroes and villains, like Warcraft's beloved Jaina Proudmoore and Grom Hellscream. An army’s Leader is the anchor point from which players can flesh out their army with Troops. These units range from the classic human footmen and orc grunts to harpies, gnolls, and chickens. To finish off an army’s loadout, players can also unlock iconic Spells from Warcraft to turn the tide of battle in their favor.
The units are spread out among five Families: the Alliance and Horde are a given, but players can also collect fearsome Beasts, ravenous Undead, and fiery Blackrock factions. When building an army, players aren’t restricted to units from just one faction: Krol explained that while many Leaders have synergies within their own Families, there were plenty of combos to be made cross-faction in Warcraft Arclight Rumble as well. “You can build your army in the way you want,” he said. “You can play within a family, or mix and match however you want.” This means a player can build thematic armies built around a singular faction, tactical armies around a particular strategy like Siege or Stealth, or fun armies full of their favorite characters and units.
Warcraft Arclight Rumble relies on a rock-paper-scissors format to determine how units fare against one another–Flying units beat Melee units, Melee units beat Ranged units, and Ranged units beat Flying units. Luckily, that does extend to the different families; all Horde units are not powerful against Beasts, and Undead units are not weak to Alliance units. Instead, individual units have special abilities, strengths, and weaknesses that can all be mixed and matched together to fit certain army compositions or challenges.
“We didn’t want to have a situation like, ‘Well, you brought the wrong family to this map, so now you’re dead.’ So it’s not really a rock-paper-scissors element.“
Units can become more powerful by gaining levels through participating in battle or with XP Tomes, which can be earned through quests or bought in the store. Eventually, units can unlock talents in Warcraft Arclight Rumble — special abilities that allow players to further customize their characters and armies for any challenge. Saraf also confirmed every Troop and Leader unit has unique talents, opening the door for even more complex strategies.
Warcraft Arclight Rumble is gearing up to be a nostalgic and charming romp through Warcraft’s history, between its strong foundation in strategy games, its original-yet-recognizable art style, and its bevy of iconic characters, spells, and creatures. Though it does not have a release schedule yet, Saraf hopes beta testing for Warcraft Arclight Rumble will be coming soon. Until then, players will have to wait and see what other information Warcraft Arclight Rumble shares about its other types of gameplay, like co-op, Raids, and PvP in the months until its eventual release.
Warcraft Arclight Rumble is currently in development.