Diablo 4 Vessel of Hatred Review: A Blinding Triumph

I hadn’t played Diablo 4 much since Season 4 Loot Reborn back in May, but there was a hunger in me for shiny loot drops, demon-slaying, and endgame farming. I expected that Vessel of Hatred would satisfy these needs for at least a couple of months, but I didn't anticipate just how triumphant Diablo 4's first expansion would be.

Fueled by the urge to dismantle the Lord of Hatred's plans and with a renewed excitement for the iconic ARPG franchise, I picked up my Steam Deck and screamed, "Bul-Kathos Guides My Hand!" just like the barbarians from Mount Arreat did in Diablo lore.

A word on story spoilers: Our Vessel of Hatred review does not contain any significant story spoilers, but we do discuss the end result of some side quests and unlocking endgame content.

A Haunting & Foreboding Tale

Diablo 4's Vessel of Hatred expansion picks up where the game's original campaign ended and mostly ignores its five subsequent seasonal questlines. 

The story focuses on the player's search for Neyrelle in the region of Nehantu, who is carrying the Soulstone, imprisoning Mephisto, the Lord of Hatred and the father of Lilith. 

The environmental storytelling in Nahantu, from its furthest reaches to the Kurast Bazaar city, does wonders to add atmosphere and push the story forward. In its damp, green, and lush landscapes, one might see a failed ritual site or a camp where a hunt went wrong.

You'll meet characters new and old and even encounter some iconic, creepy enemies from the Diablo 2 era. Characters from the Diablo 4 story are mentioned, but the main focus remains on Neyrelle and her mental and physical struggle against an entity that is WAY more powerful than she is. I can best describe it as a David vs. Goliath mental battle, with the fate of the world, the High Heavens, and even the Burning Hells at stake.

Every cinematic is worth watching, with intense situations and a perfect musical score to slam home the point that this is a high-stakes affair. Even the performances of some characters, with subtle changes signifying evil creeping in, are so expertly done that Vessel of Hatred's cinematics could be shown in a cinema.

The only issue I have with the story is its ending. I'm not going to spoil anything here, but it left me unsatisfied. There was this colossal setup, all the way from the base game’s story in the Fractured Peaks to the end of Vessel of Hatred, which fell flat right before the end. This might be fine for some, but this die-hard fan was left wanting. 

The story should last the average player 10 to 12 hours, and if you complete all the side quests in Nahantu, you're looking at about 20 hours of new content. Sure, you can rush through it in six hours or less, but I strongly suggest you experience the story thoroughly on your first playthrough. 

Friends in Need

As one of the most exciting new gameplay features in Diablo 4 Vessel of Hatred, Mercenaries are new, permanent companions that help you in battle. Each of the four characters are unique, with their own personalities and interesting questlines.

• Raheir, the Shieldbearer
• Varyana, the Berserker Crone
• Aldkin, the Cursed Child
• Subo, the Drunken Archer

It’s well worth unlocking all companions, levelling them up and completing their questlines,  bolstering your Bargaining at The Den (more on this later).

My favorite is Varyana, a barbarian who's been betrayed repeatedly, with a blood rage creeping into her veins. However, Raheir, a paladin-like character, provides the best buffs, with +15 to All Resistances as an example. 

Every Mercenary has a small skill tree, where you make exciting choices between four skills and four passives. Mercenaries level up as they accompany you to slay monsters in Sanctuary.

Mercenaries are more than just trusty companions and meat shields to soak up some damage or help you slay demons and the undead. There's also a little underground town called "The Den" where you can speak to your companions, hire a different one, and add another as a reinforcement. 

Then, there’s the Mercenary reinforcement system. I had a lot of fun with it, and it helped diversify my build. First, you choose a Mercenary as your reinforcement, which will only appear if you take a particular action. I chose Subo to appear and throw some stun grenades whenever I use my ultimate. This can be mixed/matched to cater to your playstyle. Another popular option is choosing Raheir to drop his defensive dome when you use a defensive skill. The combinations are vast and utterly compelling.

Last but not least, you also earn Pale Marks when leveling up your Mercenaries; even after they reach the max level of 10, you still keep earning this new currency after earning specific amounts of XP. With Pale Marks, you can Bargain at the new vendor in The Den, purchasing items and Caches with helpful equipment.

Born to Win

I'm one of those Diablo fans who wanted a Crusader or a Witchdoctor to be the next Diablo 4 class, not the Spiritborn. The gameplay and skill previews before the launch didn't pull me. However, to experience everything for this review, I started Vessel of Hatred as a Spiritborn.

