Review: Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred

Historically, expansions in the Diablo series have been very solid. Both Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction and Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls added new areas, content, and classes, focusing on adding more and building up what players love about the base game rather than making drastic changes.

Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred follows a similar formula. It expands on the base game with a new area, Nahantu, some new content and systems, and an all-new class—not just to Diablo 4, but to the franchise as a whole—the Spiritborn. But all these new features are just the tip of the iceberg in terms of content with this expansion.

If I had to use one word to sum up Vessel of Hatred as an expansion, it would be big.

Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred (PC [Reviewed], PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S)
Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment
Released: October 8, 2024
MSRP: $39.99

Vessel of Hatred picks up right where the Diablo 4 story ended. Lilith and Inarius are no more, and the Cathedral of Light is decimated. One of the three Prime Evils, Mephisto, Lord of Hatred, has been trapped in a soulstone by Neyrelle, a scholar who has decided to set out towards the lands of Nahantu on her own with very little indication as to why. However, it’s apparent that Mephisto himself is influencing her, as shown by a bloodied wolf following Neyrelle in the epilogue of the base game. If you’ve already played through the base campaign, you can jump right into the expansion story with a new or existing character.

The story in Vessel of Hatred puts you on the path of tracking down Neyrelle, heading to the new area of Nahantu to find her. The opening cutscenes introduce us to the Burned Knights, a militant fanatic faction formed from the remnants of the Cathedral of Light. The Burned Knights play a pivotal role in the story, as they are also trying to hunt down Neyrelle, seeking vengeance for what happened to their order, and Inarius in Hell at the end of Diablo 4.

I’m still a bit torn on the pacing of the story in Vessel of Hatred. Not so much with the actual progression of the story itself throughout the roughly 8 hours it took me to get through it. In fact, my time with the campaign felt like it flew by, though that’s probably just because the length of the campaign in an expansion is obviously going to be much less than the beefy 30 or so hours I put into Diablo 4‘s campaign.

My concerns lie more with the overall pacing for Diablo 4‘s bigger story at hand. I expected Vessel of Hatred to be about Mephisto, but it’s really all about Nayrelle. With Diablo 4 set to receive annual expansions, I hope things won’t be moving too slowly. If the plan is to dive into Mephisto more over the course of seasons, that’s one thing. But if we’re to go through several Mephisto-centric expansions year after year, I only hope I’m still around to see when we might finally encounter the big guy. You know, Diablo.

In a way, Nahantu is a stark contrast to what we’ve come to expect from Diablo in every way. Instead of darkness and death, Nahantu is a massive jungle—a little brighter, more vibrant, and full of life. There are some darker parts, both visually and in terms of tone, but for the most part, it’s a breath of fresh air to explore as an environment. I even found the new dungeons and Strongholds to be a nice change of pace. And the new main hub, the city of Kurast, nestled in the jungles of Nahantu, is actually pretty cozy. I’m sorry, Kyovashad, but I’m AFKing in Kurast from now on.

I played through Vessel of Hatred as the new class, the Spiritborn. Never before seen in the Diablo universe, essentially a monk and shaman hybrid: I was skeptical about it when it was first announced. Well, I’ll admit that I was wrong. This is the most fun class in Diablo 4, and I’m afraid I’ll have trouble playing any of the others now.

The Spiritborn is built around four different Spirit Guardians. First is the Jaguar, which focuses on fast fire elemental attacks. Second is the Gorilla, a defensive juggernaut built around tanking and mitigating lots of damage. Third is the Eagle, which utilizes lightning attacks mixed with the ability to quickly move around the battlefield. Finally is the Centipede, the poison-centric Spirit Guardian that deals damage over time and debuffs enemies.

I tried to dabble in all of the Spirit Guardian skills to some extent to get an overall feel for them, but found myself mostly going into Eagle and Centipede. I love anything DOT-related, so the Centipede is right up my alley, but being able to zip around and chain lightning attacks with Eagle-focused skills was a lot of fun, too. With some skills, I felt as though I was playing an elemental variant of Monk from Diablo 3. With others, I felt as though I was playing an ARPG version of Udyr from League of Legends. I think that’s what makes the Spiritborn feel so good; in a way, it feels like multiple classes in one.

I’m no theorycrafter or anything when it comes to builds, but it feels like you can really mix and match the four Spirit Guardians or just focus on all the same skills of one and still have a good time. Obviously, there will be min-maxers that will prove me wrong and point out the mathematically superior builds, but I think you can build how you want with the Spiritborn and still be able to get things done.

After completing the Vessel of Hatred campaign, you can continue to level the same way you did in the base game, via world events, Helltides, dungeons, etc. However, there are also two all-new forms of content in the expansion: Dark Citadel and Kurast Undercity.

The Dark Citadel is an endgame experience built co-op with 2-4 players. I only got to do one Dark Citadel run, but it was a ton of fun. You and your team progress through a bigger dungeon packed full of enemies, having to occasionally split up and each focus on different areas before coming back together to take on challenging bosses. It’s another way to progress at the endgame, which is a welcome addition to Diablo 4. Progressing through the Dark Citadel will net you weekly rewards, including loot and Dark Citadel-exclusive cosmetics.

Meanwhile, Kurast Undercity is a time-attack dungeon where you can both level and farm late-game items. Both of these add to the ARPG grind cycle, and it was a good move by Blizzard to add new forms of content that will become an integral part of the experience instead of just expanding on the existing options—like dungeons and Strongholds, just to name two.

These are the main new features in Vessel of Hatred, but there are many smaller additions that help polish the overall Diablo 4 experience, and all of them are well-executed in the expansion. Mercenaries, a popular system from previous Diablo entries that allows you to recruit NPCs to join you in your adventure, has been added. You have a unique rapport with each of the mercenaries you recruit, which increases as they join you in combat, letting you unlock new rewards and even unlock and progress their own skill trees to further increase their effectiveness.

All of this new content is complimented by major base game overhauls coming alongside the expansion. These changes will affect everyone, including those who don’t purchase Vessel of Hatred. The Max Level is now 60 instead of 100, but the Max Paragon Level is now 300 instead of 200. The difficulty system has been revamped, letting you play any non-Torment difficulty right out of the gate at Level 1. As such, all top-tier gear can start dropping starting at Torment 1, but drop chances go up with each Torment Level increase. This is a great change as it allows you to start farming your best gear earlier while increasing your farming efficiency as you become more powerful.

To top it all off, Vessel of Hatred launches alongside Season 6, titled Season of Hatred Rising. It looks like a meaty season that adds the colossal Realmwalkers to Diablo 4, which you might remember encountering in the Battlefields of Eternity in Diablo 3. There is so much content packed into this expansion that I can’t even begin to picture what Diablo 4 may look like years down the road if the upcoming content pieces are all of this size and caliber.

Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred is exactly what I want out of an expansion, bringing in more content and new systems that build on the base game and move it forward in a meaningful way. Outside of some slight concerns with the pacing of the story as a whole, everything Vessel of Hatred brings to Diablo 4 is well-executed and a worthwhile addition. There’s no fluff with this expansion. It’s just more Diablo, made better.

The Spiritborn is quite possibly the most fun class in the franchise’s history, and after some minor tweaking, I think the Dark Citadel and Kurast Undercity will help flesh out the late-game grind. Paired with all the revamps and improvements the base game has received through its first five seasons, Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred has Diablo 4 in its best form yet.