Our Verdict
Diablo Immortal is a mixed bag. While the solo content offers a roadmap for series looking to bring their titles to mobile, the invasive microtransactions remove some of the rewards of mastery, and leave us wishing that Diablo Immortal had stuck to its paid-for guns. There’s enough for casual players to delve into the world of Diablo and have a good time, but as things stand, and as those in the underworld will confess to, there’s no way of getting to the top without paying for it.
The devil finds labour for idle hands, as the proverb says. Nothing proves this more than Diablo Immortal, the much awaited mobile adaptation of Activision Blizzard's action RPG titan, which has finally surfaced to put your fingers and thumbs to the test with its iconic chaotic combat. But Diablo Immortal also represents a shift for the franchise, both positive and negative in different aspects.First of all, Immortal is a perfect match as a Diablo game right away. If any department involved in the development of Diablo deserves special recognition, it's the art and design team, who appear to have overcome the graphical constraints of mobile games to produce an adventure that would look equally as good on a large screen. As expansive a gaming environment as I've seen in a mobile game, Diablo's infernal underworld is a masterwork of gothic-inspired design.Even for someone like myself who haven't watched the series much, Diablo Immortal's fighting features maintain their prominence from earlier iterations. anticipate more of the same, slightly modified to fit touch controls, for those who have played Diablo before. For those who haven't played the game before, anticipate top-down combat that is quite similar to Hades, but with tighter quarters since there is less screen real estate available. Out of the six classes available, I decided to try my hand at the monk class and had a great time with it. As someone who really loved the aforementioned Hades, the character classes and the accompanying fighting showed me precisely what I'd been missing out on with the Diablo series, and I'm now eager to return to Activision Blizzard's demonic game. Therefore, Immortal is successful as a free-to-play trailer for the whole series, at the very least.I was pleasantly surprised by the plot and mythology, especially for a mobile game from a series I had never really connected with. From the main threat facing Sanctuary to the smaller, solo and cooperative dungeon quests that take up your time, the narrative design is as well-executed as you would expect from a game developer of this calibre, if a little less heavy on series jargon to avoid offending new players.Performance on mobile is not as smooth as the story element; in my experience, a few noticeable texture boxes appear mid-battle, but other than that, the sound of combat is unaffected by lag or stuttering. However, this may vary if there are more than four players in a single raid, depending on your connection strength.In my opinion, Immortal is a good example of a mobile controller advertisement that promotes utilising one over touch controls. While the UI has been cleverly redesigned to prevent your thumbs from ever blocking any of the important on-screen information, the button-mashing style of Diablo's frustrating melee feels more natural when using physical buttons, and the sheer number of combat options does make it easy to make unintentional misclicks when using touch controls. It is worth noting that a plethora of configuration choices are available for controls, graphics, and performance. These include playability settings pertaining to performance as well as accessibility choices like font size. It is evident that much consideration has gone into the system menus to ensure that Immortal functions well on older devices and is played by anyone.Immortal is a mixed bag when it comes to multiplayer, being the first game in the Diablo series to experiment with co-op and PvP content. The tale cooperative dungeons are my personal favourite since they increase the suspense when you're up against something you know is strong enough to need four warriors. But we have to go on to the second half of this review, which sadly sits on the opposite end of the see-saw, after the true highs of the solo content, when it comes to some of the other cooperative components in the later game.Diablo Immortal would get an easy eight if the review ended here, but sadly it doesn't. One significant issue with Activision Blizzard's most recent mobile game is that it's hard to deny the presence of pay-to-win components in the game. Admittedly, I didn't find this as insulting as some of the more aggressive YouTube or streaming critics, but the problem is a bit more complex than it is with other games. There is undoubtedly a pay-to-win component with various Diablo Immortal game modes that encourage microtransactions.Indeed, the microtransaction issues in Diablo Immortal are unlikely to have a significant impact on casual players. After spending about twenty hours in Sanctuary, I only became aware of the problem when I participated in rifts—Immortal's take on raids that require consumable currency to access—and realised how much money a player would need to spend to experience just a small portion of what those who fully engage in paid-for content will receive.The community has previously pointed out the differences between players who play the battlegrounds PvP mode for free and those who pay to win, so the rifts gimmick isn't the only part that depends on powering up via currencies that can only be obtained via microtransactions.The rifts example is even more painful since, while the pay-to-win aspect is nearly entirely concealed, you can only access top-tier rift goods with legendary crests, and the only certain method to get them is with everlasting orbs. How are everlasting orbs obtained? You guessed it. You purchase them. And to stand a chance in PvP, you'll need the strong gear that come from spending legendary crests.This is difficult since there are two distinct and reasonable reasons that contradict one another. The first is that, at its core, playing a game intensively should not be exploited; instead, you should be rewarded for your efforts. The paywall in Diablo Immortal is similar to what would happen if Pokemon Emerald's well-known end-game battle zone had a pay-to-play system.To put it simply, the ludo-narrative process seems to need that you give up money in exchange for a suped-up challenge if you want to push your abilities. To put it simply, playing a lot and playing well should be rewarded.But there is a reasonable counterargument to that one as well: if you play enough free games, you should buy some to help fund the creation of new content. It's also important to note that these triple-A free-to-play games only remain ad-free thanks to the money made from microtransactions, and that Diablo Immortal still ranks in the middle of the worst offenders in a market where the idea of microtransactions is practically essential.Personally, I think that rather than putting a financial burden on players' wallets to reach certain milestones, they should be rewarded for their efforts. This means that while the vanilla Diablo experience is very enjoyable, the real appeal of Immortal is its cooperative play, which requires you to either participate in microtransactions or completely alter time perception in order to fit 60 hours of grinding into a day. As a result, I find it difficult to fully enjoy Diablo Immortal. You make the decision. All of this causes Diablo Immortal to experience a kind of existential crisis: if one of the primary distinctions between this game and earlier ones is, at least now, a drawback, then why would anybody choose to download Diablo Immortal over an earlier game other than the fact that it is free? As you may have observed by now, with the exception of a few pleasant additions from multiplayer, all of my redeeming elements would have been possible in the main series, and one that, based solely on mission, combat, and technical subtlety, I would have suggested to a player who was new to the series.Furthermore, I still advise you to play Diablo Immortal. It's standard action-RPG stuff, a fantastic introduction to the franchise for newcomers, and a satisfying experience for those holding up for the next main series installment. In addition to all of this, the PvP mechanisms do indicate some development for the series' future, and it will be interesting to see whether the game modes make a comeback as a console premium experience.But I also have to advise against falling in love with Diablo Immortal. Not quite yet, however. The game does not yet compensate you for your full participation. The gates of Diablo Immortal's hell will only feel partially open until these demons are subdued, and the more you go into the beast's guts, the more you realise that in order to escape, you may have to put your hands in your pockets.Update: The greatest Diablo 4 Necromancer build, a complete list of Diablo 4 classes, and suggestions from Blizzard and the PCGamesN team for the best Diablo 4 builds are all available if you're playing the most recent version of the game.
