Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred Review – Hateful Things

In a saga that began with the base game, players have been essentially chasing a confrontation against Mephisto, the Lord of Hatred – just as Blizzard Entertainment has been chasing them for all the ways to improve the experience, barebones and rudimentary as it was.

Improvements rolled through over the years for almost every aspect, and this expansion, coinciding with a free update, promises to be the most sweeping yet. And while there are some positive aspects, the expansion leaves me in the same spot as it did all those years – wanting, waiting for it deliver a better experience, rather than simply bolting on more systems and hitting those monthly active player counts. The expansion features a new end-game “activity” (heavy emphasis on the quotes), alongside odd additions (fishing) and actual, meaningful gameplay changes.

"For every impressively rendered cutscene, there are so many moments where you’re rooted in place, having to listen to a character drone on and on, then click on them for a dialogue option to trigger a cutscene. And no amount of skipping can fix that."

But above all, it’s about Mephisto, and if you’re already beyond caring about the plot, the expansion will do little to change your mind. Reuniting with Lorath Nair following discoveries made by Neyrelle, the Wanderer ventures to Skovos to stop the Primeval and his latest plan, which involves garnering the support of the people, including the Amazons, and harnessing an eclipse for some unknown purpose.

If you rolled a “world-ending scenario,” that’s a natural 20. Despite all of it, and even with reliable performances from the likes of Ralph Ineson, the plot really lurches along until you’re reunited with you-know-who, the explanation about as reasonable as “Somehow, Palpatine returned.”

Unfortunately, this whole cyclical nature of hatred isn’t something Blizzard is really keen on exploring, much less psychoanalysing but the current villain must be stopped because.

And doing that requires hunting down three pieces of a blade and stabbing him, lickity split, no fuss, no muss. Of course, it also doesn’t help that, once again, this doesn’t feel like much of the Wanderer’s story. Just that one is sidling along and partaking in events as they happen with the ever-nagging feeling that maybe we shouldn’t have killed the big bad all those years ago.

Anyway, by now, you’re probably wondering why I’m so held up by the story and the direction. Leaving aside that the above are really the only interesting parts about expansion’s plot, I can empathize with those who are only here to blast through monsters and earn sick loot. Who cares about the campaign when you’re going to clear it once and forget about it after?

Well, therein lies the problem, just as with the base game and Vessel of Hatred. The campaign is about eight hours long, and that’s by design. Blizzard really wants to linger on this story and characters, to the point where it hampers the pacing. For every impressively rendered cutscene, there are so many moments where you’re rooted in place, having to listen to a character drone on and on, then click on them for a dialogue option to trigger a cutscene. And no amount of skipping can fix that.

"We might as well get fishing out of the way first, since it’s the most straightforward. While starting as a side quest, it opens up the ability to fish anywhere in the world and add those catches to your collection."

It can be made more succinct – heck, there are several places where it is, as seen in the final hour or so – but despite how terse some of the situations are, Blizzard opts for verboseness. As a result, there’s much ado about nothing through the majority of this campaign, save for going somewhere to engage in almost as much rudimentary conversation as monster slaying.

Is it an improvement over Vessel of Hatred? It’s not saying much, but yes, and much of that can be attributed to the final boss, which is perhaps one of the best yet, balancing spectacle with interesting mechanics. I was gobsmacked throughout this whole encounter – by Diablo 4 standards, of course – especially given most of the standard fare that the rest of the expansion had to offer. There are some other cool moments in the story, and for once, Blizzard chose not to overtly push future threats for the sake of setting up its seasons.

Of course, that’s only one aspect of the Diablo 4 experience – the other, and one that players will be more interested in, is the endgame, specifically, War Plans, fishing and Echoing Hatred.

We might as well get fishing out of the way first, since it’s the most straightforward. While starting as a side quest, it opens up the ability to fish anywhere in the world and add those catches to your collection. The actual “mechanics” of it offer little more than opening the emote wheel – almost like Blizzard is mocking me at this point, given my severe dislike of quests that require it – and selecting “Fish.” From there, you wait till a catch bites and press the button at the right time.

Fish can be traded for high-level items and materials, and there are even dedicated challenges and cosmetic sets. Think of it as more of a side activity than anything else – something to complement the monster slaying.

Echoing Hatred, where you face endless hordes of progressively difficult enemies (and net better rewards depending on how long you survive), requires an exceedingly rare item that simply hasn’t dropped for me yet. There’s something to be said about endgame activities with high barriers to entry, but when you’ve advertised one as a major selling point for a $40 expansion, you would at least think that a free sample is due. A taste for what players can expect, but alas, there’s none of that here, so keep grinding away and hoping that it drops before Blizzard inevitably caves and either buffs the drop rate or offers a way to craft them.

"As you complete activities, you’ll earn skill points for distinct passive trees that can result in things such as Hellwyrms unleashing Chaos Rifts in Helltides, or the chance to fight two Initiate bosses after opening a Lair Boss’s chest. These don’t dramatically alter the activities in question."

Don’t worry, though, because you’ll be grinding out some very familiar activities courtesy of War Plans. The joke before expansion’s launch about how this is little more than a playlist of the current slate of endgame offerings, from a run in The Pit to completing a Nightmare Dungeon, isn’t exactly a joke. Granted, these are adjusted to more adequately fit a series of activities rather than standing on their own, so a Nightmare Dungeon will have more streamlined objectives. Which is all the more hilarious because trying to garner enough Aether for the alternate boss fight becomes much more challenging, though not downright impossible. Likewise, Helltides requires gathering enough Aberrant Cinders to open two chests and then dipping.

