After bouncing off it on the initial release, I didn’t really expect to see myself back in Diablo: Immortal, but Andy’s preview of the new Druid class made it sound awfully fun, enough so that I reinstalled just to give the class a spin.
I’m now much farther into Immortal than I got on my initial attempt at the game, just on the strength of the Druid. Druid has also been my favourite class in Diablo IV when I’ve played its various betas and free trials, but Immortal‘s take on the class easily outstrips it, and in so doing it illustrates why I’ve struggled to get into Diablo IV.
The first thing that stood out to me about Immortal‘s Druid is that the character models actually look really good. I’m not someone who thinks all video game avatars need to be super hot, but most of the characters in D4 just look… unhealthy. They’re not even ugly in a cool way, like Undead characters in World of Warcraft. They’re just viscerally off-putting. I think the Druid actually looks better than most D4 classes, but it still looks like they’re fighting a flu or something. Not so their Immortal counterparts, who look fit and attractive while still having a bit of rough and tumble vibe.
But gameplay is what really matters, and happily, that’s where Immortal‘s Druid really shines. Shapeshifting has always been an iconic mechanic for Druids in Blizzard‘s games, but in Immortal, it’s not just a passive stance toggle like in World of Warcraft nor a short duration buff after using certain skills like in D4. It’s much more dramatic.
Druids have a special “Primal Power” resource that regenerates out of combat or by using abilities in-combat. Shapeshift skills continuously consume Primal Power while active, giving you limited time in your animal forms, but in exchange you are spectacularly powerful while transformed. All your skills become replaced by new abilities appropriate to the animal form, and whether as a werewolf or werebear, you’ll have access to lightning fast mobility skills and crushing melee attacks that can devastate bosses and crowds alike.
This mechanic is what convinced me to try the class. It’s very similar to the mechanics of WoW‘s Demonology warlocks in the Mists of Pandaria era, one of my favourite RPG builds of all time. I love the tactical decision making of choosing when to spend activate your more powerful form, and there’s just something so satisfying about being able to go beastmode (literally in this case) and absolutely destroy your adversaries.
If you don’t enjoy the fantasy of shapeshifting, there are also some skills that let you spend Primal Power other ways, but for me I’m quite happy living my best werebear life. Bear smash go brr.
The non-shapeshift skills of the druid are also generally pretty fun, often featuring spectacular visuals and satisfyingly brutal sound design. To be fair, aesthetics are something that D4‘s Druid also did well, but there’s a flair to the Immortal version that D4 lacks.
For example, the D4 Druid can summon ravens to attack its enemies, which is cool, but the Immortal Druid can transform itself into a cloud of ravens before smashing down on enemies, cackling maniacally all the while, and that’s just much cooler.
That brings me to something else that stood out to me. I’ve been reminded me that, as in Diablo III, the classes in Immortal are quite vocal, from battle-cries in combat to custom dialogue throughout the story. They show a lot of personality, and each one feels like an actual person, not just a skill set.
By comparison, the Diablo IV classes have minimal dialogue, identical lines regardless of class, and uniformly listless and monotone delivery. D4 feels deathly afraid of showing even the slightest trace of personality.
Immortal also helps establish the persona of its druid with a special prequel quest, which you can play on pre-existing characters or on your new Druid once it reaches a certain level. While this serves a gameplay function as a soft tutorial and a taste of what the class plays like at high levels, it also goes a long to flesh out the backstory of the Druid and where it fits within the wider lore of Sanctuary. This is just a great idea that any class-based RPG could benefit from.
The Immortal Druid does suffer a bit from the limited skill set and shallow build system that all of the game’s classes have, but now that I’m farther into the game than I got in the past, I am finding that getting build-defining legendary items is easier than I expected, so while there’s not the depth of customization I’d ideally like, there’s still a fair bit of variety on how to build your character.
With its Primal Power mechanic, Diablo: Immortal‘s Druid offers creative mechanical depth, and with its flashy and creative skill design, it brings an over the top flavour that elevates the fantasy of what a druid class can be. These are both things the Diablo IV Druid fails to do. D4‘s feels like it was built with a checklist of what a Druid class is supposed to have, and no further creative thought beyond that.
“The whole game feels like it was built using a list of what a Diablo game is ‘supposed’ to be, as defined by an angry Battle.Net forum poster circa 2012. It’s so much a reaction to the criticism of Diablo III that it has no creative identity of its own.And I’m realizing that this is a problem all of D4‘s classes have, and a feeling that pervades the game as a whole, and I think is one of the main reasons I keep bouncing off D4 whenever I pick it up during one of its free trials. The whole game feels like it was built using a list of what a Diablo game is “supposed” to be, as defined by an angry Battle.Net forum poster circa 2012. It’s so much a reaction to the criticism of Diablo III that it has no creative identity of its own.To be clear, I’m not saying that D4 is a bad game across the board, nor am I necessarily saying that Immortal is the better game overall (it has its own, different problems). But I am realizing that Immortal feels a lot more organic. Despite the reputation of mobile games being nothing but vectors for monetization (not to mention Immortal’s particular penchant for greed), Diablo IV ends up being the one that feels more like it was built to be a Live Service Product first and a game second. Immortal is more willing to just have fun with it, as exemplified by its new Druid class.
The world of online gaming is changing. As the gray area between single-player and MMO becomes ever wider, Massively OP’s Tyler Edwards delves into this new and expanding frontier biweekly in Not So Massively, our column on battle royales, OARPGs, looter-shooters, and other multiplayer online titles that aren’t quite MMORPGs.
