Waiting for Diablo Immortal: a chat with the developers

Diablo Immortal is about to land on Android and iOS – it is expected for next June 2 – and waiting to try it again we have had the opportunity to exchange chat with the development team – including also Wyatt Chenglead designer of Diablo – and find out a few more interesting details about the upcoming title.

On the other hand, a Calvary lasted almost 4 years, since the announcement took place during BlizzCon 2018 which at the time had triggered reactions not really positive from fans. Today the mood around the game has changed dramatically, also thanks to several alpha and beta sessions that have allowed players to begin to get your hands on the title and get familiar with itthus dispelling part of the distrust expressed at the presentation.

If, touch screen in hand, the game has been able to convince us (we tried it too towards the end of 2021) due to the solidity of gameplay and stylistic choicessome aspects that emerged during the beta raised several doubts about the elephant in the room: the monetization system. There is no point in hiding it, when a title of this caliber is presented as a free to play one always wonders where the catch is hidden (aka: where the money goes) And the in-game shop seemed to have already provided a rather bitter answer.

However, during the interview, the Diablo Immortal development team wanted dispel any doubts about a possible drift pay to win of the titleensuring that Immortal will always and in any case point towards an experience of growth and development of the character strongly linked to the game itself, not to how many euros will be spent in the shop.

In order to ensure this, the team ensured that Immortal’s digital store it will never include items such as experience point bonuses or the ability to buy gear directly; to get the best equipment and to bring up your class you will need to invest your time in in-game activities, from the Rifts – designed to offer a quick challenge of about 5 minutes – to the more full-bodied Dungeons – they last about 10 minutes -, up to the Raids longer and more articulated.

The doubt that the paying player could have an advantage came due to the existence of a particular item that can also be purchased, namely the Legendary Crest, consumables that add modifiers to the Elder Rift and that guarantee better rewards in terms of legendary gems and other drops. It is therefore in all respects an element that benefits players who spend real currency, however – according to the team – the fact that they do not assign specific direct drops makes the Crests useful but not essential to speed up progression.

It remains to be concretely understood whether this expectation will be respected, however Cheng’s good faith – it is he who went into these details – towards the will not to give in to pay to win was highlighted by the choice to render completely free a very special feature requested by players: the ability to change class.

Trying the beta of Immortal, a detail immediately emerged that clashes with other Blizzard productions, namely an extremely limited number of character slots that it does not allow you to create a PC for each of the game classes. This element was also initially interpreted as a possible source of monetization (perhaps through premium accounts with multiple slots or the possibility of buying additional ones), but also in this case Cheng gave a convincing explanation for the choice and a very interesting alternative. .

Compared to the other titles in the series, Diablo Immortal wants to offer an approach to the game strongly focused on the development of a single characterlinking in a very strong way the progress of the player to his PC, without this having to resort to the creation of secondary characters – the so-called alt – to test other classes or to perform a specific instance.

To compensate for this decision, Diablo Immortal will offer (not at launch) the ability to change your character’s class and keep all progress, items and equipment, without going to lose anything of what has been achieved up to that moment. As anticipated before, the class change will be free, however it will be subject to a time constraint before it can be used again.

The team has not yet decided whether this will be of a week or a monthhowever, the logic behind this choice is to still want to push the player to dedicate himself in a fairly serious way towards a particular class, leaving him the possibility of review his path if he is not convinced of the style of play of that choice. In short, we are not faced with an approach to Final Fantasy XIV, where the change of class occurs in an instant and can be done at any time to better adapt to the event you want to face. Immortal leaves a certain flexibility to the player, but does not want to push it to the extreme, thus offering an overall balanced solution that could please everyone.

Although the 2018 statements had said otherwise, we know that Diablo Immortal will also arrive on PC with an open beta that will kick off on day one of the mobile version. During the interview we were reconfirmed that the game fully supports the cross play and the cross progression between all platforms, thus ensuring good flexibility for those who want to switch from one platform to another.

There were several reasons that prompted the Immortal team to bring the game to PC, including the desire to make it easier for players to stream the title who intended to stream the mobile version, thus giving him a client from which to perform the same operation more easily. Beyond that there was also the intention of don’t upset all the fans who in 2018 were disappointed by the exclusion of the PC – Diablo’s historic platform – among those supported by the game.

Despite this, Diablo Immortal remains a game with a great focus on the mobile component; this is the reference platform for which the experience was designed. Immortal’s battle system was designed for touch or at most for a controller, fully supported also on the mobile version. We were also guaranteed that, unlike other mobile titles, Immortal will work on Android and iOS with a wide range of pads and that a list will soon be published – constantly expanding – containing those already tested internally.

This means that there will be no limitations of any kind to the gaming experience that can be traced back to the control system used; be it the touch screen, the controller or the mouse and keyboard, all players will be able to access all game modes and will not notice any difference, even when cross play is done between a mobile user and a PC.

Adapting the Diablo experience to the mobile world was no small challengebut Cheng and his team agree that nothing of what it makes has been sacrificed Diablo Immortal a true Diablo. The appointment is therefore set for June 2 (and considering that it will be a party, everyone will have some free time to try it out), when the servers will finally open for everyone and you can start your own race to level 60. Future updates will certainly introduce new classes and new zones, but for the moment Immortal already has a lot of meat to offer to new players (and not only) who will approach the series for the first time.