Blizzard
In a move that probably very few people saw coming Blizzard announced the new Diablo project is titled Diablo: Immortal and it will be coming to mobile devices.
The game was unveiled as the closing segment of BlizzCon 2018’s opening ceremonies and it will show players just what happened between the events of Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction and Diablo 3.
While the early reactions to this announcement have been lukewarm, to say the very least, there are some things that you can salvage in this game if you are a fan of the Diablo franchise. If you want an idea of how fans of the franchise are taking this just go and check out the ratio of likes to dislikes on the gameplay trailer and the announcement trailer.
There will be several recognizable characters and classes returning to the game such as the Barbarian, Monk, Wizard, Crusader, Demon Hunter and Necromancer.
See Also: Fan Asks If Diablo: Immortal Is April Fool’s Joke
Following the destruction of the Worldstone, Diablo’s lieutenant Skarn, Herald of Terror, is building a new demonic. His goal is to gather the fragments of the corrupted Worldstone and use them to resurrect Diablo. A lot of this ends up being a little spoiled as this does take place between two games we already know a lot about.
Introducing Diablo Immortal – the first mobile MMOARPG entry in the history of Sanctuary, coming exclusively to iOS and Android. Pick up where Diablo II: Lord of Destruction left off and slaughter your enemies anytime, anywhere.
The main draw of this game will be the gameplay and it looks like it’s the same Diablo you’ve known and loved, just on mobile devices. In fact, it almost looks identical to Diablo 3 in terms of graphics and gameplay. The controls look to be mostly barebones, as is expected from a mobile title but the developers do say everything will work as effortlessly as it would with a controller or keyboard and mouse.
Everything is available to you via touchscreen on your phone so all you’ll have to do is click on the different abilities to use them. Blizzard is calling this the first mobile massively multiplayer online action role-playing game (MMOARPG) meaning you’ll be able to get together in groups to tackle the game.
Since Diablo originated on battle.net Diablo: Immortal will have battle.net integration. When you download the game you will have the option to link your battle.net account and bring your friends list to mobile.
Early gameplay shows all six of the classes in action so we know it can support at least six players at once. Dropping in and out of groups will be done seamlessly so it sounds like it’ll be a true drop-in drop-out kind of game.
Diablo certainly seems like it’ll be a tough game to translate from PCs and console to mobile devices due to the number of effects that go on in pretty much every area. The gameplay video shows that it holds up well but it’s hard to tell for certain just how well it’ll perform with people all over the world playing together at once.
Each class will have a set of 12 or more skills with the number varying from class to class. From those skills, you’ll be able to choose five which will be assigned to an active skill button.
At launch the title will feature nine outdoor zones which sounds like Blizzard will continue supporting this game after launch, possibly indicating DLC down the road.
It’s a hard pill for many to swallow as Diablo 3 released in 2012 so fans were expecting the logical next step forward for the franchise to be Diablo 4. Blizzard has said many Diablo games were in the works but they would not be ready to announce all of them for BlizzCon.
If you’re interested in pre-registering for Diablo: Immortal you can do so here. Blizzard has not yet announced a release date for the title.