Synopsis:
Worms Rumble is Worms like you’ve never played it before—intense, real-time, arena-based 32-player cross-platform combat. Get ready for Deathmatch and Last Worm Standing modes where you’re only ever a Holy Hand Grenade away from death!

Publisher: Team17
Reviewed on: PS4
Also available for: PS5, PC

Developer: Team17
Creative Director: Kevin Carthew
Technical Director: Dave Smethurst
Art Director: Nick Gomersall

It’s been four years since the last entry in the long-running Worms franchise. Now, Worms Rumble aims to revitalise things with a focus on online multiplayer. The biggest change is the switch to real-time action—Worms has traditionally been a turn-based series, and now you have full control of your worm in fast-paced, hectic fights. Surprisingly, it works, even in the classic 2D spaces you expect from Worms.

At launch there are three modes in total, two of which are battle-royale variants: Last Squad Standing, where you team up with two other players, and Last Worm Standing, a solo free-for-all.

Both battle-royale modes hit the expected beats: as matches progress, poisonous gas shrinks the playable area until only a small space remains for the final showdown. You can find weapon crates, but you do spawn with a gun, so there isn’t the same early-match scavenging you see elsewhere in the genre.

Although Worms Rumble is marketed around the BR modes, the standard Deathmatch is the most fun. You spawn with either a pistol, shotgun, or SMG and can find better weapons in crates like in BR, but here you can respawn. With 32 players, it gets wonderfully chaotic. Three key chokepoints tend to draw massive firefights, and I’m constantly in rocket-launcher-vs-rocket-launcher duels. Explosions and worm bodies flying everywhere—it’s nonsense in the best way.

No matter the mode, there’s a big element of luck. Worms Rumble actually reminds me more of Fall Guys than most multiplayer shooters. If you spawn with a solid gun and then pick up a rocket launcher, Holy Hand Grenade, or another over-tuned weapon, you can quickly wreck shop. In Deathmatch this is less frustrating since respawns give you another roll of the dice.

Navigating maps, you can sneak through vents, roll to gain speed, and fling yourself into the fray. Sometimes it’s best to land in the middle of a scrum and spam your baseball bat—more than once, that’s worked out for me.

Whatever you play, you’ll earn account XP and unlock cosmetics; weapons also level up and gain skins. Both progression tracks feel too slow—especially compared to other multiplayer games. There are three daily quests, but they’re oddly grindy, and it doesn’t feel like you can finish much without investing hours each day. A task like “throw 100 grenades” takes many matches unless you ignore the fight and lob grenades aimlessly. Completing dailies does reward in-game currency for more cosmetics. There’s no real-money store or battle pass at launch, either. All up, the progression is too slow and too light on content to truly hook you.

Team17 has plans for post-launch updates and mentions a test space called “The Lab,” which isn’t available at launch—at least not on PS5. I am enjoying Worms Rumble, but with Deathmatch as the only mode I actively want to queue for, just three maps, only ten weapons, and sluggish unlocks, it feels undercooked at launch.