Hey, and we’re back with another game. In this article, we will be doing the Diablo Immortal Game Review. In this review, I will be giving you my first impressions and some pros and cons of the game.
This one obviously you don’t buy. It’s free to download. But we’re talking about Diablo Immortal.
This is that free-to-play Diablo game that was announced way back.
It’s available, not just on iOS and Android, but also on PC in beta.
Diablo Immortal Game Review
We’ve been grinding through it and we have some thoughts.
Now, Activision Blizzard has had multiple troubles lately from an organizational standpoint to a consumer standpoint.
The stuff they gotta figure out and they have a lot of making up to do, and I don’t know if Diablo Immortal is gonna win any favor.
You know, at least with the hardcore crowd. I don’t know.
But the game is fun. If you don’t wanna touch anything that feels mobile or feels free to play, I don’t know if this is gonna win you over though.
You know, it’s actually, to me, at least after like 14 hours or so, adventuring with my character who I named Large.
Yes, you are reading that right. It’s a decent mobile-y version of Diablo, which is pretty cool in theory.
There’s a lot of quality graphics and gameplay here and a lot of fun, but it also has the typical free-to-play stuff, which I definitely will get to.
Now, I did play mostly mobile, just so you guys know from this gameplay footage here.
Diablo Immortal: Mobile Experience
Since it was a mobile-first thing, I just played it on the go. It syncs with a controller fine.
And the controls are decent, and the touchscreen controls, I think, are really good and smooth.
We’ve come a long way from the old days of touch controls. It’s pretty easy and fun to play here.
And that’s the thing, man. Like, it ropes you in with the addictive Diablo gameplay.
It almost feels like Intro 101 to Diablo. Like it may not be, like, insane enough for vets, but it’s pretty cool.
Now the free-to-play elements aren’t immediately there and you otherwise get a straight-up fully featured Diablo game.
It has leaderboards, clan support, full playing with others, a battle net, loot systems, dungeons, instances, raids, large maps, big city hub area.
The whole nine yards. It’s fully playable and has everything you’d expect.
Tons of content, Tons of options. Even down to graphic settings on mobile.
Accessibility options are good. And like I keep saying, it is fun.
You pick a class.
You create a character with some, you know, limited options.
And you set out on the adventure.
Diablo Immortal: Combat System
You have your basic attack, which you can hold down to auto attack, and your abilities are mapped to separate buttons that you can swap.
And as you level up, you earn access to more powerful and new attacks.
Combat is satisfying. Even if it’s simple.
The abilities always look and feel impressive and have their specific use cases as far as I can see.
And of course, there’s just a bunch of loot.
Weapons, armor pieces, accessories, gold. It drops often.
And it is of course, rife with opportunities for modifying and upgrading. Enemies die in a satisfying fashion and give you that nice pop where they drop loot or gold.
But I also want to point out that the graphics are good enough that there are some really cool death animations.
Like, it’s satisfying to kill some enemies.
Enemies will like a claw at their faces as their flesh disappears, and then they explode.
Some enemies slowly turn to stone. The big bosses sometimes will like, cough up blood and take a long time to finally fall down.
All of it is really cool.
And I’ve been enjoying the enemy types and boss encounters.
Are you mindlessly sorceress or hacking and slashing your way through environments endlessly? Yeah, but the environments are cool and the loop seems to be somewhat satisfying.
It doesn’t really totally give me the old school feeling, the old school days of playing the original Diablo II, but it is pretty solid.
Diablo Immortal Game Review: Story
The story? You know, maybe not so much. Keep in mind though, that I’m like a regular Diablo player.
I really play them for the gameplay and then move on.
You know, I’m not ultra hardcore, So I haven’t cared too much about the lore in general, but I have cared about it the least here with this game.
It feels like it’s just throwing a bunch of stuff at you.
The part that really bothered me was when it tried to like, story reason explains a magical rare crest item that I needed to modify my rift for more bonuses where it really is just a free-to-play element.
Like, don’t try to think that I’m that dumb that you have to give me lore for the monetization, dude.
So I guess on that note, we’ll talk that stuff.
All the main gameplay, the dungeons, the PVP stuff, and the raids are free.
Other than the occasional obnoxious onscreen element and the battle pass stuff and rewards, it’s just a regular old mobile Diablo game that you can play and progress through.
And I’ll be frank, I keep saying. It is fun.
And it seems like from my playing and from reports, you can just play casually through and experience the story and the adventure alone or with friends.
