When Diablo Immortal was released in 2022, it was hard to look past its egregious monetization. I even wrote at the time that it was "a game designed to exploit your love of Diablo," and in many ways it still is. Half of the game is still a gaping chasm of menus and daily bonuses and price tags that make Genshin Impact look tame. It desperately wants your money in the way that a lot of free-to-play mobile games catered to people outside of the West often do.
But it's still a Blizzard game that doesn't sacrifice that immediate hit of joy you get from clicking monsters and watching big numbers pop onto the screen. I've put close to a thousand hours into Diablo 4 over the last couple of years, so I can see why Immortal's the perfect kind of game to hook a certain type of person into playing it like it's their day job. At some point the gothic facade falls away and you're just pulling levers for the exact piece of loot you need for your build. I get it—that's where my head goes at the end of every Diablo 4 season. And it's also where I always take a break until the next one comes around.
