I’m not sure if you recall, but Diablo 4 was a strange game when it first launched. Quite clearly the victim of conflicting creative direction, it was part-ARPG, part-MMO, and also live service, featuring a vast open world that felt fundamentally empty. It also lacked any tangible endgame. It’s no wonder, then, that Diablo 4 has had such a transformative few years.
Along the way, Blizzard added actual endgame bosses, activities like The Pit, and overhauls to previous pastimes such as Whispers, Helltides, and Nightmare Dungeons. I can no longer count the number of times Diablo 4’s key systems have been overhauled—it feels like every other update Blizzard has tampered with gear, power, aspects, affixes, and all the under-the-hood magic that makes ARPGs special.
Sean Martin
Despite having played since launch, Diablo 4’s campaigns never quite gripped me. I thought Vessel of Hatred was definitely a step in the right direction in terms of involving our character more, but I wasn’t ready for how genuinely good Lord of Hatred is. It’s a pacey action-packed story with great twists and turns, and it feels like your character is invested in events for once.
Perhaps the biggest reminder of how much Diablo 4 has changed hit me when I logged into my Eternal Realm Necromancer a few days ago (the accumulation of 10 seasons-worth of items) and suddenly realised I had a multi-page stash full of gear, elixirs, and Uber Uniques (called Mythic Uniques now) that are all pretty much redundant and won’t interact properly with the game’s new systems.
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Is it ideal for a seasonal live service game to change so much? Absolutely not—Diablo 4 was always my brain-off game, and having to relearn fundamental systems every other season has been a pain in the arse. Frankly, it’s early access masquerading as live service, and it’s unfortunately rather common in our industry, but I’m here to tell you that with Lord of Hatred, I think Blizzard has finally finished Diablo 4.
The entire time I’ve played Diablo 4, Blizzard has been wrangling with what it wants the game to be, constantly tweaking things and often tweaking them right back a few weeks later. Lord of Hatred is the first time it’s felt like it actually all works. A big part of that are Blizzard’s additions over time, but also the impact of the new skill system, which adds significantly more choice to buildcrafting.
Rather than relying on aspects and uniques, every skill now has a range of passives which fundamentally alter it, Path of Exile 2-style, even changing its damage-type so you’re less locked into a few build combinations. This version of Diablo 4 puts more emphasis on creating your build in the skill tree, with uniques, aspects and tempers acting as a more supplementary layer, which makes for a far more satisfying early game experience versus praying the right unique drops.
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As a long-suffering Necromancer, being able to turn Blight into a Cold or Blood skill, to make Blood Surge or Corpse Explosion into Bone, or even turn Bone Spirit into a Shadow skill, just adds so many possibilities, especially when you take into account the versatility of the Tempering system for adding affixes to gear. It feels fundamentally less stilted build-wise than Diablo 4 did before.
Along with two additional classes, Warlock and Paladin, Lord of Hatred also adds the Horadric Cube, which essentially nicks Path of Exile’s fun crafting system, giving you a place where you can transmute uniques, and it provides loads more options for messing with gear and honing your build even further.
Perhaps more importantly, for those who care about Sanctuary’s ongoing story, Diablo 4 is now narratively complete with Lord of Hatred. That is to say, the present arc in the game has been concluded. As Tyler Colp noted in our 90% review, it’s “A triumphant expansion that gives the action RPG more depth than it’s ever had before,” and despite my bitter history with Diablo 4 and believing that the original campaign is frequently mid, I’m inclined to agree.
Diablo 4 has come quite far over the past few years.
Lord of Hatred’s story feels like the culmination of the work Blizzard started in the previous expansion, Vessel of Hatred, particularly in terms of making our character feel more involved in events rather than just a murderbot who occasionally says “Yes” or “No”. In fact, I thought the campaign was so well-paced and complete, that I’ve started the original Diablo 4 campaign again, as I want to see how it’s been reframed by the events of the expansion.
So, if you’re a lapsed Diablo 4 player who it never quite clicked for, I’m here to tell you that it might be worth giving the game one last try. It’s come quite far over the last few years and it finally feels like it’s standing on solid ground for the first time to me. It also seems unlikely that Blizzard will massively overhaul many more features—if you did happen to find relearning the game after taking a season off as irksome as I did.
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