Download Blizzard’s newest game: Diablo Immortal for free
Activision Blizzard’s newest game officially launched on June 2, 2022. We’re of course talking about the mobile-friendly entry in the Diablo universe, called ‘Diablo Immortal,’ which chronologically takes place between the second and third Diablo games. That means players get a healthy mix of nostalgia along with new story angles and plot threads that have remained untold until now.
But can the game stack up against the original Diablo titles on traditional consoles and PC, or is this yet another attempt by Blizzard to squeeze as much money from players as possible? In this review, we go through the game’s positives and negatives so you can decide whether it’s worth downloading now that it’s free and available on multiple platforms.
Blizzard expands the Diablo franchise — take Sanctuary with you on your phone
For the first time, players can experience the eternal conflict between Heaven’s Angels and Hell’s Demons in pocket form. Blizzard promised that the smaller screen wouldn’t mean a smaller experience than previous games. Fans of the franchise weren’t entirely convinced—or willing to be persuaded.
That’s why a PC version was later developed, released for free as a beta. It’s the PC version we link to on this page. Whether the game will become a bigger success—or a better experience overall—now that it’s also available on PC instead of being mobile-only remains to be seen. However, keep in mind this is first and foremost a mobile-friendly game—it wasn’t originally designed for PC use, so this version may be more prone to bugs than the mobile version.
It’s not Blizzard’s first mobile game either—in fact, their card game called Hearthstone has been incredibly successful. And they have another game hitting the market soon as well, namely the war game Warcraft: Arclight Rumble. So this isn’t completely unfamiliar territory for them. In addition, Blizzard is associated with King Digital Entertainment, which is behind the mega-hit Candy Crush, which has been especially popular among mobile users.
The story in this new game
Diablo Immortal exists right between the two biggest Diablo titles: Diablo 2 and Diablo 3. In Diablo Immortal, the archangel Tyrael is presumed dead after destroying the Worldstone, which in Diablo 2 was corrupted by Baal the Destroyer. Once again, it’s up to mortals to fight the threats of Hell.
After Tyrael’s sacrifice to save the world from the stone’s destructive power, the Worldstone has been shattered into atoms and the corrupted fragments are scattered across Sanctuary, slowly destroying the land. Diablo has begun sending demonic minions to the surface, and soon the entire world will fall under the demons’ regime if no heroes step up.
You play as one of these heroes in Diablo Immortal. The Worldstone is the very foundation of Sanctuary’s creation, and with its destruction the land now lies exposed to both Angels and Demons. Throughout the story, you’ll meet both new and familiar characters who help expand on the events that occur in the 20 years between Diablo 2 and Diablo 3. This makes it easy for new players to jump in while giving those who played the original games a strong hit of nostalgia.
Some recognizable characters you’ll meet include the scholar Deckard Cain, the young Demon Hunter called Valla, who later becomes playable in Diablo 3, and the Necromancer Xul, who was playable if you chose the Necromancer class in Diablo 2. There are many more than just these few, setting the stage for very interesting interactions with NPCs as you play through the game.
Play Diablo with your controller — on both PC and mobile
Blizzard has made it possible to play handheld (directly on your phone’s screen), with keyboard and mouse in the PC version, and—new this time—also with controllers. You can connect your console controller via Bluetooth to unlock a whole new control scheme. From the hours we’ve put into Diablo Immortal so far, character movement and ability usage are actually very well optimized across the different options.
You can also take a look at Blizzard’s official announcement about other initiatives the company has taken to make this Diablo game accessible to as many players as possible, no matter what challenges they might have.
What to expect from graphics and gameplay
The graphics are almost a 1:1 match with what you know from Diablo 3—just in a scaled-down version. In that way, a 2022 game looks a lot like a 2012 game; however, that’s less of an issue when you’re playing on your phone. It becomes more noticeable when you scale the game up on your computer monitor. The game is by no means ugly, but it doesn’t quite live up to the standards we now expect from PC titles. Of course, it’s also important to remember this was primarily created to be experienced on a touchscreen, not a PC with mouse and keyboard.
Gameplay runs fairly smoothly, but you may occasionally experience large FPS drops in areas packed with other players throwing out abilities left and right. In general, it plays intuitively, and the UI is designed so it quickly becomes second nature to know where your abilities are. We found that after the first half hour, we rarely misclicked or hit the wrong control—something that can sometimes happen with similar action games on phones.
Conclusion
Diablo Immortal is definitely one of the better ARPGs you can get on mobile right now. Hopefully, this will make the genre more competitive so we as players have many more great games to look forward to. Even though the graphics and gameplay generally run smoothly and look surprisingly good—considering the game was primarily built for mobile devices—we can’t ignore that it’s a mobile game that lends itself to a more aggressive monetization strategy.
Players who spend a lot on mobile often happily pay small (and sometimes large) amounts for everything from cosmetic upgrades to quality-of-life perks that can provide a huge advantage over other players. In other words, it currently looks like Diablo Immortal will be a massive ‘cash cow’ used to milk players for vast amounts of money.
In the end, it’s up to players to say no to big companies when they feel the lemon is being squeezed a bit too hard. And the best way to make companies listen is to hit them in the wallet. The future will show whether players are willing to buy into Blizzard’s game. On the other hand, the game is free to download and play—so if you can live with other players paying their way to better and faster gear (in a game that also has a PvP section), this is an obvious download for you.
Download Diablo Immortal
