Diablo Immortal hits new record low on Metacritic

0.4 out of 10. Now, of course, a user rating on Metacritic is not necessarily an indicator of how good or bad a game is. Because of so-called review bombing, where disgruntled consumers go in and put a zero in a rating on a game that is perfectly playable just because they don't like the story or think the developer lied, is greedy or holds some other personal grudge against the studio, it's hard to know what is sensible criticism and what isn't.

On the other hand, of course, it says something about the product. A game doesn't get millions of players to go in and punch in bottom ratings for the fun of it. There is something that triggers such behaviour and in the case of Blizzard's latest launch, the biggest in the company's history at that, it's very obvious where the problem lies. Diablo Immortal has been described as the most greedy free-to-play game ever launched and as a result, the game now shares the less flattering epithet of "lowest average Metacritic rating ever" alongside Madden NFL 21. The rating, which currently stands at 0.4 out of 10, is of course breathtakingly low.

However, this is where it gets tricky. Because even though the game currently has the lowest rating on the entire site, most people still agree that technically it flows really well, is stable, that the gameplay is basically good and that it's actually fun to play. There are games that are barely launchable that have higher ratings. Games that are so incredibly broken that the "Angry Video Game Nerd" has thrown them out the window in choreographed fury, and terrible cash grabs for full-price games that have made both Jim Sterling and Angry Joe swear they'll never play a game again.

But what's particularly diabolical about Diablo Immortal in particular is that the cash grab is so insidiously planned that it doesn't show up in earnest until the endgame arrives. If you then want to complete the game, which after all you've invested hours, days, maybe weeks in, you have to pull your wallet out. Not that it always helps. There are already stories out there of players who have sunk tons of cash into the game without getting any "Legendary gear". Personally, I can think of much more fun things to spend my hard earned money on, but then again, I've never spent a penny on a mobile game.

How is your Diablo Immortal experience? Do you feel robbed or conned, or do you push on?