Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred Review (BattleNet/PC)

by Jim Smale · October 22, 2024

Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred Review, Uncover what evil lies ahead in Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred. Battle as the all-new Spiritborn class and embrace the mystical Spirits entwined with Nahantu’s ancient civilizations. Continue your fight to thwart the diabolical plot of the Prime Evil, Mephisto. Expand your map to the new region of Nahantu and traverse through its lush jungles. Recruit new mercenaries to fight alongside you, and take on new enemies, dungeons, PvE co-op challenges, and more. Plus, explore a plethora of base game updates that will introduce new power and continue to enhance the world of Diablo IV.

Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred Review Pros:

Gorgeous graphics.
119GB download size but this does include the base game.
New own in-game achievements.
Full controller support.
New Spiritborn class with eight presets for the character creation, you can do further customisation though.
ARPG gameplay.
A new area called Nahantu looks fantastic from the above-ground jungle world to the underground tombs and dungeons.
Powerful memorable soundtrack.
Cutscenes still look like a top-tier movie, you also get in-game interactions and set pieces.
Amazing-looking bosses and new enemy types.
The new class Spiritborn is a real game-changer.
I like how the different animal essences your Spiritborn uses are color-coded to help you keep to the one essence though you are free to mix and match.
As you hit level 20 you do a special one-off quest the Spirit Hall which delves into the Spiritborn class, you learn the origins and unlock passive skills which again can be changed.
The Spirit Hall event can be played in co-op.
A new skill tree for your character and you can refund points and sell back certain unlocks at will.
A lot of optional lore can be found around the world.
The DLC story is really good and does continue the story amd references previous events.
Nahantu has to be discovered and revealed, you get the map bonuses for this like before so extra potion uses, bonus exp, etc for discovering everything.
New memorable characters that aid you on your journey.
Mercenaries can be unlocked and this is an old Diablo 3 mechanic. You can (when playing solo) hire a mercenary to play alongside you, each offers unique abilities and attacks and can buff you.
Quests are all split up into areas and styles of quests like main story, optional side missions, class-specific quests, etc.
I’ll mention it as it’s across both the game and DLC but the auto pin objective option is a game-changer! Now you can just keep plowing on with the story without worrying about finding the objective on the map amd then clicking back.
In Coop, each player gets a color dot under their name and that is what color their pin and trail are as you can see every player’s pin line.
Many secrets and points of interest to find in the Nahantu region.
Really memorable set pieces and sequences.
In Co-op, if your players have auto pin enabled it will take from the host’s progress and match it.
Nahantu is not just jungle mind, it has a corruption washed over it that makes it look spectacular but also brings in other enemy types.
You can not only use your mount on town, you can also use your speed boost now.
Zakarum remnant is a seperate faction that you level up by collecting fragments from Realmwalker portal events.
The Undercity gets unlocked and is a new high replayability activity whereby you have to light braziers, and kill enemies, all whilst the timer goes down, killing elites and certain bosses can reward more time. A loot chest is given at the end and you level it up by killing enemies.
Each mercenary is unique but you have to do a quest to recruit each one.
New level cap – 60.
The Pit of Artificers is a new endgame mode, You need to kill enemies within a time limit to trigger the boss fight, it is like an updated take on the Rifts system in Diablo 3.
You can do more upgrading and customizing with your Paragon glyphs and use nightmare modifiers for the Pit of Artificers.

Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred Review Cons:

Still has a lot of missions that are just standing here and fighting waves of enemies for very little payoff.
A detailed or brief pop-up of what’s new since the last time you played Diablo 4 would have been good.
As is always the case, learning a new character takes a long time.
Bullet sponge boss fights are annoying anyway but here they do that and add in ones that disappear and go invulnerable so tedious builds.
The Zakuram Remnant activity is just a re-skin of the last time they did this with the Wolf camp.
You never get a screen saying the DLC is complete.
Lag is very bad, built-up areas mean objects and enemies wouldn’t spawn in or it would just pop in. I know it’s because it’s new but it makes the experience really rough.