The first few hours were a bit confusing, as previous regional Renown unlocks meant I had a bunch of skill points to spend at level 1, and I didn't know what to pick for this odd Spiritborn class, which felt a bit like a nature-inspired Monk hybrid thing.

Then, I fell in love as the class started to click into place at level 20. It was shortly after I completed the rather long class quest, venturing into the Spirit Realm to unlock the Spirit Haul and choose a Spirit Animal from the Gorilla to Eagle, Centipede, and Jaguar, with primary and secondary effects. My favorite is the Gorilla, which adds a barrier (10% of max life up to 40%) and Thorns. At level 30, I chose the Jaguar as my second Spirit Animal, increasing my maximum Ferocity stacks, which means faster attacks that hit harder.

All my skills also became Gorilla skills, and with a mighty, Unique item called the Rod of Kepeleke, which I found during my endgame grind, all my core skills also became basic skills. That's skills on skills and an intricately woven build, with Quill Volley as my primary damage dealer.

The bottom line is that the Spiritborn exceeded my expectations. The class is exceptionally fun to play and has many avenues to go down regarding builds to try. It is, without exaggerating, probably my second favorite Diablo class of all time, with the first being the Barbarian. Blizzard hit the nail right on the head with the Spiritborn class, as it fits in brilliantly with the other classes and their toolkits of destruction.

There are some caveats, however. As it stands, the Spiritborn is too strong. It's incredibly overpowered, and the first significant game update failed to nerf the class at all. Blizzard tends to buff other classes instead of nerfing a problematic one. That said, players have already figured out how to deal hundreds of trillions of damage in one hit. No, that's not a typo. 

The second small issue is that one specific core skill dominates all Spiritborn builds: Quill Volley. This skill sends feathers shooting out of the player character, and with the proper aspect, “Aspect of Rebounding” also pulls the feathers back in, dealing insane damage. While there are many diverse build options for decent damage and leveling, Quill Volley stands so far above the rest that any Diablo player who wants to take on Torment 3 or 4 and Uber bosses will respect it. The potential for many other builds and creativity is there, but most players won't use them, and that's a negative mark against the Spiritborn.

An Endgame Loop Worth Getting Stuck In

It's time to discuss the elephant in the room—the endgame. Throughout the first five seasons after the launch of Diablo 4, there have been hits and misses where Blizzard introduced new types of endgame content and mechanics.

Vessel of Hatred feels like a culmination of all the testing and experiments to finally deliver an endgame loop worth getting stuck in for months. That's precisely what an ARPG needs and that's exactly what Vessel of Hatred delivers.

Once you complete the story, you'll make your way to level 60 (the new level cap), farming Helltides, doing Tree of Whispers, and maybe some Nightmare Dungeons until you are strong enough to unlock the first Torment difficulty level. To unlock Torment I, you must complete Tier 20 of The Pit, which has now been changed into a way to upgrade your Paragon Board Glyphs, making Nightmare Dungeons a place to farm crafting materials and not much else.

Once you reach and complete The Pit Tier 20 within the 15-minute timeframe, you can head to a main city and finally select Torment I, which is where the real endgame begins.

Each of the four Diablo 4 Torment difficulty levels has its requirements and curses, and each level increases your chances of getting Ancestral items and even Mythic Uniques to drop.

Read More: How To Unlock Diablo 4 Torment Difficulties & Curses Detailed

You'll receive quests to unlock specific endgame content that’s new with Vessel of Hatred. There are two main activities: the raid-like Dark Citadel, where you can complete challenges with friends or with randoms via the Party Finder, and the Kurast Undercity, a time-attack dungeon where you can use Tributes to target-farm specific drops you are after.

The Kurast Undercity time-attack dungeon is a refreshing and sometimes stressful endgame endeavor where, if you fail, your Tribute (a consumable that opens the Undercity) is lost. It adds additional stakes to the endgame grind and creates a fun atmosphere where you kill enemies and perform tasks to increase your time by a few seconds. I found myself running out of time on several occasions, and it was one of the most thrilling experiences yet.

As for the Dark Citadel, that's a bit of a miss for me. You MUST play in a party, as dungeon mechanics require at least two players. The bosses do have some interesting mechanics, such as fighting them in specific realms and using counter-spells you pick up during the fights. However, the Dark Citadel's rewards are lacking, and if a player disconnects, you are stuck and might even need to restart the whole raid. 

It's a much more satisfying endgame loop than what we previously had: farming Helltides and Uber bosses, then grinding Nightmare Dungeons repeatedly to upgrade your Glyphs.