You’re rewarded after every activity completion and then receive a final reward once the entire War Plan is complete. Then you do it again. It’s not purely “play what you want” – there is some freedom in choosing different nodes, but the chances of outright avoiding the Undercity or not partaking in Helltides are very low, especially as the War Plans facilitate up to five activities in a row.

As you complete activities, you’ll earn skill points for distinct passive trees that can result in things such as Hellwyrms unleashing Chaos Rifts in Helltides, or the chance to fight two Initiate bosses after opening a Lair Boss’s chest. These don’t dramatically alter the activities in question – more like adding some bells and whistles, a major cut below the Atlas Tree in Path of Exile. Despite slightly spicing up these activities, it doesn’t feel like something befitting a paid expansion such as this. Also, I’m baffled why this system doesn’t include World Bosses or Legion Events. Perhaps coordinating those is too challenging, even if it would have helped the variety.

Nevertheless, you’ll spend a decent amount of time farming War Plans for new Seals and Horadric Cube materials. The latter can be used for a variety of things, from upgrading Rare loot to Legendaries (offering a decent power spike on new characters), adding new modifiers on existing gear at the cost of making it unmodifiable, transmuting three of the same item into a new one, and so on. And while I can appreciate being able to reroll the value of an Ancestral Unique’s core power or to remove Affixes, it doesn’t change the simplicity of the crafting system, nor really encourage much else beyond tossing in a relatively complete Ancestral, be it Unique or Legendary, and transfiguring (or “corrupting”) it for one last modifier.

"On the bright side, the two new classes are lots of fun. I spent the most time with Paladin, becoming Arbiter Andy, walking around and decimating enemies with Wing Strikes (which proved so good that I think the increased damage modifier has been outright removed from Tempering)."

You’re not going to brick the item or make it disappear, but in the same vein, the results thus far have left me wanting. It’s complimentary and definitely has its uses – all my fellow Jah Rune searchers, our time has come – and if you’ve ever wanted to craft a Common item from the ground up into something, then you can. But you could also just blast through the rest of the game and bathe in the loot explosions. It’s a process that, like the whole “unmodifiable” business, doesn’t really gel with what Diablo 4 is trying to offer.

Then again, at this point, I don’t quite know if Diablo 4 is trying to gel with what Diablo 4 is after, and nowhere is that more obvious than with the addition of the Talisman. You can equip a Seal that opens up several Charm Slots, letting you fit up to six (though you’ll be spending a lot of time with five for a while). While there are Magic, Rare and Unique Charms to equip, each with their own stats and benefits, Set bonuses also make a return, and once again, they’re going to railroad you into their bonuses to augment a specific playstyle.

I found that the Epiphany Set could suit one purpose of my Arbiter build, essentially giga-buffing the Ultimate to obscene levels for a short period while heavily reducing its cooldown. But on the other hand, the Iron Conviction set fed more into the aura playstyle, heavily improving survivability and making all those additional aura skill levels useful. Like the Cube, it’s complementary on top of your current build, but the very nature of the Set bonuses means they’ll dictate the meta rather than exist outside of it. And of course, each Charm has its own Ancestral version, because why not add another layer of RNG on top of everything else?

On the bright side, the two new classes are lots of fun. I spent the most time with Paladin, becoming Arbiter Andy, walking around and decimating enemies with Wing Strikes (which proved so good that I think the increased damage modifier has been outright removed from Tempering). While not too well-versed with the Warlock at present, I found its take on the summoner playstyle, which involved bringing in brutes and hurling bodies at enemies within a summoning circle to translate kills into more minions, to be chaotically enjoyable.

If you needed any impetus to pick up the expansion, it’s probably these two, because, for what it’s worth, Diablo 4’s base combat still feels viscerally enjoyable. I don’t have much to say about Skovos, save for the fact that it’s a gorgeous location, and once again, the art team at Blizzard continues to carry this property through thick and thin. It’s matched by the sound design and music teams – the former ensures that every single impact of the Paladin’s Falling Star feels weighty while the latter adds an air of almost Greek mythology to the region’s tunes.

"However, at this point, almost three years later, Diablo 4 still struggles to resonate with me. The ingredients are seemingly there, but the design decisions and overall endgame loop continue to disappoint, with War Plans feeling like little more than a band-aid fix to try and string them all together."

Diablo 4’s open world design, where you’re flitting from one place to the next on a mount, partaking in the same random world events on repeat, is what it is at this point. I’m not a fan, but at least Skovos feels less sprawling and more compact in its design, which means less travel time.

I would have loved to end this review by saying that this expansion is simply more Diablo 4, and that if you love the base game, then you’ll probably like this. Content-wise, that definitely holds, especially with the new classes, and there have been enough systemic changes in this latest update that lapsed players will want to come back and at least play around with all the systems.

However, at this point, almost three years later, Diablo 4 still struggles to resonate with me. The ingredients are seemingly there, but the design decisions and overall endgame loop continue to disappoint, with War Plans feeling like little more than a band-aid fix to try and string them all together. Maybe with the Hatred saga over and done with, the feeling of hope for the future will result in something, anything innovative or meaningful for the game as a whole. As it currently stands, however, it begets little more than a feeling of what could have been.

This expansion was reviewed on PC.