Diablo Immortal is not a bad game and shares many similarities with Diablo 3; however, for those prone to impulse purchases, Diablo Immortal employs a somewhat predatory business model that could result in players spending more than they can afford.
Massively Multiplayer.
Singleplayer.
Co-op Multiplayer.
PvP Multiplayer.
Blizzard has been in charge of one of the largest games in history for almost 18 years (World of Warcraft), yet Diablo Immortal has some of the worst performance issues I have ever seen in an MMORPG, with player hubs at times dropping to single-digit fps.
While this alone is not game-breaking, it can cause problems when combat effects cause frame rates to drop in larger group engagements such as world bosses and eight-player raids.
Diablo Immortal places all new players in the adventurers’ faction before allowing them to move to a new faction at around level 45; however, what they do not tell players is moving to a new PvP faction will force them to quit their guild, despite players of all three factions being able to party up to complete both instanced and open-world combat.
This oversight has resulted in players losing access to guilds that they have created with premium currency and later being told they will NOT be receiving a refund of any kind, despite having received no prior warning that joining a new faction primarily for PvP content would require them to leave their current guild.
To round out the oddness, the Immortal faction allows only the 500 best players on the server to participate, ensuring that whales and no-lifers predominantly populate it. In contrast, the vast majority of players are forced to play as the underdog faction (Shadows Faction), who have been given the right to challenge the Immortals for their position, something that happens fairly frequently, but rarely results in Immortal clans losing their privilege, considering the stat buff (crown) given to Immortal Clan leaders and Officers, leading to even more one-sided engagements with the predominantly free-2-play shadows.
PvP is a mess in Diablo Immortal and will only worsen over time.
I hate it when developers offer players limited time or “one-off deals”; it is exploitative and takes advantage of those prone to impulse purchases.
To make this even worse, Diablo Immortal offers players multiple “one-time bundles” at ever-increasing prices after completing each dungeon for the first time, presenting players with a very tempting offer, which, while not bad by itself, could quickly add up to well over $100 when combined with other purchases such as the premium battle pass and various in-game currencies.
Diablo Immortal is a good game. Still, there are much better options for less than $100, which, unlike Diablo Immortal, do not continually tempt players with expensive microtransactions and the lure of buying your way to the top.
Diablo Immortal makes a lot of rather costly mistakes, which has resulted in it receiving the lowest Metacritic rating in the history of Blizzard, however when it comes to group content, Diablo Immortal provides all you could expect and more, with dungeons, rifts, raids, battlegrounds and more ensuring players have easy access to group content any time of the day or night.
After much number-crunching and head rubbing, many in the community have arrived at a startling conclusion, in a worst-case scenario, a player could be required to spend over $100.000 to fully max out their character gear, meaning that the top of the leaderboard is likely to be dominated by crypto millionaires and business owners.
Players who opt to purchase the Boon of Plenty are in for a rude awakening when they discover that failing to log in each day for 30 days will result in them losing the premium reward from any particular day they missed, unlike most titles which allow players to claim premium rewards at any time after they have unlocked.
While this is technically legal, as somewhere in the small print, players undoubtedly have agreed to this (Blizzard are not stupid), it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Despite being a multiplayer title, in which grouping with others is beneficial to smooth progression, joining a guild in Diablo Immortal can prove to be very difficult, and I have personally been rejected by almost a dozen guilds, despite being well-geared and, in several instances having much better gear than anyone else in the guild.
While one or two rejections from larger guilds are to be expected with a hard cap of 100 members per guild, being rejected by even small/new guilds is very uncommon in the MMORPG, and my experience is not a unique one, with many players complaining of being unable to join a guild.
Admittedly this is not something that Blizzard can fix. Still, it’s strange to see even small guilds reacting in such an anti-social manner to potential new guild mates, and I hope that as the community matures, more welcoming guilds and communities will come to the forefront.
PVP in Diablo Immortal is incredibly pay-2-win because players can purchase legendary gems much easier and quicker than anyone could hope to earn them through actually playing the game.
While it’s possible for highly skilled free players to triumph against “credit card warriors”, the average free player will find themselves entirely outmatched.
While all ARPGs are grindy at their core, and grinding in moderate doses can be rewarding, Diablo Immortal feels like it was deliberately structured to encourage players to part with as much money as possible to alleviate that grind.
While this is entirely legal, it is certainly a moral grey area that I cannot support, especially when so many people have to cut corners to pay the bills in a post-pandemic world.
Diablo Immortal has a surprisingly in-depth character customization system for a free 2-play mobile-first ARPG, with a surprisingly diverse selection of skin tones and hairstyles, ensuring that players can create a character that represents them.
While there is always room for improvement, Diablo Immortal has one of the most diverse character creators in the history of the Diablo franchise.
The Diablo Immortal cash shop sells a wide selection of cosmetic items, no surprise there; what is surprising, however, is the amount of pay-2-win and pay-for-convenience items that put most mobile games to shame, from additional loot and gauntleted legendary drops to in-game resources, players with enough money to spend can easily find themselves at the top of the leaderboard and more disturbingly find themselves dominating at PVP, ensuring that only the very best free-2-play have even the smallest chance of winning one v one against a player who has bought their way to the top.
While an unskilled pay-2-win player can still be defeated in a fair fight, even a moderately skilled player with a credit card will have near-instant access to the best builds and items, ensuring their victory.
While Diablo Immortal can be enjoyed for free, and even more so with very little in the way of financial investment, to compete at the highest echelons of PvP and PvE, players will be forced to empty their wallets or effectively sell their soul to Diablo Immortal, and invest 8–10 hours every day in remaining competitive.
Diablo Immortal is a massively multiplayer online role playing game video game developed and published by Blizzard Entertainment, it was released on 2 June 2022 and it is Free-2-Play.
Diablo Immortal is available on the following platforms: Android, IOS, and PC.
Diablo Immortal remains in active development, with new seasonal content released every 30 days and major content updates occurring roughly four times a year, in addition to various limited-time events intended to keep the player base entertained between major content drops.
While Blizzard has not revealed how many people are playing, it is estimated that over 40 million players have downloaded the app since its launch in June 2022; however, the vast majority of players most likely did not stick around long after seeing the pay-2-win business model, and relatively poor server performance.
On average Diablo Immortal takes between 25 and 100 hours to complete.
Estimated completion times are derived from various sources and may vary based on the skill level of each player.
Diablo Immortal supports:
Diablo Immortal offers the following matchmaking options:
The Diablo Immortal in-game store sells:
The following peripherals are officially supported:
Diablo Immortal is rated PEGI 18+ and contains:
Diablo Immortal has improved greatly since its launch, and some of the most egregious aspects of its monetization have been toned down or removed entirely. What remains is still too much for my liking, and it could be a stumbling block for some prone to impulse purchases.
