Blizzard Entertainment has broken the long silence to dump tons of new info about Diablo Immortal Technical Alpha, providing details about the story and gameplay, screenshots, artwork, videos and more.

Check out everything found within the press kit.

THE GATES OF HELL OPEN WITH TECHNICAL ALPHA

Diablo Immortal brings all the depth, intensity, and unbridled mayhem of the genre-defining action role-playing game franchise to a persistent, massively multiplayer online world. Players will forge Diablo history in an all-new story of the events that took place between Diablo II: Lord of Destruction and Diablo III, starting with the limited public Technical Alpha.

SANCTUARY AS YOU’VE NEVER SEEN IT BEFORE

The Diablo Immortal Technical Alpha takes players to the deadly realm of Sanctuary, where barbarians, monks, demon hunters, and wizards will join forces to gather the shattered fragments of the corrupted Worldstone and prevent Skarn, the Herald of Terror, from bringing about the return of the Lord of Terror. Within the legendary capital city of Westmarch, players will run into other adventurers, join guilds, carouse in the local tavern, or scour the Bounty Board for lucrative missions in search of glory, experience, and treasure.

Beyond the walls of Westmarch, players can explore six, large Open World Zones including the Bilefen and the Library of Zoltun Kulle—each filled with unexpected events and featuring a unique Zone Trial that unlocks special events and rewards. Players can choose to party up or go solo when they delve into dungeons—the harder the difficulty, the greater the rewards, with each dungeon ending in a climactic story moment. Elder Rifts and Challenge Rifts will also be available for players to enter as often as they like to earn even more epic loot.

LEGENDARY LOOT

Diverse and build-defining loot is at the heart of Diablo Immortal. Your gear must be collected from the freshly slain corpses of your enemies or purchased with in-game gold you earn—never purchased from a cash shop. For the first-time ever in a Diablo game, an Item Ranking system empowers players to salvage rare and legendary gear and use those materials to make their favorite items even more powerful. Customization options abound, including Gems that can be socketed to increase an item’s base stats and Legendary Gems that provide game-changing effects. Charms also make their return in Diablo Immortal; they occupy their own item slot and bestow between one and five unique skill rank bonuses.

The Paragon system now features Paragon Trees, offering players a variety of attributes and specializations to grow in power past max level (level cap lowered from 60 to 45 during the Technical Alpha).

TECHNICAL ALPHA AND BEYOND

This is just the beginning–the Diablo Immortal Technical Alpha is a very limited early test that will provide the development team with valuable data and feedback, bringing the game one step closer to release. Stay tuned for more updates through our official channels!

ARTWORK

  • Chieftain Ongori
  • Haunted Carriage
  • Hydra
  • King Fahir
  • Manoruk
  • Segithis
  • The Countess
  • The Curator
  • The Skeleton King
  • Baal
  • Black Rose
  • Fallen War Matron
  • Classes
  • Skarn
  • Ashwold Cemetery
  • Bilefen
  • Darkwood
  • Library
  • Shassar Sea
  • Westmarch
  • Wortham

SCREENSHOTS

CUTSCENES

The Diablo Immortal technical alpha press kit provided 7 cutscenes found in-game. These are presented in the same animated art vibe as those found in Diablo III.

The first one here captures moments of Diablo II: Lord of Destruction when Baal’s forces broke into the Barbarian stronghold of Harrogath in Mount Arreat. The cutscene draws us back to the time when the Horadrim imprisoned Baal within a soulstone.

This next cutscene takes us to the Forgotten Tower, where players will encounter The Countess.

In the darkest depths of the Kikuras jungle, players will encounter the terrifying voodoo Chieftain Ongori.

Xul the Necromancer’s former student, Lethes, continues her quest for the tomb of Queen Asylla in order to find King Leoric to claim his power over the dead.

The Temple of Namari is the eternal prison of a traitor with immense power.

Over the centuries, many adventurers have attempted to claim a fabled scepter buried in the depths of Tomb of King Fahir. None have ever returned.

Heed the call of Deckard Cain. A new evil has come upon Sanctuary to claim the shards of the worldstone. The fate of the world rests upon heroes like you.

WYATT CHENG

Wyatt Cheng is the lead game designer on Diablo Immortal, tasked with reimagining all the fast-paced action and deep role-playing systems of Diablo for mobile. Prior to joining the team working on Diablo Immortal, Wyatt was senior game designer on Diablo III and Reaper of Souls, where he was responsible for the design and tuning of class skills, items, monsters, and game systems. He also served as live patch lead and curated the team’s new content initiatives and oversaw patch content development.

Cheng joined Blizzard Entertainment in 2003 and has contributed to many memorable bosses in World of Warcraft, such as the Twin Emperors, Patchwerk, and the Four Horsemen, in addition to his work on Diablo III.

Cheng holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Simon Fraser University and taught Game Mechanics at the Laguna College of Art & Design.

Hope you enjoyed this article. Please, support Blizzplanet on Patreon (monthly) or PayPal (once), and follow us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitch for daily Blizzard games news updates.
BlizzCon 2019 Panel Transcripts