Diablo Immortal review – devilishly tempting

metro.co.uk:

GameCentral tries to separate the fan anger over Diablo Immortal’s microtransactions from the game itself, to see whether there’s still

In the febrile world of online communities, it doesn’t take much to light the blue touch paper of gamers’ fury. If there’s one topic in the world that’s most capable of causing this instantaneous incendiary effect, it’s microtransactions. It wasn’t long ago that the prospect of being able to download a polished video game completely free of charge would have seemed like a beautiful utopia, but cynicism about how free games are monetised has long since replaced that.

It’s fair to say, though, that not all free-to-download games are created equal, and there’s a gulf separating titles like Ni No Kuni: Cross Worlds, with its shameless, NFT-infused pay-to-win mechanics, and something like Team Fortress 2 (before the bots took over). In one you’re eternally handicapped if you don’t drop considerable quantities of real cash. In the other all you’re really missing out on is a collection of sweet hats.

Diablo Immortal sits at neither of those extremes, and in the early game at least, you can play without investing a penny and still experience rapid and extremely satisfying character development. Retaining a tightened version of its older siblings’ gameplay loop, you’re still required to enter dungeons, use screen-filling special moves to dispatch their residents, and harvest a legion of loot from their smoking corpses. And it’s a lot of fun.

Most of the stuff you pilfer is useless apart from its scrap value, but from time to time you’ll find a new piece of kit that provides a small but significant buff, permanently improving your character and letting you take on steadily more powerful and aggressive