Even as someone who has followed every major update to Diablo 4 over the last year, the release of Vessel of Hatred feels like the launch of a whole new action RPG. The bulk of the new expansion is like upgrading to a new phone: all the familiar stuff is still there but it's faster and easier to use. And the new campaign has plenty of moments that I wouldn't have ever expected to see in a dark fantasy story where you're hunting yet another demon from hell.
The Diablo 4 of 2023 wasn't broken, but it sure needed fixing when it came to playing it as the live service action RPG as Blizzard intended. Starting a seasonal character from scratch every three months was a problem when it took weeks to reach max level and even longer to find loot that was exciting to play with. All the fun was buried.
Over the last year and change, Blizzard went and dug the fun up. By its fourth season, Diablo 4 started to have a clear vision for loot and how players could customize it to fit their character's build. Items brought effects that altered your skills, letting you do exciting things like cast twice in a row or cover the entire screen. Season 5 refined everything a little more. And now, with the launch of Vessel of Hatred, and the Season of Hatred Rising, it's all wrapped up in a big rework to how you level up and reach Diablo 4's endgame.
Here are my favorite new features in Vessel of Hatred:
- The new spiritborn class is ridiculously flashy, fast, and intuitive to play
- Kurast Undercity is a race against the clock with some of the best boss fights in the game
- The ability to mark a town as my favorite to teleport to is game-changing
- Borrowing other class' skills, like a sorcerer's teleport, through runewords gives you satisfying opportunities to make your build just a little bit better
- The mercenaries are just fun to have around and can literally save you in a fight
Diablo 4 best mercenaries: Combat pals
Diablo 4 runewords: Make your own skills
Diablo 4 waypoints: How to fast travel
Diablo 4 loot tables: Best loot
All of this is on top of the foundation that Diablo 4 laid down when it launched. As I said in my Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred review, it has "unparalleled combat where you can feel every hit land and see every spell light up the room," the kind of grippy combat that other action RPGs can't match. And now all the stuff that fuels that combat is just better.
Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred is a triumph in understanding exactly what players want in a live service action RPG without compromising Blizzard's brand of making complex systems surprisingly approachable. It found a balance between depth and simplicity that will hopefully carry Diablo 4 into an even brighter future as it gears up to release another expansion next year.
Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred is live now, and there's never been a better time to jump in.
