Somehow, Diablo Immortal (Free) is here. It was announced back in November 2018 in a presentation that has been written into memetic legend. It feels like a million years ago that the words “Do you guys not have phones?" were uttered by a fellow who probably regretted them as soon as they left his mouth. The explosive (and not in a good way) reaction from fans. A slow and steady development. A global pandemic. The rise of Apple Arcade. All that nonsense between Epic and Apple with Fortnite. Serious allegations against Blizzard and Activision. Microsoft buying the whole darned shebang. And somehow, Diablo Immortal is here.
How do I even write about this? What can I even say about a game that became a story just by existing? Even now, it’s still hitting headlines. Some countries won’t see a release of the game due to anti-lootbox laws. Does anyone care about the game itself? Or is this just the video game version of a roadside accident everyone slows down to gawk at before driving on? I’ve sunk plenty of hours into Diablo Immortal already, and while I’m sure I can give you some informative details, I doubt the broad strokes will surprise many.
The game is really fun. Like, it’s hard to put it down. Unmistakably streamlined in many ways (bye bye mana, hello cooldowns), but it is still very much Diablo. Defeating enemies, exploring dungeons, gathering loot, and building your character all have enough of the proper essence to give you the experience you would hope for. It’s a full-blown MMO take on the idea, and you’ll see other players running around and chatting as you play. Despite that change it checks most of the boxes that make Diablo such a well-loved series, and it feels like it has been polished to an absolute shine. Whether you’re going it alone or playing with others, it’s an excellent way to pass some time. As expected, really.
But it’s also unsurprisingly leaning pretty hard on a number of monetization tricks, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel their impact immediately and see much more frightening things down the road. I can see the glint of its headlight. I can hear its whistle on the wind. It’s coming. And of course it is. This is a free-to-play mobile game. It has to earn its keep somehow. And it’s going to do that in a lot of well-established ways. Battle passes. “Special" offers. Making resources ever so slightly scarce in a way that gets worse over time. Cosmetics. The end-game in particular looks very much like it’s aimed at the rich. As expected, really.
I have to stress that Diablo Immortal isn’t especially egregious with any of this stuff relative to other similar free-to-play titles. It’s all very much par for the course, and it’s built in that modern style where you can enjoy a rather substantial amount of what the game offers without even thinking about spending money. If you’re used to all of this monetization stuff, your concerns are probably going to rest more on its restrictive server/character structure that makes it so that you basically have to plan ahead if you want to play with your friends. If you’re not on the same server, you can’t play together. If you pay for a Battle Pass, it is tied to a particular character. I think they’re needless restrictions, but there they are.
You can use a controller if you want, but the touch controls may actually work best here. It’s easier to aim your skills and magic, and standard actions like moving and fighting feel natural. You have some control over performance as well, and you may want to fiddle with those options for the sake of your device’s battery. At its best, the game looks and runs great. Even on slightly older devices, it’s still pretty easy on the eyes. The audio side of things perhaps isn’t quite up to what I expect from this series, but it’s fine enough.
Diablo Immortal feels as though a talented development team took a lot of time and effort to make a fantastic mobile MMO that doesn’t tarnish the esteemed brand attached to it, and then applied all the depressing elements one must include in order to make money with this sort of thing. It wouldn’t be fair to punish this particular game for simply dancing to the beat of this broken market of ours, so I won’t. And I’m very sure a lot of people are going to pour tons of hours into it and have a wonderful time while spending far less than the price of the average new premium Diablo game. There’s nothing here in terms of free-to-play monetization that we haven’t seen before, and I imagine many of us have honed our ability to ignore such things. So we will. That’s how it is.
But gosh, I’m a bit tired of this. Sometimes I sit back and look at what we’ve allowed ourselves to get used to, and it makes me sad. This is an excellent game. I want to recommend that people play it, but I know in doing so that some small percentage of the people reading this aren’t going to ignore the siren’s call of those microtransactions, and some small percentage of that small percentage are going to spend more than they can afford. And I can’t feel good about that. I can’t feel good about that at all. I hate that I have this dilemma. I hate that game designers have to build their games this way. I feel like I’m reviewing a pack of smokes. And again, it isn’t on Diablo Immortal to pay for these sins. This is just where I have a chance to rant about it, I suppose.
Obviously, I’m a bit conflicted. But it’s only fair to review Diablo Immortal the way we have reviewed games like this before and the way we will probably review games like this in the future. By those standards, yes, this is a fantastic action-RPG experience. Go clear up the twelve gigabytes or so that you’ll need, download it, and get into it. It’s going to try to sell you things, but it will use a very soft sell approach until you’re in very deep indeed. Perhaps deeper in than many of you will play anyway. Diablo Immortal is here. It is everything we could have hoped for, and everything we have feared.
What is the best way to monetize a game like this? The devs need $ to make it worthwhile and to keep producing content, but it also can’t be this dangerous. It seems like one-time purchase isn’t enough to win an audience so what’s a better alternative? Free with lots of premium expansions? Cosmetic IAP? Subscription or part of a subscription service like Apple Arcade?
What I wish is that mobile players hadn't been so whiny about paying up-front for a game. I loved X-Com. Pay up front, and now the devs have no decisions to make except "How can I make it fun?" I like some of your ideas though. I wish Blizzard had used these instead of what they went for.
I never object to IAP for cosmetics -- real money to buy a hot-dog suit or whatever doesn't bother me at all.
Otherwise, have *at most* 1-2 real-money currencies in the game. More just means you're trying to be confusing and obfuscate the actual cost of things. Also, provide some means to earn a modest amount of any currency through regular gameplay. If I just play the game a little every day, and I make something like $1-2 worth of currency a week, that doesn't feel predatory. Maybe I have to save up my "daily quest rewards" for a month to unlock a new character or buy a week's worth of Double XP. I don't feel penalized because saving up what I earn through playing the game is what I'd be doing in a buy-to-play game anyway.
