Back to Hell
I assume if you are reading this review for the expansion for Diablo 4, that you have in fact completed the story of that game. While I am not allowed to talk about any story specifics that occur during the Vessel of Hatred campaign, I will inevitably have to mention things that happened in Diablo 4, so consider this your SPOILER WARNING for late game Diablo 4.
Vessel of Hatred picks up shortly after the finale of Diablo 4, Neyrelle is still managing to maintain her sanity while she holds the soulstone carrying the Prime Evil Mephisto. Being tortured and threatened by the Prime Evil is taking its toll on her as the story begins with Neyrelle making her way into the new region in Sanctuary, Nahantu. As I said I can’t speak about the many, many twists this takes, but rest assured the narrative here is rich and compelling, while delving deeper into the lore of the Diablo universe. As always with Blizzard, the voice acting and cinematic cutscenes are some of the best that I’ve seen. This company consistently raises the bar with its cutscenes and Vessel of Hatred is no different, each of them helped to add emotional weight to the story and immerse players in the dark world of Sanctuary.
MSRP: $39.99
Platforms: PC (reviewed), Xbox, PlayStation
Price I’d Pay: $39.99
The new region of Nahantu certainly adds to that dark and gothic feel, with its dense jungle areas, ancient ruins and foreboding landscapes; the developers have nailed the gloomy atmosphere that Diablo is known for. Seeing some lush green foliage is a nice change of pace from the barren deserts and snowy northern areas. Of course, the Nahantu region isnt the only new thing, Diablo 4 sees a new class as well; the Spiritborn.
Right off the bat, the Spiritborn class feels like a game-changer, offering a fresh and exhilarating way to challenge the Prime Evils. The Spiritborn can harness the strength of four different spirit guardians, Jaguar, Gorilla, Eagle and my personal favorite the Centipede. Each of the spirits focuses on a different damage type, which can be mixed to create various hybrids able to dole out punishment in some big ways. The Jaguar’s focus is DPS and they are all about attack speed and fire damage. The Gorilla is the tank and uses physical damage, the Eagle focuses on mobility, evasion and lightning damage. And my favorite, the Centipede uses poison, lifesteal and debuffs to great success.
Another addition is the return of recruitable Mercenaries, which are companion NPC’s that accompany the player through Diablo 4. There are four that players will be able to find throughout their time in game, the thing I really liked about this feature was that each of them has their own stories and questlines. Each of them feels like real, living characters in Sanctuary and much more than just a hired sword against the army of darkness. Unlike the mercenaries in the past, players won’t be able to equip them with gear; each of them has their own equipment and class. Raheir, who players will meet early feels like a traditional tank character and will pair well with a DPS. Others include a mage and an archer and my personal favorite Varyana, who is former butcher and cannibal. With moves like Cleave, she works like an offensive tank which I loved with my Spiritborn, her questline was also one of my favs too.
I wasn’t able to really delve into the Endgame component of Vessel of Hatred due to time constraints. But I can say that overall, the Vessel of Hatred expansion is a must-have for Diablo 4 fans. It offers a wealth of new content, a compelling story that is going places that I didn’t see coming, a beautiful new region and a powerful new class, Vessel of Hatred is a more than worthy addition to the Diablo series, and I cannot wait to see where the team goes from here.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
