Diablo Immortal Early Impressions – An Inbetweener to Hell’s Look at the In-game Store

After multiple tests, Diablo Immortal is finally able to unleash hell onto the larger world – well, except for Asia Pacific – and I got to try it one last time before you guys. Do peruse our earlier impressions of previous builds to see what you’re getting to; here, here and here. This time, I’ll be going through the nitty gritty, with regards to monetization, and the like.

THE SETTINGS

If need be, there’s an Unstuck button from the Options menu.

GENERAL

• Language
  • Text: English, Japanese, Korean, Polish, French, German, Russian, Italian, European, Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish
  • Voiceover: English, Japanese, Korean
• Sound
  • Master Volume
  • Sound
  • Music
  • Dialog
  • Voice Chat
  • Error Speech On / Off
• Auto Pick-up
  • Normal, Magic, Rare
• Screenshot Sharing
• Auto Navigation
  • Note that Auto Navigation will only occur once you’ve completed enough story steps in a certain area to ensure you explore it for yourself first.
• Credits

CONTROLS

• Skill Targetting
  • Sensitivity
  • Primary Attack Aim
  • Skill Button Positioning with Edit Distance available
• Skill Button Layout: 2 Layouts
• Cancelling Skills: Slide out of Range, or a Slide to Cancel button
• Skill Wheel Position: Finger Center, Icon Center
• Names
  • Display My Name
  • Display Clan Names
• Minimap: Small or Large

CONTROLLER

Defaults to Phone if you’re playing on mobile, unless you have add-on accessories which I did not try.

DISPLAY

• Picture Mode: Classic, Warm, Vintage, Cool
• World Brightness

GRAPHICS

• FPS: 30 or 60
  • High FPS mode may cause phone to overheat, shorten battery life and reduce FPS
• Image accuracy
  • Resolution: Medium / High / Ultra
  • Image Sharpening On / Off
• Graphics Settings
  • Quality Selection
  • Visual Effects
  • Shadows
  • Fog
  • Post Processing
  • Anti-Aliasing
  • Environmental Details
  • Monster Effects
  • Bloom Effects
  • Vegetation Burning Effects
  • Reduce PVP Effects

CHAT

• Channels in Chat Preview
• Auto-Play Voice Memos
• Chat Preview Resize
• Chat Size
• Speech-to-Text
• Text to Speech: Chat Commands, Narrate chat messages

NOTIFICATIONS

• Do Not Disturb: Night time ( 21:00 – 08:00 )
• Do Not Disturb: Night time ( 08:00 – 21:00 )
• New Bounties Available
• Item Sold at Market
• Rift Leaderboard Reset
• Battle Pass Ending
• New Battle Pass Quests

ACCOUNT

• Redeem Code
• Connect to Battle.net account
  • For improved security
  • Cross-platform progress
  • Battle.net chat
  • Exclusive avatar frame

VIDEO CAPTURE

• Enable manual capture
• Video Quality: Medium / High
• Frame Rate Limit: 30 / 60

THE GAME

Upgrades can only be made to Rare and above items, requiring both salvage material from lower rarity items and Rare and above items. Fortunately, the auto pick-up lets you just grab them all provided you have the space. Should you get full up inside Rifts, a Blacksmith will helpfully spawn once you’ve completed it, only offering salvaging services.

I should have unlocked the Battle Pass feature since I could start getting points towards it, but I couldn’t actually open it up to see what rewards I could get for the season, nor was there the premium pass available to purchase in the shop. The paid track is supposed to give materials and exclusive cosmetics, but without being able to actually check it, I couldn’t “compare” the two tracks.

Random events can occur, like one where I had to kill a number of enemies within a certain area. It will inform you should you begin to stray too far from said event area. Apart from that, you may encounter Hidden Lairs, which are mini dungeons you can invite party members to. Within them lies a Lair Guardian, as well as smaller events for more rewards.

While I did not try to form a Clan, I did try establishing a Warband to see what it’s like. 8 players can join one and it’s really easy to set up. Others may choose to apply to join your Warband, message you first or create a post advertising your own. Warband members have a 10% increased chance of items dropping from enemies, and challenge Helliquary bosses for ranking rewards. You can also check any given Warband’s Helliquary ranking from their postings.

A Warband has a Storage Box. Members can receive Sealed Warband Chests when partying together, with the Warband Steward able to identify its contents as Legendary Items and Set Items that will be stashed. Each Warband member can borrow One item from the stash.

Anecdotally speaking, “Rare” items seem to drop fairly frequently. Without being level 30, I could kit myself out quite well with nice high item score gear, and a modest selection of gems to socket. In a Warband party, this probability can only go up, I assume.

The Bestiary updates its pages when you get Monster Essence drops, which aren’t guaranteed. If you’re going to 100% those pages, you’re going to need to farm like crazy.

THE MONETIZATION

As a mobile – later, PC – free to play title, how the lights are kept on will certainly be a concern. Here, I can at least show you the regional prices and what the currency is for.

First of, we have bundles. A free daily bundle gets you things like equipment upgrade materials, with other paid packs. The Beginner’s Pack, for instance, gives 60 Eternal Orbs and one cosmetic item.

Crests are used to modify Elder Rifts. Legendary Crests will guarantee a Legendary Gem drop on completion of said rift. 1 is priced at 160 Eternal Orbs, 10 at 1600 Eternal Orbs, so no apparent discount.

Cosmetics are just that, skins you can throw on top of your existing armour. Prices range from 1000 Eternal Orbs to 1650 for “Collector” sets. While I didn’t perceive any difference myself, it would appear that these cosmetics can later apply to other details such as your portal effects.

The Boon of Plenty service is basically a typical monthly pass, offering additional rewards for up to 90 days should you stack them up at once.

Eternal Orbs are purchasable in various quantities, from 60 to 6000 (with a 1200 / 20% extra). Eternal Orbs can then be used to purchase Platinum. Platinum is used in the Market and specialty vendors.

Materials purchasable with Eternal Orbs are “reforge stones”, used to reforge bonus attributes of a certain family. Random outcomes, namely that of bonus attributes and stats within range, have equal probability.

IN CONCLUSION

I would still definitely rather play Diablo Immortal on a PC now that is an option, but it’s not like the mobile experience is terrible. It’s standard controls all things considered, so if you’ve played one action oriented game on mobile, it should be pretty easy to get used to. More so if you snap on a controller accessory if you have one.

With regards to the monetization, I’m pretty jaded from my share of mobile games, so I expected this much. I do have my concerns about the reforge stones; sure, the bonuses may be tiny, but being able to reroll for the best possible percentage comes down to deep wallets, does it not? I would hate to see PVP be overshadowed by mere fractions.

In any case, let the gates of hell open. I hope you find what you are looking for.

Download

Diablo Immortal

Release Date: 2022-06-01

Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows

Diablo Immortal™ is a brand-new mobile game from Blizzard Entertainment. A genre-defining action role playing game series set between the events of Diablo® II: Lord of Destruction® and Diablo III®.

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