Adding Runes and powerful Runewords that can drop in the late-game opens up new ways to diversify a build. I loved how I could generate Offering with Moni and automatically get the Druid’s Base Earthen Bulwark skill to cast when enough was generated, all thanks to the MoniPoc Runeword on my Spiritborn's chest armor.

Read More:Diablo 4 Mythic Unique Crafting With Runes & Requirements

Best of all, Diablo 4 Vessel of Hatred is an alt's paradise. The Paragon points earned are now account-wide, so if you reach level 60 with an alt, and your main character is Paragon 200, so is your alt! This change, in tandem with standard Shared Stash and Seasonal Ashes buffs, means your alts become beasts very early, making it easier to get into the endgame and enjoy all the new content.

After 50 hours in the endgame, I completed the Seasons Journey, killed every Uber boss dozens of times, reached Paragon 180, and completed the seasonal reputation tiers with ease. Even with everything technically finished, I'm still on the hunt for several Mythic Uniques, including the ever-elusive Harlequin's Crest, and if I do find one, the gameplay loop is so much fun I might not even stop there!

Don't Hate the Player

Vessel of Hatred isn't perfect, but it's close. I did experience a few minor issues, the worst of which was an NPC called Sihek being missing in the Deeds of a Champion quest, given by Ormus, and needing to unlock Torment difficulty. For me, after doing one Helltide in frustration, Sihek appeared where he was supposed to.

Some players aren't so lucky but could still circumvent the issue by completing the priority quest to unlock the Undercity. I also ran into one sidequest in Nahantu that seemed bugged, but the problem was resolved after teleporting to Kyovashad and back again. I mention these minor issues because Vessel of Hatred does have a few tiny chinks in its 

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the launch woes as well, where gamers across the globe couldn't take up a sword against Mephisto, as the global release was delayed for several hours. However, that's in the past, and the servers have been brilliantly stable ever since.

Slaying Hell's Denizens on Steam Deck

Every screenshot in this review was taken from the Steam Deck, using default settings at 40Hz and 40FPS. The average frame rate remains solid throughout the campaign and most endgame content. The game's controller input is already perfect for consoles, so I didn't have to tinker with the Steam Deck's control layout.

I only experienced some FPS drops inside the Kurast Bazaar, which could be due to the number of players in the new main town. For reference, I never had significant FPS drops in Kyovashad, so some performance tweaking for the area could be needed.

Diablo 4 Vessel of Hatred is one of the best games for the Steam Deck. To have the entire world of Sanctuary in my hands was amazing, and I could play for roughly three hours (with the OLED version) before a charge was required. Throughout just over 60 hours of playtime, I never once experienced a crash or was forced to restart the game, which is a considerable accomplishment in optimization and stability.

Vessel of Hatred, Wessel of Praise

I'm what many gamers would consider a Diablo veteran. I remember playing the original for 16 hours at a time in 1997 while I was still in high school, and Diablo 2 with friends for years on end. We brought out PCs together in a garage, grinding for hours upon hours every second weekend.

Diablo 3, with its Auction House debacle, was a bit of a miss for me. The base Diablo 4 game was fantastic, but its endgame was lacking. Vessel of Hatred fixed any gripes I had with Diablo 4 and then sprinkled in an incredibly satisfying endgame loop, fine-tuned after five seasons of experimentation. 

Vessel of Hatred was an emotional journey for me. While the main quest didn't end the way I wanted it to, that's just a minuscule part of the experience. I loved playing the Spiritborn far more than I thought I would, and when I got into Torment difficulties and endgame activities, I just couldn't stop playing.

For all its modern systems, Diablo 4's first expansion teleported me back to a simpler time. It made me wish I could call up those old high school friends (who are all across the world now) and tell them to bring over their PCs once again. The hundred hours spent farming and increasing my Paragon levels felt like minutes. Vessel of Hatred made me feel like a real gamer again, and that's priceless.

It’s a resounding success that the Greater Evils of the Burning Hells should be proud of. Despite a few minor issues, there hasn't been a game that has pulled me in so deeply and fully.

Blizzard has revived Diablo 4's endgame with engineer-like precision, built intricate systems, slotted in a new class like that one missing puzzle piece, and created a gameplay loop worth spending dozens, if not hundreds, of hours in. It’s clear that they’re in it for the long haul and, most importantly, are listening closely to community feedback.

Vessel of Hatred isn't perfect, but I'll spend another 60 hours or more in Season 1 and another 1000 before the subsequent expansion releases. Well done, Blizzard, you got me hooked!

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