Our Verdict
Although the Eternal War doesn’t offer anything new, that’s not what the Diablo Immortal and World of Warcraft collab is about. It’s a celebration of both franchises, namely the 20th anniversary of Warcraft, and WoW fits so well into Diablo Immortal that we wouldn’t be surprised to see another IP crossover from Blizzard in the future.
Generally speaking, you know you’re in safe hands when Blizzard combines its own IPs for a new event. The Diablo Immortal and World of Warcraft collaboration is perhaps its most ambitious in a long time, and rightly so, because we’re celebrating twenty years of Warcraft. However you might feel about Blizzard, there’s no denying that it knows how to market an IP, and in the current gaming arena it’s damn impressive to even bring out a half-decent sequel, let alone breathe continuous life into a franchise older than a certain demographic of gamers.
We’ve already seen WoW skins appear in Overwatch 2, there are a bunch of unique cosmetics in Diablo IV, and now Diablo Immortal’s Sanctuary is playing host to Azeroth’s mightiest to celebrate Warcraft’s 20th birthday. More than just a crossover, this event is a collision of worlds, and we were keen to answer the call. So it’s time to brush up on your knowledge of Diablo Immortal characters and join the Eternal War, where only the bold will survive. We’re including ourselves in that, naturally.
But what exactly does this crossover offer? At first glance, it’s evidently bigger and better than a lot of other collabs in the Blizzard-verse, because yes, there is of course the standard offering of cosmetics and skins (we wouldn’t have expected anything less). But we actually get a pretty chunky amount of gameplay that combines both World of Warcraft and Diablo Immortal surprisingly seamlessly.
The Fallen Citadel raid is a particular highlight, because it takes the Wrath of the Lich King’s Icecrown Citadel and condenses it into a punishingly fun Diablo package, which works so well that we’re wondering why Blizzard hasn’t done something like this already.
With the Lich King’s legions pressing in, you must battle your way through hordes of ravenous abominations and frenzied ghouls to reach the big bad at the end and defend Sanctuary from his icy clutches. Facing the leader of the Scourge is as fun and terrifying as you’d imagine, and plays pretty seamlessly providing you’ve prepared accordingly. Even if you haven’t, you get one of two random skill orbs, either Tranquilizing Shot or Healing Circle, to help save Sanctuary.
The Lich King is, without a doubt, a brilliant Diablo Immortal boss. His devastating AoE attack, Remorseless Winter, has you ducking and weaving and cowering behind ice pillars, and you need to anticipate his ground-shattering Defile attack just like you would in WoW. The only drawback is that the fight can be over before you’ve even really sunk your teeth in. The leader of the Scourge has a crazy amount of HP, as is befitting his rank and stature, but you can take him out fairly easily and end the raid in record time.
On the surface, this sounds rubbish, but considering how arduous some other Diablo Immortal raids can be, it does serve to make the WoW crossover more fun to play. And with so many awesome cosmetics up for grabs the more you play through the event, why wouldn’t you want to return to defeat the king again and again? That’s exactly what we ended up doing, anyway.
It feels like playing WoW at double-speed, which is likely exactly what Blizzard wanted. It seems more like the event is skewed towards opening the doors of Warcraft to Diablo players, rather than vice versa. Warcraft veterans will likely smile ruefully at how simple it is in comparison to raids they’re used to, but Diablo Immortal players will have a blast with it.
In addition to the Lich King raid, the crossover also offers Cutthroat Basin, a fast-paced and understandably chaotic PvP arena with the same format as another Diablo Immortal LTM, Conqueror. It’s modeled after the Arathi Basin and the effigies have been renamed to Farm, Smithy, Mill, and Stables, with two random Mysterious Shrines drops thrown in for good measure. So once you’re done taking on the Scourge boss, jump into the basin for some class WoW-faction scraps, and then go again, and again, and maybe another match, because why not?
Cutthroat Basin doesn’t offer anything particularly new, but it was never claiming to. Instead, it acts as a perfect palette cleanser. All character levels, items, and gem levels are normalized to enforce fair play, and you can choose to fight with the Alliance and play the hero, or team up with the Horde to wreak havoc under the guise of upholding your honor. It’s the closest we’re going to get to playing WoW on mobile, and it has us constantly going back for more.
Ultimately, there’s no denying that the Diablo Immortal and World of Warcraft crossover is fun to play. But it’s heightened by the absolute shed-load of awesome collaborative cosmetics up for grabs, which naturally makes playing it even more of a pleasure, because you can get your hands on Alliance and Horde fraction banners, your own personal Murloc, and legendary WoW weapons like Thunderfury and Remornia.
You can take a look at the official blog post for all the details of the event, which runs until December 11, and if you’re looking for more dungeons to go diving in, you can check out our Dark and Darker Mobile preview. Alternatively, if you’re on the hunt for some free stuff in the best mobile games, we’ve got all the new Lord of Nazarick codes and Age of Empires Mobile codes for you, too.