Nearly a year and a half since the release of Diablo IV, the first expansion Vessel of Hatred has finally arrived. It is more than just a new campaign centered around Mephisto, it brings with it the “2.0 Patch” that revamps the core game, changes difficulties, and starts a new season. This is a beefy expansion that has something for everyone, and a stronger emphasis for playing groups with the new co-op modes with The Dark Citadel and the Kurast Undercity. Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred continues the compelling story, adds a new class, a new region, and expands on the endgame wonderfully that’s not to be missed.
Vessel of Hatred‘s introduction recaps everything that happened during the course of Diablo IV for those who haven’t played the main story in a while, or those who choose to skip the original campaign. The long and short of it is, Mephisto is barely contained in a soulstone, and Neyrelle, the keeper of that stone is losing the battle. After an incredibly fantastic cutscene, “Act VII: Vessel of Hate” begins with your select character to embark on a journey to save Neyrelle, and stop Mephisto. Expect to spend around fifteen hours to play through the campaign and get your character to max level, but there’s dozens of hours of content beyond that, and it’ll be hard to escape its grasp.
As was aforementioned, “Patch 2.0” will do a lot for the base game that even those who don’t immediately or ever purchase Vessel of Hatred will find a lot to return for. The new level cap for all characters will now be Level 60, down from 100. The challenge experience gets up-ended as there will no longer be World Tiers, but Difficulties that span: Normal, Hard, Expert, Penitent, Torment I, Torment II, Torment III, and finally Torment IV. At level 60, you gain access to The Pit, where successful clears will unlock new torment difficulties to select. In addition, glyphs have been updated, new paragon boards have been added, paragon boards now have legendary nodes, items have been updated, and less resources are dropped at the start of the game in favor of items.
With the release of the Vessel of Hatred expansion, will also be the start of Season 6: “Season of Hatred Rising”. There is an all-new seasonal questline to follow, complete with its own challenges and rewards to unlock upon their completion. This update alone feels so fresh, but those who own the campaign are in for a treat.
The new region of Nahantu now exists south of Gea Kul, and takes on a jungle biome with Mayan influences. There are new waypoints, cities, ruins, dungeons, and strongholds to discover and explore. This area feels tailored for the new class, but story-wise any class will fit right in. It’s not all jungle, as there is a desert area that features stark red rocks as its defining feature. There’s corrupted areas of a tar-like substance that ruins the land’s beauty.
Spiritborn is the name of the new class, and one unique to the entire franchise. I would liken this class as a mix of the Amazon from Diablo II and the Monk from Diablo III. You can start the game with this new character class and either play through the original campaign, or skip that for the new Vessel of Hatred campaign. This class is highly mobile and acrobatic, where its dodge is a cartwheel flip. Aside from the animalistic powers to possess, this class is about control where you pull enemies in or can push them away with various abilities. Basic skills offer things like lunging with the rock splitter, jab forward with piercing blows with the thunderstrike, dive at enemies with thrash, or dart around using withering fist. Core abilities let you claw, shoot quills, shoot an area of effect ability, and more. Focus abilities let you pull enemies in, fly for a short time, and poison your own skin to hurt others who get too close. Defensive skills focus on armored hides, stomping, counter-attacks, and sending bugs out. The remaining skills like ultimate let you use animal powers.
The Spiritborn class doesn’t just stop there, there’s a new class mechanic called the Spirit Hall that sends you to the spirit realm to unlock this. You can then invoke the powers of the centipede, eagle, gorilla, and jaguar for powerful new abilities. On top of that, two of these four can be combined for devastating power. It’s a class that offers so many freedoms and build options, it’s going to be a fun first few weeks to see builds shared.
Mercenaries are back, and there are four in total to recruit. You get the first one immediately, and have to find the others throughout the course of playing. Each mercenary you hire has unique skills like in Diablo III. Mercenaries are capped at level 10, which gives you a decent amount of skills to mix and match to your liking for smaller build options. The new Mercenary Den is a cool place to explore, but where you’ll be able to hire and re-hire the ones you want to use while playing solo, as mercenaries are not available in co-op.
There’s a lot of new enemies to combat, often traversing in squishy, gross mobs of flesh. You’ll encounter pullulaters, suckers, frothers, and deathtraps that are disgusting creatures hellbent on killing you, and helps cement that you’re in a new area of the world. The new bosses like Vesicator and many others are seemingly designed so that you never plant your feet in one spot. You’re constantly needing to move for the new enemies, especially the bosses. And this works well for the new Spiritborn class that’s so highly mobile as a default, and upon leveling them up can be incredibly agile in these fights.
New to a Diablo game, and Diablo IV specifically is The Dark Citadel. It is a new co-op PVE endgame mode that becomes available once Torment I is unlocked, which also requires reaching the new level cap of 60, and having completed tier 20 of The Pit. This mode is designed for two to four players, encouraging group play by solving puzzles and fighting smartly against the hordes of evil. It’s something I hope we get more of as part of this expansion, or future ones.
Not as steep of a requirement to access, Kurast Undercity is a farming mecca. Unlocked at level 15, this area allows players to experience a multi-stage time-attack dungeon that lets you farm specific items that’ll benefit you in the late to endgame stages. Increasing the quality of the loot can be done by using keys known as Spirit Tributes and then chasing after challenges and its new bosses. It fits so well into the game, and players will spend a lot of time here.
I didn’t get to embark on these, but Rupture Dungeons features a dense array of demons to fight through, as well as a plethora of treasure chests to claim throughout.
Runewords return after not being seen since Diablo II. There are two types of runewords: Ritual and Invocation, the former are actions to trigger, and the latter are an effect when triggered. There’s a new resource of offering in order to obtain the effects. I wasn’t able to spend a lot of time using them, but this will be another great way to customize and deepen class builds.
There’s nothing graphically new here that wasn’t present in the base game of Diablo IV. Though since then, Raytracing has been added, and with Frame Generation enabled I’m able to achieve around 130fps with ease. The cinematics are just incredible pieces of art, in motion.
My PC Specs:
– Microsoft Windows 11 Pro
– Intel Core i9 13900K @ 5.8GHz
– ASUS ROG RYUJIN II 360 ARGB AIO Liquid CPU Cooler
– G.SKILL TRIDENT Z5 6000MHZ 64GB (32×2) DDR5 RAM
– ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4080 16GB GDDR6X
– WD_BLACK SN850X M.2 (4 TB)
– LG UltraGear 34GP950B-G (21:9 Ultrawide @ 3440×1440)
While the campaign ends on a cliffhanger, there’s going to be continuity in all the endgame activities until what will likely be another expansion. In a lot of ways, this feels like a whole new game; as this expansion brings so many new and different things with it, from revamping the difficulties to adding co-op dungeons, a new class, and even a new season. There’s so much to do and see, Diablo IV is going to take over your life once again. I love the ride that Vessel of Hatred goes on, as it continues from where Diablo IV left off for another hellishly good time that makes this an essential purchase.
A Battle.net review build was provided in advance by the publisher for review purposes
