Review: Diablo Immortal

destructoid.com:

The last time we checked in with Diablo Immortal, things were going decent enough. Immortal shows pretty well on mobile, but with the pre-release review period ending, I shifted gears a bit into the PC edition to see how that one held up.

I wasn’t ready for the dark underbelly of microtransactions, which reared up in the live version.

Diablo Immortal (Android, iOS, PC [reviewed])Developer: Blizzard, NetEasePublisher: BlizzardReleased: June 2, 2022MSRP: Free-to-play (with microtransactions)

So we already talked about the core fundamentals in the review in progress: suffice to say everything still holds up. The game runs well on my iPhone 11, and the ability to swap between traditional pads and touch controls is a great compromise. In theory, the gameplay really showcases how far mobile games have come in 2022 from say, 2009’s Flight Control (what a magical time for mobile gaming before freemium completely took over). The PC experience is considerably less impressive, but still upholds the core tenets of gameplay. We’ll get to the monetization elements soon enough.

Digging more into the story, I was vibing with the give and take nature of what is essentially a gaiden taking place between Diablo 2 and 3. A lot of familiar faces come back to help you on your quest, including Deckard Cain, Charsi, and even Xul from Heroes of the Storm. It has a silly “all your friends are here!” feel to it that I actually embraced very quickly, as everyone attempts to rid the world of Diablo’s essence and influence once again. Not a lot happens, and there’s a lot of expository dialogue that mainly deals with the next immediate task at hand. But the constant go-go nature does work for a game like this.

It’s very much a streamlined deal, which