Diablo Immortal Review

Judged purely on the first thirty levels this is better than it had any right to be. Six classes translate cleanly to a touchscreen, the skill feel is closer to the console conversions than to the usual mobile compromise, the Sanctuary art holds up, and the campaign bridging the second and third numbered games is a real piece of writing rather than filler. Playing it free through the story costs nothing and is a reasonable use of a commute.

Then the endgame arrives and the design turns. Character power at the highest tier runs through legendary gems, which come from a lottery with rates that make the best outcomes effectively unreachable without spending, and independent accounting of a fully maximised character ran into six figures. Competitive rankings are open to whoever paid most. Several countries would not license it under their gambling rules, and the studio's public response was dismissive. The craft here is real and it was deployed in service of a system designed to find the small number of players who cannot stop.