Online game "Diablo Immortal"

Diablo Immortal has, shall we say, an uneasy relationship with the players. More precisely, with the active part of the community of fans of the series. At the time of the announcement they were unhappy that Blizzard introduced a free-to-play MMO for mobiles and PC, but not a fourth part of Diablo. And after the release, many criticized the game for the fact that the micropayment system makes you pay maxi-money for some items and features. But why is Diablo Immortal still actively being played? How does it correspond to the spirit of legendary series and is the donation really so scary? We tell in our review.

Despite the criticism of some fans of the series and the fact that Diablo Immortal is not a numbered part of the franchise, it is in fact perfectly and quite logically fit into the history of this universe. It is set between Diablo II: Lord of Destruction and the third installment.

Here we must remember that in this setting humans are the descendants of angels and demons, though distant, who no longer want to participate in the eternal war between them. Escaping, they took with them a powerful artifact called the Stone of Creation, which allowed you to create a world refuge Sanctuary Sanctuary. This is where the events of the Diablo series unfold.

So in the final scene of Diablo II: Lord of Destruction the demon lord Baal desecrated the stone of creation, that after that can destroy everything he touches. But Baal didn't have time to finish what he had planned, he was defeated by a group of well known heroes. Moreover, Archangel Tyrael threw his sword El'druin into the desecrated stone of the universe, and it was not a good decision.

After the destruction of the artifact that created this world, the Sanctuary was no longer a sanctuary - angels and demons saw it. In addition, the very essence of reality and the Sanctuary's inhabitants began to change. Most importantly, the shards of the rock of creation, scattered throughout the world, began to defile the earth. At the same time, they have such a powerful power that Diablo's friends decided to find them and use this power to bring the Lord of Terror back to life.

Diablo Immortal story campaign starts from the very moment when the hero or heroine you've created also goes in search of the fragments of world creation stone to prevent Diablo's resurrection. In the process, of course, we do a lot of find, kill and fetch quests, but this is Blizzard and a game with Diablo in the title, so everything is very well directed and staged - lots of clips, events, spoken dialogue, travel between different regions and meetings with interesting characters.

In addition to old acquaintances like the elder sage Deckard Cain, who helped destroy Diablo and Baal in past episodes and is now trying to figure out how to deal with the shards of the rock of creation, we also meet characters new to the franchise. Among them are the barbarian Ryok, who created the Infernal Reliquary, which allows you to gain the power of defeated demons, and the energetic Charcie, a skilled blacksmith.

We communicate with them in the huge and very beautiful city of Westmarsh, which is the central location of the game - here we are given many important quests, here are the representatives of the largest factions of Sanctuary, from here lead portals to dungeons, where various raids and trials take place.

By the way, passing such trials, as well as secondary quests, is a great way to raise the level of your character to meet the conditions for some important story quests. There are several types of trials, and almost all of them can be completed not only alone, but also in a group with other players.

In addition to the usual instances, that is, the daily sweep of random dungeons with no limit on the number of visits, there is, for example, an ancient portal - a randomly generated dungeon, where a certain time to destroy a horde of monsters and defeat the boss at the end to get his reward. And this reward will be cooler if you improved the Ancient Portal with rare and legendary glyphs - it also determines the set of some rules, giving bonuses or, conversely, penalties, which will act during the trial.

The difficulty increases if you play not in solo mode, but in a squad of 4 players. But in any case, the Ancient Portal is not comparable in difficulty to the Portal of Endeavor. It's a special challenge that's only available when your character reaches level 20 and has 200 levels. The further you get, either solo or in a group (preferably, of course, in a group, which does not increase the difficulty, but makes it easier), the higher your rating in the leaderboard and the better the rewards.

This competitive element makes Portal of Daring popular and important for many players. In addition, only here (and in one other place) can you get a unique resource, a mystical crystal, to improve items in secondary slots. And the passage of the Secret Lairs allows you to be rewarded with precious gems necessary to improve the character's characteristics and overall combat rating. These lairs appear randomly on maps, and you must get to them alone or in a group before they close. Here you have to perform various tasks, such as killing so many bandits, examining and clearing such a place, and so on.

Finally, in addition to fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with other players, Diablo Immortal also focuses on PvP - that is, battles between players. These are conducted in several formats.
The Ancient Arena offers solo or 4-player combat against another squad, fighting for a chest in the center of the location - only those who are last alive can open it and get all the rewards.

