'Diablo Immortal' hands-on: Don't overlook this mobile game

When Diablo Immortal was revealed at BlizzCon on Friday, I thought it looked cool.

A lot of people disagreed, and immediately began complaining both online and in-person about this apparent slight, this bastardization of "their" franchise, this complete abandonment of rational thought by a company that routinely creates some of the best and most successful games to ever exist.

Well guess what, you entitled crybabies. I played Diablo Immortal at BlizzCon shortly after it was revealed, and it's a lot of fun.

Take a look at the gameplay trailer, which shows off some classic bloody Diablo action set against the gothic world of Sanctuary that fans have hacked and slashed through countless times.

The boss fights look interesting, the levels look more dynamic than ever before, and, to be frank, I like the Diablo Immortal aesthetic more than I like Diablo 3's aesthetic.

I got my hands on the demo of it and blasted through the levels with a Barbarian, and then I did it again with a Wizard. It was a blast — the controls are simple and laid out very well, the action feels like classic Diablo, and the level design had a great foreboding feel to it. And this is coming from someone who is generally not a fan of touch controls.

Some of the beauty of the Diablo franchise is that it's pretty easy to navigate, and that simple movement system translates very well to mobile with Diablo Immortal.

You move around by using a digital analog "stick" on the left side of the screen, while all your abilities are arranged on the right side of the screen. It's pretty similar to how the game works with a console controller. And it feels just as intuitive and easy.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

And yet, without even giving the game a shot, tons of people are pissed at Blizzard for daring to make a new Diablo game. Just look at the replies to any recent tweets from the Diablo Twitter account.

I am a huge Diablo fan. A lot of people who are Mad Online™ about Diablo Immortal claim to be fans of the franchise too.

So why are they mad that there's a new Diablo game?

Because it's on mobile.

People immediately lashed out, calling the announcement a joke because they think the game is inherently bad and will surely be full of micro-transactions that chip away at the integrity of the series.

People are also mad that Blizzard didn't announce new content for Diablo 3 and didn't announce Diablo 4, the latter of which the company expressly said it wasn't going to reveal.

So I just have one thing to say to people who are mad that Blizzard, employing a team that wasn't even working on the main Diablo franchise, made a new Diablo game: Grow up.

You are entitled to nothing. Game companies owe you nothing. You don't just get to have whatever you want and then throw a tantrum when your own personal dreams don't come true. Blizzard hasn't abandoned the core Diablo franchise just because it created a mobile game.

Do you get mad when Blizzard announces a World of Warcraft update when you were hoping for a Warcraft 4? No, because you understand that those two things would be made by two different teams and Blizzard isn't obligated to make you a new real-time strategy Warcraft game.

From what I saw and played, Diablo Immortal is a fun, quality Diablo game that retains that special something that makes the franchise so special. You don't have to play it, but whining online makes you sound like a literal infant.