Diablo Immortal

Diablo Immortal still remains the only mobile game I've ever been interested in playing. Past mobile games have only been ways to kill time, and even when it's a franchise I've enjoyed that's been adapted for mobile, I always found myself feeling that the mobile version just made me want to play the "real" deal instead of the phone version.

Diablo Immortal is a fine social rpg with a pacing problem. It weaves together some the most intricate, fascinating, and innovative systems for interacting with other players I've ever seen (particularly on mobile), but buries a ton of it under what are somewhat flat but otherwise serviceable action rpg combat and progression systems. None of it feels meaningful until you are finally given a goal, and once you're there, it's a pretty fun upgrade treadmill with monetization that will only bother you if you want to try and compete with people.

Obviously, I’m a bit conflicted. But it’s only fair to review Diablo Immortal the way we have reviewed games like this before and the way we will probably review games like this in the future. By those standards, yes, this is a fantastic action-RPG experience. Go clear up the twelve gigabytes or so that you’ll need, download it, and get into it.