This is my conclusion of the current state of the game for people who didn't play it and asked my opinion. I leave it here.
I've had a lot of fun playing D:I for about 50 hours. I don't care about whales and their rankings. I don't care about p2w in f2p mobile game. All these "you need $110k or 10 years" posts are absurd.
I checked all ingame content without any paywall and I'm fully satisfied. But I can't accept this:
(suddenly, Diablo became MMO and it's very disappointing)
Some other things you should know:
- You can't trade items here with some minor exceptions. This game is bad for RMT.
- Endgame itemization system is very poor in all aspects. You won't spend hours and hours thinking about your build. It's not so deep as Summoners War or Titan Quest or some other popular games we can already play on mobile platforms.
- Game difficulty is linked to your level so you can't overlevel or even feel character progression
and can't launch a bot to run dungeon bosses because they own you if your character doesn't dodge their attacks- p2w affects gameplay. Well, if you expected any kind of fair competition in a f2p mobile game, I have a bad news for you.
# "pay to win" is actually "pay to lose" here. If you spend $100-$200, you don't get significant advantage. Even if you spend $10k, game still doesn't guarantee you can get what you want (hello Quin69). We all knew it's p2w game but usually p2w systems are much worse on iOS/Android.
# Combat system is a bit simpler than D3, rune effects were moved to legendary item affixes, etc. But it's still feel like D3 - the best ARPG combat system we have for now. I wish PoE had such gameplay.
+ PvP is very fun. I always thought true PvP should mean "Protoss vs Protoss" in terms of Blizzard games - and nothing else - but Diablo Immortal changed my mind.
+ The story is awesome. I'm not a big fan of Diablo lore, but it was a pleasure to see what happened between D2 and D3 plots.
+ The open world of Sanctuary is beautiful. It has high quality design as for mobile game. It has bright D3 graphics but it's dark from the inside (these quests.. George Martin would be proud). We had no such a good ARPG game since Grim Dawn release.
So even if you'd drop the game after 60+10 level, you still can get superior content and enjoy it. And it'd take longer than playing another average "AAA" game you've already bought.
I don't want to talk about monetization too much because old gamers still haven't noticed a fact that every game is p2w now. You can buy items / bots / hacks / services / anything everywhere and get a lot of advantages if you really want it.
And most people are ok with it, especially casual mobile gamers. That's why such monetization system exists. That's why such godlike games like Genshin Impact were born. The world has been changed and it doesn't care if you don't like it. Find the way to enjoy it.