Some of the new features, like mercenaries, feel a tad underbaked.
But, the 4-6 hour story has some incredible highs.
Nahantu is a truly gorgeous zone with stunning visuals and music.
Mephisto might be physically contained in a soul stone, but his infinite corruption still manages to seep out.
The story has some spectacular moments and intriguing new characters.
The story felt like it was over way too quickly, leaving us wanting.
The new mercenary follower system felt underbaked.
Mephisto might be physically contained in a soul stone, but his infinite corruption still manages to seep out.
The new endgame is promising, but forcing players into 4-player group content for parts of it feels counter-productive.
Bugs mire the experience.
Diablo 4’s first expansion is finally upon us, and became fully unleashed on October 7, 2024.
Nahantu is a land of ruin, but also optimism, as tribes work to reclaim lost settlements like Kurast.
)Xbox Play Anywhere:No.Price:$39.99 MSRP.
But it’s not cheap, clocking in at $39.99 approaching the price of a fully-priced game.
Testing was also conducted on the Steam Deck, Xbox Series X|S, and the Lenovo Legion Go.
Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred introduces a range of new characters, all of whom fit incredibly well into the overarching story.
Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred very firmly continues this trend.
Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred has some sequences that left me aghast.
Mephisto’s containment in the crystalline soul stone is essentially a band aid solution.
Horadric scholarly apprentice Neyrelle puts herself in the firing line between Mephisto and Sanctuary.
In this case, namely Neyrelle.
The quality of the production values speaks for itself.
I know that isn’t cheap.
Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred has some spectacular high points, but the game runs you through them at a breakneck pace.
But it’s not about the price here to some degree.
There’s potentially more than enough content in the story, but it was poorly paced.
When Vessel of Hatred’s story works, it works extremely well.
Vessel of Hatred’s new Spiritborn class is fantastic to play at a basic level, with a bigger emphasis on those “Ultimate” abilities that practically nobody used through the past year.
I was never bored, and I was utterly intrigued and invested by what was on offer.
But I was also like,“wait, that’s it?
Is an annualized $40 expansion going to work for Diablo 4’s story?
Mercenaries are the other headline feature for levelling players in Vessel of Hatred, and they’re a bit of a mixed bag.
It may well end up doing so.
It’s frustrating that we’ll have to wait even longer to answer that question.
The headline act here is theSpiritbornclass, which is essentially Diablo 4’s take on the classic Monk class.
Digging through Kurast’s undercities offers players another way to earn loot, through time trial activities.
Spiritborn players fight with martial arts, summoning the spirits of powerful jungle entities to augment their abilities.
Finally, we have the jaguar, which revolves around rapid close-range attacks.
It’ll be interesting to see how the min-maxxers approach Spiritborn in the coming weeks.
The boss fights in Kurast Undercity are visually impressive but the loot drops are anticlimatic
The other major feature you’ll engage with while leveling is the Mercenaries system.
Once you unlock them, there’s very little additional information about them.
They rarely have anything unique to say and become far more mechanical than I would have expected.
Realmwalkers drop a portal upon defeat containing a fun dungeon, but the escorting quest to get to this point is dull
It’s essentially like giving every player a necromancer Golem who is just as chatty.
There’s also the new Citadel, which is controversially tuned for 4-player groups.
Eventually, they stop, become vulnerable, and you might finally whack them.
Mephisto awaits.
You get to dive into loot-filled ruptures and even control the throw in of reward youll get.
But getting to this point feels more like a chore than a challenge.
And thats itthats all Season 6 has to offer, along with a Reputation board for rewards.
Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred review Is it worth it?
“she cried, again, asking for help,again.
Just how much is actually new here?
I suspect it’s like that for a lot of people, too.
The success of Vessel of Hatred is probably already written in stone.
I’m left with the bittersweet aftertaste of the story’s spectacular highs and disappointing brevity.
The foundation is incredibly strong, though.
So far, they’ve done a decent job on that front.