Weirdly enough, my best example is another Blizzard game, Heroes of the Storm. I play a couple times a month, and in 2 years I got like 10 free characters and enough gold to buy 5-10 more, just by completing daily quests. At the same time, my son could buy like $10 worth of currency to get one or two guys he really wanted, and I didn't feel like he got ripped off, *and* if some whale out there wanted to give them $500 to unlock every skin for 20 different characters, they have the opportunity.
Fortnite, much like Diablo has a compelling enough gameplay loop to suck you in and yet only offers cosmetic IAP. If you avoid the item shop like the plague you can make the battle pass system perpetually free by using your free currency from last season to pay for the next one. You can also play the entire game for free and occasionally (normally xmas) Epic will even give away a few skins. *Nothing* offers any gameplay advantages. And yet the game still rakes in billions.
This is the model all other titles should seek to emulate.
I'm not ready to pay for just about any (mobile) game up front because so many of those are such garbage. The again, I really also hate these micro transaction hells. I'd rather pay for the game once than multiple times. And seriously, I would not pay $60 for a mobile game.
For me the best option would probably be a free-to-start game which would allow you to play the first 10-20 levels or so (in a Diablo-like game) which would let me get used to the mechanics, to see if the content is something I enjoy and then require a one-time-payment to continue playing. And it should make this clear right from the start: You CAN play freely for a while but there's a place where you will hit the wall. Maybe even allow people to play different chars with that level cap. I think they had something like that in WoW? You get more people in the ecosystem, those that won't play for it no matter what would not pay for it anyway and if they're ok playing as lowbies that's just fine. The more the merrier.
Sure, you could monetize with cosmetic sets, so many people are ok paying for that. Maybe even battle pass like stuff in addition to the one-time-payment. Anything beats having to watch ads all the time to get some of the critical resources you can't live without - and if those are locked behind too crazy schemes I walk away anyway.
I don't really see expansions working unless they are so integrated into the main game you could play together with those without the expansions. So added solo campaigns, new character classes (assuming the main game can handle those without having to pay for the upgrade for those who just want to group with them), whatever. There are plenty of ways to monetize the game even after the initial payment without ruining it. Too bad so many get greedy at some point.
Brilliant game, taking the mobile into the next level ANNNND already deleted it before i get sucked in. Yes you can play it free, yes you can make SMALL payments if you want, yes the boon of plenty is a nice sub option.. BUT this should also include the battle pass. I know my weakness and I will spend money to grind.. and I always walk away before temptation kicks in.
If I want diablo mobile, I will just streanm from my PS4 or play on switch. I dont need to spend vast amounts of money for the diablo experience AND this game doesnt actually offer much more than D3
I honestly do not understand why would anyone play this Bootleg chinese Diablo3 reskin. A used laptop is like 100 bucks which plays D3 which can be bought for like 25bucks on sale and offers way superior experience without the predatory monetization of this abomination.
Anyone playing this on PC and paying for it is mentally sick and needs help.
I think bots will overtake big time as it is designed for minus 666 IQ.
I was really surprised they bothered to make a desktop port, but apparently it's because people (who????) would have just emulated it on desktop anyway. I wouldn't mind having a game like this on my phone, just maybe not one that's as grossly monetize as this. (As the article says, though, I'm not holding my breath...)
I tried it on my pad. Worked ok, I will probably play thru the story while I'm traveling. But the monetization is from hell! If they weren't so scummy with pay to win bullshit, I would consider buy a battlepass here and there. But now they get zero money from me.
That's why Path of Exiles developer said it is not a game. It is basically a gambling tool with diablo 3 skin on it.
The real tragedy here is that it can be both. Lots of reviews say, this is fun and engaging to play without spending a dime, it just feels like you're spending the whole time on the Vegas strip -- all glowing neon COME SPEND MONEY billboards in your face. It sounds like, if this weren't a multimillion dollar game from a multibillion dollar company, Apple Arcade could buy it, rip out the IAPs, and it would be the best game on the platform.
Marketing works, it already made 24million dollars, 43% of it is from US... Actually I enjoy the gameplay and don't find the shop intrusive while leveling. The normal difficulty is easy enough that anything remotely harder boss, comes as challenge improving the fun experience. Imho no one has to spend anything to beat the content. It is a casual arpg made for mobiles. If you want to be maximalist and do the same content zillion times with bigger numbers to be the loser king of the hill, sure > prepare to gamble your whole life earnings away.
The very idea of paying a single cent to advance in a game / gain power is completely disgusting to me and makes gaming pointless.
It costs $110,000 to max out a character in this game. Don't support it. Ideally don't support any of this freemium crap. Even if it's fun. Even if you can enjoyably play without spending. The fact that sort of spend is possible (and will be done by some susceptible people) means these games should be raged against.
It's an easy deal for me. A new Tesla S or a fully stacked Barbarian. Of course I'll take the Barbar :D
So, for you, abusing vulnerable people is fine? ok then.
I miss the early days of the mobile gaming seen back with the iPhone 3GS/4 era when you had to pay for almost every game up front. People whined and complained that $5 for a game was too much and thus this crap was born.
Well I mean this site is called "touchcade" I don't know what I was expecting
> I feel like I’m reviewing a pack of smokes.
Ugh. And accurate.
I played Immortal for an hour or so, decided that I'm happy to just play the copy of Diablo 3 that I already own if/when I get the Action RPG itch, and deleted Immortal.