Okay friends I am going to do a bit of a thought experiment. I have spent so much time focused on the awful monetization systems, that I am going to take a step back and evaluate the game based on all of the systems that do not involve spending money. This is a huge fucking ask mind you because especially considering that the game reminds you that you can spend money an awful lot. However this morning I am going to make a case for Diablo Immortal the game, not the scheme to separate you from your hard-earned money. Ultimately I am looking at how good of a job this game does of being a Diablo title that is designed to be played in bite-sized segments on your phone.
The Case For Immortal
Bite Sized Interactions
The game has an almost overwhelming amount of boxes to tick, and the deeper you go into the game it seems like more of these systems open up. I now have way more daily systems than I can realistically interact with at least on the level that I am playing this game. Each of these systems only takes a few minutes to play through, which makes them generally ideal for mobile interaction. Collectively they add up to a lot and in theory every single day I should be doing:
- 1 or more Elder Rifts
- 1 or more Challenge Rifts
- 8 Bounties (or more if you missed days)
- Legacy of the Horadrim
- Helliquary
- 5 Shadow Bounties
- Path of Blood
- 3 Bestiary Pages
- Any Daily Quests
- Any Bonus Dungeons
While Elder Rifts are deeply fraught, they can be run for free without the use of any crests and I have managed to get a full set of “pity” Legendary Gems while running basic crests without spending a time. Sure my resonance is crap as compared to the whales but the game seems completely playable regardless. The rest of the systems are open to players without needing to spend any money and offer several hours’ worth of playtime. As to whether or not you can actually make “progress” in these systems that is another question entirely. I however have found a large number of Legendary armor items out in the open world and from the rewards, I have gotten from both bounty caches and turning in bestiary pages.
Interesting Social Systems
Another thing that Diablo Immortal has gone for is that there are multiple layers of social interactions, that end up adding up to their own systems of interaction. First, you have an 8-player Warband which is its own close-knit group with a reward structure depending on playing together regularly. There is gear that the entire team gains access to, and from what I am hearing it is often a world tier higher than what you can equip through other means. I have largely been playing solo and as such have not interacted with this system in a significant way. I however have seen folks talking about it and it looks cool.
Then you have clans that serve the purpose of a guild, and over time you gain perks as a result of being in a clan. Wythfern is lead by my friend Namaslays and we recently had to kick out anyone that was not high enough level to be a “shadow” in order to make the clan a Dark Clan. That mechanic needs some work to be honest because I do not love that in order to align your clan and gain the benefits of that… EVERYONE has to be a Shadow. Essentially there is Adventurer, Shadow, and Immortal and they are all essentially mutually exclusive alignments.
These factions all have their own perks, but I think the sweet spot is probably being a shadow. There is this whole guild conflict system that we will probably never be big enough to actually interact with, but essentially there is one single clan that are the Immortals of the server, and then any number of Shadow Clans that keep them in check. The ten strongest shadow clans can challenge the immortals once per week, and if the Immortal is defeated… then there is a free for all among the top shadow clans to determine who the next immortal is.
Again it is highly unlikely Wytchfern will ever be one of the top 10 shadow clans on the server, but what this faction alignment does give us is a bunch of new daily levers to pull in order to get loot and gameplay opportunities.
Nuanced Build Options
I have yet to cap out my character and start working on the paragon system. However, I have seen enough of the game through the eyes of others in order to understand the path forward. There are a number of systems that interact with each other that allow you to create a fairly interesting character build. I am going to spend a little bit of time talking about each of these systems, and how they effectively add up to a character build.
The first component of a character build is the abilities that you are using. These unlock as you play through the game and level up and pretty much represent all of the abilities that you are familiar with from other Diablo games. Essentially you have one of two primary attacks, and then four skills that you can have equipped at a time. There is not a ton of synergy between the skills themselves, which is I think in part why the game felt a little shallow until I started opening up the next system.
The next component of your build is the six pieces of legendary gear that you have equipped on the right side of your character portrait. Each piece has some sort of a trait on it, which are effectively the equivalent of the combination of runes that you choose in Diablo 3 and the legendary/set gear that you equip. Each one mutates the base skills you have equipped in specific ways and grants you access to that inter-ability synergy that was missing.
At first, I thought this system was sort of crap, in that it seemed you just needed to be lucky to get the right items at the right level in order to have the build that you actually wanted at any given time. Then I stumbled onto the essence transfer system which is this game’s equivalent of Kunai’s Cube. Essentially you can consume an item, spend a bit of gold, and then collect the special effect of any piece of legendary gear. Then at will, you can go to the Essence Transfer merchant and effectively give any new piece of gear the effect of any item you have consumed. This allows you to take those items that are a significant upgrade, but make them function like the items you need for a given build.
The next piece is something that I have yet to experience in the game because it is not a system that you can interact with prior to the maximum level. The six items that appear on the left-hand side of your character portrait make up this game’s version of the “Set Items”. Instead of needing to choose between wearing a set item or a legendary item in a given slot, they have effectively separated all of your gear so that you will always be utilizing both. Every piece of gear has a specific place where it drops, so it is just a matter of grinding out until you get it.
Another system that I have yet to be able to interact with is the Paragon system. Much like Diablo 3, after you hit the maximum level you start gaining Paragon points. Instead of these being pure stat increases, they go into what is effectively a talent tree with an example shown above. These choices give you power but can also be used to shape your build in a specific direction. If you want to be really tanky, then there is a path for that. If you want to be pure dps… then there is a path for that.
Now we get into the bad parts of the character build… the first of course being the six legendary gems that you are utilizing. Again this is a system that you only have the most basic interaction with as a free player because you will never see anything higher than a two-star gem, which means there are nine of the most powerful gems you will never see… unless you figure out some way of gaming the system and making lots of platinum. Each gem gives you specific boosts and the total quality of all of the gems equipped gives you a flat increase in total effectiveness. A bad system, but it is nonetheless part of the character build profile.
