Worbital recently entered our solar system from Team Jolly Roger, and with it brings a cross of Worms and pretending that you are a Death Star. So what exactly is Worbital and is it any good.

Let’s find out!

Gameplay

Your aim is to destroy the other players’ planet, it’s really as simple as that, but it doesn’t end up being straight forward. The game is only released on PC at the moment, but there is a console launch coming soon which will open up more players to get to grips with this frantic and frenzied game.

You can play Worbital in any combination of solo, cooperative, online, local, you can even control the game with a controller! Throwing into a quick game you are given the opportunity to do some tutorials, but skip straight to the main fight and you are in for a treat. On your starting planet you have different segments, with the number being determined by the size of the planet. Your sole purpose is to destroy your opponent’s planet core. Using the main weapons at your disposal you add these to each segment and once they are charged and ready, you can unleash hell!

So on the surface this doesn’t sound particularly game-changing, however, one thing that you do have to deal with is both gravity and the orbit of your planet. The whole game is being played in its own mini solar system. With other smaller and sometimes larger planets all orbiting around the Sun. Making your rockets bend around the sun can be very satisfactory, although it isn’t difficult as the game gives you a guideline that your ordinance will follow, it’s just left to you to control the timing of your shot.

The weapons in Worbital are different across the 3 chosen “classes” you can pick. I use classes loosely as they are represented by different races, each with their own selection of rail guns, rocket launchers, even planet moving booster rockets. As you play through each game, you are rewarded points and these points go towards getting you to the next level of weaponry. At one point in a game I was playing, I used an ejection module and went and took refuge on another planet. However, this did self destruct my home planet. It ended up being the wrong choice as the planet I chose was a lot smaller and could only handle a small number of weapons.

The best thing with the weapons is to just try different load outs if you can. To unlock further weapons you need to gain XP from taking part in battles, giving you the ability to buy bigger and potentially better weapons, but also allowing you to purchase things such as the colonizer. Giving you the ability to send it out to another planet and then take control of that one, increasing your firing power in the process.

Weapons can be damaged by incoming fire, but it’s not a massive issue as you can just repair them, taking them out of rotation for a little while until they get back to full health.

Worbital is like nothing I have played before and will enjoy countless more hours playing and enjoying the game.

You can even set custom rules if you want to spice things up and make the sun explode and create a black hole after a certain time period. Increase recharge time for your weapons, and even decrease your planet’s health limit. Be warned though that some of the options to disable the ability to earn XP towards levelling up your weapon selection. It’s ok though as the game gives you a nice indication on which options affect this and which do not.

Graphics

Worbital has some great graphics, the particle effects are brilliant, and the explosions are colourful. With it just being a bunch of planets, its really hard to judge if there is anything that Team Jolly Roger could have done better. That is by no means a bad thing though. The game runs smoothly and there was no sign of any frame drops or anything whilst playing the game.

Sounds

Sounds can make or break a game, yet in Worbital you spend less time worrying about the soundtrack and more time worrying about when your next rocket launch is going to be charged and ready to fire. There is a lot of audible noises and queues to let you know how the battle is going. Get close to your planets core and you will start to hear alarm bells.

Longevity

How long will Worbital last? Well, how long is a piece of string? It is most certainly a game where you can lose hours and hours taking on friends and foe. It’s chaotic and you definitely will enjoy every moment you spend playing the game. I keep diving back into Worbital just to get a taste of planetary carnage.

Overall Team Jolly Roger have created what i consider to be an instant classic. So much so that we recently started a new series over on the youtube channel and this was the game we played first.

Worbital brings space battles to the smaller screen and definitely lives up to its galactic aims. There was no other award that it could receive apart from the coveted Thumb Culture Platinum Award.

Disclaimer: We received a game code to carry out this review

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