On the battlefields, which become available as the storyline campaign, have a full team battles in a format of 8 to 8, with players divided into attacking and defending squads. The former must complete specific tasks (kill three Guardians, escort Idols to the side of the enemy and destroy the Ancient Heart there) within a certain time frame, while the latter, respectively, try to prevent them from doing so.

Diablo Immortal also features faction wars. When you reach a certain point in the campaign, you'll be asked to choose who to join - the Immortals, who rule and protect Sanctuary, or the Shadows, who want to overthrow them. Both factions give out their own chains of quests, but the main one is large-scale battles involving 80 people, when 10 squads of 8 people from each faction fight each other according to the rules of the "Battlefields".

When the Shadows make some progress in their quest to overthrow the defenders of Sanctuary, the Rite of Exile begins - 10 battles are launched simultaneously, involving the best of the best on both sides. Those who are the first to win at least five battles win the overall victory. Interestingly, there is an option to forgo factional confrontation and remain adventurers, adventurers - this also provides advantages.

All PvP modes are held on a schedule and in strictly defined areas of the world - just attack other players anywhere and anytime you can not.

The gameplay in Diablo Immortal is classic, like all games in the series, but most similar to the third installment. We fight monsters in isometric perspective, complete quests, gain experience, gain levels, and unlock new skills. You can also increase the character's characteristics and his combat rating (the main indicator of the coolness of the hero) with the help of gems, which, in turn, are also pumped up.

Well, of course the most important role is played by collecting and buying weapons and equipment of different rarity - from the usual to the legendary. Equipment can also be improved in different ways, including the use of legendary stones, greatly increasing the performance of items. Many gems can be crafted using different materials, including runes, which finally returned to the series.

In battles, in addition to the basic attack, we need to use the skills that we learn as we gain levels. You can choose a maximum of 4 active skills, as well as one ultimative, the most powerful one. They all belong to different class specializations.

And to choose from 6 different classes. The melee fighters include Crusader, Barbarian, and Monk. "The Crusader uses a one-handed weapon and shield, always wears heavy armor and often serves as a "tank", taking heavy damage in the front lines. As usual, the Barbarian relies on brute strength, specializing in melee and physical attacks - he has almost no ranged attacks, but he can hold off crowds of enemies for a long time. Monk fights with his bare hands using knuckles, batons and gloves - it's one of the most agile and fastest classes in the game.

Diablo Immortal's ranged combatants include the Wizard, Necromancer, and Demon Hunter. With the first two it's clear - the Wizard casts spells left and right, setting enemies on fire with fireballs and cheering them up with lightning from his hands, while the Necromancer is able to understand the dead and put various spells on enemies.

The Demon Hunter, on the other hand, has the ability to deal the most damage to single targets. This makes him very useful in battles against strong bosses, but against groups of enemies the hunter becomes more vulnerable.

As we said before, the micropayment system in Diablo Immortal has drawn criticism from some players. It's actually pretty traditional in general, though. There is a combat pass, which we pump up by completing various daily tasks and activities and receiving rewards for doing so.

There's an in-game store, where we can buy a lot of cosmetic and other items, different kinds of resources and currencies, like the glyphs we use to pump up the challenge portals. But all these stones, runes, materials for crafting and different currencies e can also get for free, just playing the game. The only thing you'll have to spend more time, but Diablo has always been about grind.

Well, and in general, the whole story campaign and even many difficult tests can be passed without investing a penny of your money in the game. Claims were related to the fact that before the release the authors promised - the game will not be sold for real money equipment.

Formally it is, but the money can buy the legendary glyphs, which greatly increase the characteristics of many things. And it's very important in the endgame (that is, in the later stages of the game after the story campaign) and in PvP.

On the other hand, the authors are listening to the players - there are already plans to introduce a special free currency, which allows you to earn premium content without investing real money for it. And in general, the game continues to actively develop - there are additions, and in addition, there are plans to introduce a new defense mode against waves of enemies.

In any case, Diablo Immortal is a big, exciting and very high quality game (it's Blizzard's development after all, they just can't do bad!), with lots of content, awesome graphics and sound. It honestly offers any option - you want to play for free and get all the available content without investing a penny, or you can invest and get some PvP and endgame benefits.

Zarium. March 2023