Diablo Immortal: This is what the Red Shirt Guy thinks about mobile gaming

Blizzcon 2018 is forever associated with this moment: during the Diablo Immortal panel, a man in a red t-shirt steps up to the microphone. “Is this a belated April Fool’s joke?”, he asks with a cold face towards the stage where the developers are trying in vain to get the disappointed fans enthusiastic about their new game. Whistles and applause erupt in the audience, Wyatt Cheng, the project leader of Diablo Immortal, struggles for a disappointed grin. Later, Cheng will say this sentence that has stuck with him to this day: “Don’t you have any phones?” With that, the debacle surrounding Diablo Immortal was complete. (For those who missed it, I covered everything for you in this Blizzcon 2018 special.)

Four years have passed since then: Diablo Immortal is available and the man in the red shirt, who calls himself Dontinquire on Twitter, has tried out the mobile game. It’s mild at first: “Well, I’m level 20 now. And I don’t really hate it. Will be interesting to see how gacha the endgame turns out.” Two weeks later, Dontinquire spoke again: “Diablo Immortal review – It met my expectations. I uninstalled it.”

When asked how he would rate the game on a scale of 1 to 10, he replies, “I don’t know if I would rate it that way. In terms of actual gameplay, it would probably be a 9. It feels freaking awesome .Then you’re hitting the daily soft caps and bullshit Paragon grind, uncompleteable sets, unreachable Legendary Gems, and you have to be in a party for everything until it drops to a fucking pointless 0.”

Of course, Dontinquire is not alone in his disappointment. Many players have Diablo Immortal (buy now ) tried it out and fought through Blizzard’s free2play mobile action RPG for at least a few hours. Gameplay, graphics and atmosphere often earn a lot of praise, for a mobile game Diablo Immortal undoubtedly has a lot to offer. The free content also ensures broad approval, you can play through all classes, all quests and all story chapters completely freely and then kick the game off your device if you want. At the latest in the endgame, however, it becomes apparent how aggressively the game is tailored to in-game purchases. Blizzard rarely misses an opportunity to slow down your character progression or lure you into the shop in other ways. If you want to bring your hero to the maximum, you can’t avoid investing real money – and even then has little chance of success. In my test, I’ll show you in detail where Diablo Immortal’s strengths lie and where the payment model gets in the way of fun. My conclusion: “Love it or hate it – but please don’t spend any money on Diablo Immortal.”