Even for someone who has followed every major Diablo 4 update over the past year, the release of Vessel of Hatred feels like the launch of an entirely novel action RPG. Most novel extensions are like upgrading to a novel phone: all the familiar features are still there, but they’re faster and easier to exploit. The novel campaign has plenty of moments I never expected in a gloomy fantasy story where you hunt another demon from hell.
2023’s Diablo 4 wasn’t broken, but it certainly needed fixing when it came to playing it as a live-action RPG as Blizzard intended. Starting a seasonal character from scratch every three months was a pain when it took weeks to reach the maximum level and even longer to find loot that was exhilarating to play with. All the fun was buried.
Over the last year and changes, Blizzard has gone and dug out the fun. In season four, Diablo 4 began to have a clear vision of loot and how players could customize it to suit their character build. Items had effects that changed your skills, allowing you to do exhilarating things like throw twice in a row or cover the entire screen. Season 5 refined everything a bit more. And now, with the release of the Vessel of Hate and the Season of Rise of Hate, it’s all come to an end amid major changes to how you level up and reach the endgame in Diablo 4.
Here are my favorite novel features in Vessel of Hatred:
- The novel Spiritborn class is incredibly effective, speedy and intuitive to play
- Kurast Undercity is a race against time with some of the best boss fights in the game
- The ability to mark a city as your favorite for teleportation is a game changer
- Borrowing skills from other classes, such as a warlock’s teleport, using runewords provides rewarding opportunities to upgrade your character
- Mercenaries are just plain frosty and can literally save you in combat
This all builds on the foundations that Diablo 4 laid at launch. As I mentioned in my review of Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred, it offers “unparalleled combat where you can feel every hit and see every spell light up the room” – the kind of immersive combat that other action RPGs can’t match. And now everything that fuels this fight is just better.
Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred is a triumph in understanding exactly what players want from a live-action RPG, without compromising Blizzard’s brand of making complicated systems surprisingly accessible. A balance has been found between depth and simplicity that will hopefully take Diablo 4 into an even brighter future as it prepares to release its next expansion next year.
Diablo 4: Vessel of Hate is now available, and there’s never been a better time to jump into the game.