Lastly of the systems, I am currently aware of, you have charms. These are the most RNG thing I have ever experienced in a game, and each time you level one of these up… you a random bonus to some ability in the game. It is highly likely that MOST of these skill increases will be for a class you are not even playing. Each bonus has between a 2% and 10% increase, but one with 2% will always end up giving you 2% on all abilities on the charm. So not only is it highly unlikely that you are going to get a bonus to your class… it is equally unlikely you are going to get a buff to an ability that you actually use. The goal is to get a Charm with your primary attack and all four of your skills on it, but that will take a lot of effort and a lot of platinum. There is a whole system of extracting a skill stone from a charm for 500 platinum, and then using that skill stone to imbue another charm… probably being it chooses a random ability from the charm you extracted from. A purposefully frustrating system that is going to be a massive platinum sink for those who chose to chase it.
Other than the two last systems… I think the game does a pretty solid job of giving you a bunch of levers that you can pull to finally end up with a pretty engaging character to play.
Fun Gameplay
Essentially it is a core Diablo fix in your pocket. The gameplay feels enough like a mainline Diablo game to be satisfying. I have to give the team credit that this is a really well-crafted experience and the story helps to plug the gap between the events of Diablo 2 and the events of Diablo 3. When I say Diablo Immortal is a dumpster fire, I am not talking about the actual gameplay. To be honest I would love to be able to play this game on the Nintendo Switch. I think this is maybe the perfect Diablo for a platform like that. The problem is that monetization is always there lurking in the background and ultimately tarnishes the good feelings that this game has in it.
The Case Against
Overly Aggressive Per Character Monetization
I feel like I don’t need to go into this one at length because I have done so in another post. The ways this game has to extract money from you are many and are constantly just lurking beneath the surface. There are definitely three classes of citizens in Diablo land: The serfs (free players), the knights(limited payers), and the lords(the whales). If you can ignore it completely there is still a really enjoyable game to be experienced, but the fact it is always there always trying to open your wallet just feels bad.
Anemic Rewards
Diablo by nature is a grindy game, but Immortal makes a standard Diablo game feel like the most rewarding loot fest you have ever experienced. Coming back to Diablo 3 felt like I was bathing in a constant wash of dopamine hits as Legendaries dropped my manna from heaven all around me. Almost everything you are going to do in Diablo Immortal is going to feel deeply unrewarding. Generally speaking white quality and blue quality loot is useless… which is why you will see players not even bothering to loot it in videos. Yellow quality is somewhat useful but only for the single material you are going to get from breaking it down… and you will need to repeat that process 50 to 100 times per item slot depending on the tier of gear you are trying to upgrade to. It feels bad to play for an hour and feel like you really didn’t make much in the way of progress or get any interesting loot in the process.
Traditional Diablo Games Exist
I think my biggest strike against Diablo Immortal is the fact that other Diablo games exist and feel way more rewarding for your time. I’ve been back having a blast in Diablo 3 and swimming in rewards… and it feels great. I will say though that playing Diablo Immortal has made me really wish that the PC version of Diablo 3 had controller support. What Diablo Immortal gives you that no other game can is the ability to play it on your phone. If you are not playing it on your phone… then I think at some point you will probably drift back to whatever your ARPG of choice is… because it will treat you better in the long run. Already seeing folks going back to other Diablo games like I did or Path of Exile/Torchlight.
Summary Judgement
Diablo Immortal is actually really fun to play, for short periods of time. The thing is that formula kinda fits the mobile device footprint perfectly. I am not sure about you, but when I play a mobile game I tend to play it for 5 to 15 minutes at a time before doing something else. In that amount of time, you could do two or three activities and then go on and do something else for a while, without feeling like you are being interrupted. I would say this is a Diablo uniquely targetted at its original intended market, and we would probably not be judging it so harshly were it not for the fact that it came from a AAA franchise and was also released on PC at the same time. This PC release is namely what I think is making us view it in a very specific light that is deeply unflattering to the game.
I absolutely think the monetization strategy is awful, and there is nothing I will ever say that provides cover to it in any way. I think had this launched with a battle pass and cosmetics, we would have welcomed it with open arms. It is really the Legendary Gem system that is the sticking point, and how the best stuff is currently completely locked off to being an exclusive whale thing. If they made monetization tweaks it could be fairer… but the damage has already been done. Even if in six months I create a post expounding upon how much better everything is… it is not going to move the needle. I mean shit I have done this with New World and I have seen almost none of my friends attempting to give it a second chance.
Diablo Immortal gives me equal parts of hope and fear about what Diablo 4 is going to look like. The team has come out in force to say that Diablo 4 will not have the monetization that Diablo Immortal did. While I want to believe them… there is always going to be lingering doubt. Monetization aside, however, I do actually like a lot of the systems design work that went into Diablo Immortal and if we see things along those lines with Diablo 4, I think I am probably going to enjoy myself greatly. I especially like the social structures within Immortal, and I am hoping we see something like that happening in Diablo 4. If you are a big fan of the Diablo franchise, and especially Diablo 3… then I really do think that Diablo Immortal is worth playing with a whole stack of caveats attached to that statement. I still plan on staying in the serf territory, because I do not relish the thought of rewarding whoever came up with this awful monetization scheme. That said were things different I likely would have bought the battlepass and maybe some cosmetics and paid upwards of a $60 boxed game price on this. For the time being however that is a pandora’s box I am leaving sealed shut as I continue to dabble around in the parts of the game that cost me nothing… of which it is ample especially as a tertiary game.