So I beat Diablo Immortal.
To be clear, when I say "beat," it means finishing the core questline. There's plenty of more stuff to do, and presumably more zones will be added over time, but I'm counting this as "beat."
I debated how long to make this post for a variety of reasons, but I've decided to sum up my thoughts as succintly as possible:
STORY
-In terms of delivery, this is a mix between Diablo III (linear, set plot) with Diablo I/II (where the actual meat of the plot is in optional content). Honestly, I really don't think it works - the zones aren't long enough to give you enough 'meat,' and the side 'meat,' as far as I can tell, is even harder to get, since you're relying on bounties and side quests to flesh stuff out, while the main plot blazes through (or would, if not for level gating).
-That being said, there's plenty of good delivery of said plot, be it in cinematics (e.g. when the camera pans over Hell, which is probably the best depiction so far in the series), in voice acting (since we're dealing with small figures, I guess it has to be), or various other elements (e.g. Skarn's a fairly solid protagonist, especially in the "nice job breaking it hero" moment). However, it kind of has the worst of both worlds.
-Also, the plot has a severe pacing problem between Bilefen and Mount Zavain. Everything up to the end of Bilefen is fairly contiguous, but then the plot just "stops" to introduce the Shadows and Immortals (even if you don't want to join either faction, this is still compulsory), then you destroy the Worldstone shards you've collected in Westmarch, then Cain is "BTW, I've detected the next shard at Mount Zavain, go do your thing." While it's technically the same plot, it feels like the overall story is split into two halves in the same game.
GAMEPLAY
-DI has some things going for it in gameplay - its moment-to-moment combat is on par with Diablo III, and it probably has the best boss fights in the series, including some absolutely bonkers moments, including where you're swallowed by a giant worm and have to destroy its heart as part of said boss fight (granted, Gears 2 did that over a decade ago). Also, in terms of raw "stuff," this almost certainly comes first.
-The downside to this, however, is that DI is clearly designed to be played for bites at a time. This is reflected in level gating (where you literally can't progress in the main quest until you reach a certain level), the limit on no. of activities you can do a day, and the way the levelling system works. As in, the game has a battle pass system where completing odd tasks will get you battle points, and raising your battle pass level also buffs your character level. The result is that the normal levelling experience is skewed in favour of these odd tasks moreso (at least to an extent) than standard means of levelling.
-Also, the monsters have level scaling. I can sort of understand this, considering that each zone is fairly tiny and designed to be returned to multiple times, and in fairness, some zones do become easier over time, but I've never liked level scaling, and I don't like it here.
-This isn't a criticism per se, but I'm not even sure if this should be classified as an RPG, but rather, a hack n' slash with RPG elements.
-Ultimately, I could sum this up as "wide as an ocean, deep as a puddle."
MONETIZATION
-Since I'd be remiss if I didn't bring this up, the monetization of the game didn't actually bother me that much. Or, at least, didn't bother me in the ways you might think. Because on one hand, people can, and have, spent inordinate amounts of time dissecting the monetization system, but on a practical level, it didn't really affect me. I played the Battleground once, got slaughtered, so the people there may have paid to win, they might not have, but that was really about it in that realm.
-What did bother me is the more subtle ways the monetization fed into things. I can't prove this, but remember what I said about the level gating, and the way levelling works? Couple that with the battle pass system itself (where the paid track gets you extra goodies), to the side activities (e.g. it wants you to spend time in Rifts, and if you're spending time in Rifts, you'll want crests, and if you want good crests, there's certain...things you can do to get better crests), plus everything else, there's this feeling that the game's intentionally being held back to encourage you to hedge your bets. For the record, I bought a few bundles after beating bosses that nagged me some stuff, but the bundles steadily increased over time, so once it reached the $5 AUD mark, I called quits.
OVERALL
I'm still extremely mixed about Diablo Immortal. To start with, the whole review bombing thing? No. Just no - there's no way this is the worst game of all time, it's not even the worst monetized game I've ever played (that would be NOVA, in case you're wondering), but on one hand, there's stuff that Diablo Immortal does that's honestly better than any other game in the series. It has the most "stuff" (in terms of side content), it has the best boss fights, it arguably has the best combat, and it's actually nothing short of astounding that a mobile game is this good at all. For the record, I played it on PC, but the point still stands.
HOWEVER...all of what I said above comes with all these frustrations. It's clearly meant to be played in bite-sized sessions, which hinders progression, the monetization is avoidable in theory, but still results in lots of little niggles, RPG elements are gimped, and as an interquel between D2 & D3, it's not only disposable in terms of plot, it arguably outright harms the lore given certain occurrences in said plot. In another timeline, DI could have been a full-fledged game with all of the good and none of the bad, but alas, we don't live in that timeline.
So. Weakest game in the Diablo series (for now), in no way deserving of the level of hate it got, but it's still fundamentally flawed. Even if you removed every P2W aspect, there'd still be flaws. But by no means a bad game either.
(Wow, didn't I say something about this being succinct?)
