Diablo Immortal: Don’t forget about Blizzard’s mobile game in 2021
I’m not going to lie, despite the headline, I forgot about Diablo Immortal. It wasn’t until I read a write-up from IGN about the mobile game’s recent Alpha, that I remembered this existed. Or rather, will exist at some point.
Announced in 2018, Diablo Immortal is the mobile Diablo game that nobody asked for. But. most of the negative backlash surrounding its announcement was the fact that Blizzard also didn’t announce Diablo 4 (which they actually went on to do a year later). So now that we know Diablo 4 is in the works, perhaps we can view Diablo Immortal through a fresh lens.
Diablo Immortal aims to bring the core Diablo experience to mobile devices. It’s a hack-and-slash action role-playing game that slightly changes some core gameplay mechanics to make them more touchscreen-friendly.
Combat has been streamlined for mobile gaming. There are six character classes — Barbarian, Wizard, Monk, Necromancer, Demon Hunter, and Crusader — and each class can have four active abilities plus an Ultimate (which is a super-charged version of your basic attack). Apparently, each class will have 12 unlockable skills, giving players some control over how to personalize their gameplay experience with each character.
Other changes include removing combat resources, like Fury and Mana, and replacing them with cooldown timers. Equipped items, at least in the Alpha, did not change the visual appearance of the character.
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Some of the changes made to make Diablo Immortal more mobile-friendly have been met with a mixed reception. While IGN praised the game in its Alpha, assuring it’s “not a watered-down mobile lookalike,” Polygon was more critical, claiming it’s Diablo without the “soul.”
I’m on the fence about Diamo Immortal. I think it has the potential to be something fun on mobile. I don’t think it will ever replace a core console/PC game, but it should serve as a nice alternative change of pace. I’m not saying Diablo Immortal should be high on your list of “most anticipated games,” I’m just simply reminding you that exists — because I completely forgot about it.
It’s not even guaranteed that Diablo Immortal will release in 2021. Although the technical Alpha just wrapped up in December, no actual launch date for the game has been announced yet.