The biggest offender in the MTX arena is the legendary gem grind, which is really hard to get after a while and incredibly expensive to upgrade. Enough “whales” are out there willing to spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars, and they pay for the freeloaders like myself who might buy an occasional season pass for $5 at most.

It’s been interesting to see people’s first real foray into the world of Gacha mechanics, and I hope it signals a sea change though I doubt it. This is the tried and true horrific monetization scheme behind nearly (all?) major mobile titles. I haven’t found anything that is inaccessible without paying yet, but there are multiple areas where things are far more readily available if you cough up some dough. Timers and resource limitations exist everywhere in the endgame, and you can pay lots and lots of money to try and maximize your character’s gear if you so choose. The game doesn’t so much feature pay-to-win as it delights in endless pay-to-skip. The biggest narrative around Diablo Immortal’s release has been about the monetization, so let’s hit that first. Let’s go over everything in this massive and excellent mobile take of the beloved franchise. The big question is, can you have fun without spending your life savings? I put nearly 40 hours into this title and spent $5 on the battle pass and came out quite satisfied with my experience. All the Gacha mechanic hell of the mobile space here and it’s carried along by excellent visuals, solid performance, and a stupidly fun MMO-lite take on the Diablo III formula. Diablo Immortal is here to take over your life! Whether on Phone or PC the latest entry in the long-running Diablo series has been expertly crafted to give you the grind of a lifetime.

Diablo immortal mobile gameplay