Diablo Immortal has suffered the wrath of much of the community since its release. Because if the latest mobile game from Blizzard offers pleasant gameplay, it is undeniably weighed down by its monetization, which had the effect of a (very) cold shower among fans of the Diablo license.
This weekend, the game also dug a very sad record on Metacritic, where it became the most poorly rated game in the history of the site. The PC version has a mediocre 0.2/10, and its IOS equivalent tops out at 0.5/10 , in terms of average user rating. Ouch.
Metacritic: a world apart?
A rating platform open to the media and ordinary gamers, Metacritic seems to be making rain or shine on many titles. However, the site is partly known for the murderous notes it delivers. These sometimes dive very very low, and flirt with zero points, as here in the case of Diablo Immortal. Does a 0.2/10 average objectively reflect the gaming experience on Diablo Immortal? Probably not, and the ratings on Play Store and IOS are quite different!
On the Google store, the average rating for Diablo Immortal is now 3.6/5 . Down from the first days of the game, of course, but it remains a "satisfactory" rating... and with a panel of voters 100 times greater than that of Metacritic.
On IOS, Diablo Immortal is squarely rated 4.6/5 (out of 10,000 voters).
A penalty note for the most angry players
The 0.2/10 on Metacritic reflects more of a community fed up, rather than a standard gaming experience. Reviews on the site are pamphlets rather than opinions weighing the pros and cons of aspects of the game.
Diablo Immortal's monetization is in a way worth castigating, and the game won't be among the franchise's most memorable installments. But we must be careful not to erect this "penalty note" as the only representative of the game itself.