Diablo Immortal feels uncomfortably mercenary
Diablo Immortal’s announcement upset a lot of fans of the franchise who felt a mobile version of their beloved game would come at the expense of a more traditional Diablo gaming experience. After a short time with the game ahead of its release on June 2nd (though the game has been rolling out early in some regions today), I found two things to be true. The first is that Blizzard has created a game that admirably captures the look and feel of a traditional Diablo game. The second is that Immortal is also a game designed to extract the most money out of its players.
From the couple hours I’ve played, the map is expansive with many different areas gated by level requirements and many places within those areas in which you can get up to all the demon-killing shenanigans your heart desires. After an initial onboarding tutorial, you’re given the option to have the game auto-run you from objective to objective, or you can mosey about an area killing random demons or acquiring random loot.
I liked the auto-run feature. Diablo Immortal seems designed with appointment gaming in mind, so I appreciated the ability to get to the meat of the game without the gristle of time-wasting travel. And when I did have time to sit with the game for a longer period, my exploration was gamely rewarded by a chance encounter with a challenging world boss.
Combat also has the same complexity as Diablo prime, with classes given multiple abilities that you can trigger at varying levels of size and impact. I played the crusader, a melee class with both physical and magical abilities, and I liked bashing enemies with my mace or blinding them with holy light. There’s also an ultimate ability that you can use for an extra boost of power similar to
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