Diablo Immortal closed alpha kicks off with new class

Diablo Immortal, Blizzard Entertainment's mobile take on the perennial RPG franchise, is now officially in closed alpha – and it's added a bunch of new features to celebrate.

The Diablo Immortal closed alpha kicked off yesterday (April 21) and added a massive amount of content to the game than we saw back during the first test in December.

For the launch of the closed alpha, Blizzard has added the Crusader class to the game, and made it possible for players to participate in huge 48-player raids, as well as PvP battles.

The downside? For this initial stage of the test, Blizzard has limited the alpha to a few thousand Australian Android users. If you're lucky enough to be in that demographic, you can sign up for the closed alpha on the official Diablo Immortal site.

The Crusader, Wizard, Barbarian, Demon Hunter and Monk classes will be available to use during this test, with Necromancer coming to the game at a later date. You can play in two zones – Mount Zavain and the Frozen Tundra – and will be limited to level 55 thanks to a cap (this is up from 45 in a previous version of the test, though).

"The Crusader is a mid-range hybrid caster/melee colossus" according to the developer, and fits nicely alongside the other playable classes. You'll want to have the best synergy with other players if you're keen to take on the end-game-focused 48-player raid.

If you're wondering why the initial rollout of the alpha is so small, it's because Blizzard wants to get some specific metrics from its sample audience – Australia and New Zealand are often used for experiments like this on mobile platforms.

"Mobile game development can often benefit from multiple rounds of public testing," Blizzard noted in an FAQ. "By holding this limited closed alpha in a smaller region, we'll be able to take in valuable server stability and client performance data, as well as critical gameplay feedback, to ensure that Diablo Immortal feels like a great experience before going wider in the future."

Diablo Immortal was announced back at BlizzCon 2018 and was met with a negative reaction from fans, who were expecting a more traditional full game from the series at the time. Luckily for them, a year later, Diablo 4 was announced.

Diablo Immortal will launch for iOS and Android in 2021.