That’s all well and good.
In-Game Purchases: Battle pass
There’s just a lot you can spend money on. Cosmetics, which, you know, don’t bother me personally.
An upgraded battle pass. Crafting materials, and overly complicated items and currency systems where you get one thing, but then you’re gonna want to use it to make this other thing to get this other thing.
Like I alluded to earlier, the rifts now have like a bit of a randomized loop box feel to them more so where you get random rewards, but if you use some crests, you’ll make out better.
These are also where you’ll get the good gems.
Like the end-game armor reforging stuff requires a lot more material and rare drops from you.
And some of it you can technically get with these orbs or engaging in the real-world auction house, which just all makes things messy.
Look, some folks might not mind this stuff.
I might sound like I’m whining, but my eyes just glaze over with this stuff.
I just wanna play the game. Maybe I would’ve paid 20 bucks to just get a good simple Diablo mobile, really, without any of this.
This stuff is just annoying and overly convoluted.
And while it might not totally be pay to win, It definitely pays for something.
And again, it’s not that bad for the main game, but it seems like it’s more of a thing for the end game and it doesn’t sound necessarily fun.
Just a grind machine. You can go far without spending anything.
But when part of the game’s design just revolves around this stuff, it’s still just a turnoff for me personally.
Monetization Issues
And I wanna be clear. It’s still early, and as more and more players make their way to the end game and get deep into the end game, that’s where it’s gonna show how bad monetization truly is.
Some people had issues with Genshin Impact monetization that only got worse after you dumped over like, 100 hours into it.
We don’t really know how bad Diablo Immortal can be yet.
And I wanna be upfront with that. For me personally, if there’s even a faint smell of me playing a game for 80 hours, and then it’s like, oh, after that maybe the monetization will be not that bad or maybe it will be bad.
Either way, the fact that I possibly could hit some sort of wall where I would be pushed more to spend money on unnecessarily expanded monetization schemes, I just lose interest.
The other thing they do need to figure out is the account stuff. It seems like right now, right after launch, if you do buy into stuff like cosmetics or battle pass rewards, that stuff is locked to your single character or your server.
It is not account-wide, which seems like not a very good decision. I’m not putting any money into this, but even if I did, I would want that on my account, account-wise.
It’s the least they could do. And it’s all a shame, ’cause like I said, I think there’s actually a good, clean, fun Diablo game here.
If you download it for free and put 10 hours into it and have a good time, I guess that’s not the worst thing in the world.
Is it the hardest of the hardcore? No. But it’s not for babies either. You know, I’ve had a lot of fun looting and killing, and just doing it on the go and then back at home on my PC.
It’s been nice. Straight up. Gameplay, graphics, presentation. They did a good job. There’s game-making skill here and a healthy budget. It’s the real deal.
I just can’t help but be a little skeptical of the free-to-play stuff.
Every player is different. You know, millions upon millions of people do play this stuff and they don’t care.
So, it might not bother them. It might not bother you, but that’s just me.
- Read more: Evil Dead: The Game Review
Diablo Immortal Game Review: Conclusion
The rest of the game is pretty darn good. I love the enemies. The classes. I love the streamlined gameplay and menus. I like the depth of options.
The environments, the spooky creatures, the sound effects, the beautiful and expansive city hub.
Even the community interactions. The core game does have a lot going for it.
I’m just curious to see how it goes long-term, and really ultimately how the community takes to it.
Either way, we figured you guys were curious. We wanted to give you some info of just how we were feeling and just some gameplay so you could see it running and kind of judge for yourself.
That’s the Diablo Immortal Game Review. That’s the ending catchphrase, right? I will give you some pros, some cons, and some personal opinions.
So now I wanna hear yours down in the comments. I’ve talked to all types of people. People who are really digging it casually, and some people who don’t wanna touch it with a 10-foot pole.
Just because of sticking to their principles with monetization and stuff like that.
So there can be a lot of good conversation here. I just ask for it all to be civil.
And I do really wanna know what you think either way. If you’re playing it, how you’re feeling, what class you’re rolling with. Have you been playing with friends? How’s that been going? I’ve really only tested it here and there, but I wanna know what the deal is.
And if you aren’t even touching this thing, I would definitely like to know what they would have to do for you to jump in or really just let’s talk about something else. Like what you’re looking forward to with Diablo IV. Let’s talk about anything Diablo Immortal down in the comments. We definitely wanna hear from you.
You can also reach out to us on Twitter.
