Every expansion that comes to this game is a firm reminder that this game still has legs.
Diablo IV – Lord of Hatred is the latest expansion to arrive in the Diablo series from Blizzard Entertainment, and brings with it a continuing and captivating story connected with the Vessel of Hatred release. The story goes like this: after Lilith was extinguished in the last game, her father, Mephisto, has returned to claim his prize…the world. You’re assigned the beautiful task of figuring out a way to stop him before the world falls in line with him, which involves bringing up an old ‘flame’ from the underworld – Lilith. As one would assume, she is not a willing participant.
As with most games in the Diablo series, this is another feather in the narrative cap for Blizzard. The urgency in the story is thick, as is the danger that comes along with Mephisto’s return. The most interesting and relatable situation in the game is how Mephisto forms a cult to spread hate and lies across the globe to ensure world domination. Call me crazy, but that shit sounds familiar, right? Yeah. Totally.
Anyway, the story for this game is fantastic on multiple levels, treated right with both protagonist and antagonist journeys, and quenches a thirst that the last expansion story brought about. In other words, you’re in for a thrill ride that will engage and hook you into continually playing the game to see how the story unfolds.
Now, as much as I love story and like to prioritize its existence within all games, the gameplay must fit firmly into place with it, and it does. The gameplay will have the player traveling through all sorts of cities, lands, caves, and the underworld. There are a variety of story-driven locales that the player must visit, with each bringing a flavor of evilness and urgency with it. I was very impressed by the pointedness of this game and how it opened up a good trail of exploration, which left the options of finding events, new gear, and having plenty of opportunities that related to the expansion. There is a lot to do and come across, including the occasional village battle that is attached to the story, and all sorts of new baddies that come with it. The expansion helps to make the gameplay feel big and alive, and most of all, connected with every aspect of its world.
On the gear side of the tracks, there is the Lord of Hatred gear to be had in this game. It’s balanced armor, weapons, and wearables that make playing the game a lot more fun. I never found myself short of good gear that made fighting more fun as the adventure unfolded in the expansion. Trust me, the major boss fights that players will get into depend on that gear being good and balanced, as well as discovered and organized in a strategic way. The expansion did a great job of making sure that gear was provided at the right time, giving the best possible scenario for success with it, and at the same time didn’t force the player to take it. As most of the Diablo fans out there know, it’s completely doable to enter a boss fight underpowered and still pull off a victory. For me, I needed that gear to make it through, and the game did a great job of providing it when I needed it.
Speaking of bosses, some of those boss fights in Lord of Hatred were brutal. Boss fights range from a sea serpent attacking a ship, all the way to a familiar face in Mephisto’s past that won’t go easy on the protagonist, as they come prepped with three brutal phases of strategic fighting. Thankfully, and as mentioned in the previous paragraph, the gear helps to prep for those fights as they gradually become more difficult. While there is no huge ramp-up from one boss to the next, the game still acknowledges and understands where players should be with their characters and how difficult the bosses need to be to equal entertainment value. Honestly, there was never a boss fight that I went into thinking that I was outmatched, nor did I feel like any boss fight was impossible. The game gave me a good sprinkle of difficulty, but also provided boss patterns and enough variety to keep fights interesting. To this gameplay’s credit, I never cursed once, even after dying multiple times during boss fights. And believe me, some of those fights get crazy. In the end, the fights were fun as much as they were fair, and that’s all you can ask for when you’re hoping for good boss fights.
Shifting gears just slightly, two additional classes make it to the expansion – Paladin and Warlock. I tried both during my time with the game and felt that the Warlock is certainly the best part of this expansion class. The Warlock is balanced, easy to use, and brutal at a distance. I had more success with the game in this class and felt like it was easy to pick up quickly. It certainly helped make boss battles a heckuva lot fun.
On the Paladin side of the tracks, they are slow-moving. While this class is armed to the teeth and has one of the better armor solutions available, they walk like a turtle at times on the battlefield, especially during boss fights. For example, there was a boss encounter early in the game where a boss could summon the dead to chase after me. With the Warlock, I could run circles around those folks. With the Paladin, I had to constantly dash forward to keep a distance from the creatures. Now, this doesn’t mean that the Paladin isn’t strong or more durable during fights; it just means they weren’t built for speed, and that deficiency can create an additional challenge during boss fights.
To make fights a bit easier, regardless of class, this expansion has retooled the leveling tree to make it more user-friendly and to provide flexible choices for the player to make. The tree is huge, ever-expanding, and fun to try new paths out on. Players will find this flexible skills tree helpful when it comes to customizing and crafting a character’s attributes to their own liking. It provides some agency for the player experience.
As for other updates for this expansion that are worth noting, the level cap has been raised to 70, and more baddies for the PIT have been added (and goodies with it). There is also a new Talisman system in place, which I walked away impressed by, as it adds more depth to the gameplay and gives the user more avenues to travel down to make the expansion feel bigger.
Overall, Diablo IV – Lord of Hatred is an excellent expansion that improves the gameplay over the last update, brings a wicked-fun story to the forefront, and offers new avenues for the player to customize as they see fit on the backend. Blizzard did one helluva job on this release. I hope the future releases bring the same care.
On that note, let’s wrap up this review.
Conclusion
Diablo IV – Lord of Hatred is by far one of the more impactful and thoughtful expansions to hit the series. The narrative is absolutely well-done, the backend improvements to the gameplay are well-executed, and the gameplay experience as a whole is fun from beginning to end. There’s not much to hate with this one.
