REVIEW: Is 'Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred' worth playing?
The Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred expansion pack brings a lot of new things to the table—from a new class to a new region.
Full disclosure: The dungeon crawler video game's latest downloadable content is my introduction to the Diablo series and it has me wanting to play more.
ICYMI, Vessel of Hatred was released on Oct. 8, rolling out updates to the 2023 game, including a new campaign picking up after the end of the original game. (Spoiler alert for Diablo 4 main campaign) Lilith, the mother of Sanctuary and daughter of big bad Mephisto, dies after the Wanderer (the player) defeats her. Meanwhile, Neyrelle contains Mephisto in the Soulstone.
The expansion pack continues to follow Neyrelle, whose mind is slowly becoming corrupted by the Prime Evil.
The game actually gives you the option to skip the base game campaign and start with the VoH story with a new character. This has its downsides as you have to go through some of the missions in the original campaign to unlock certain items and abilities. Don't worry as the enemies will scale down to your level—but I still found it a little difficult to play (maybe it would be easier to start from the very beginning).
New to the game is the Spiritborn class, agile, and mobile warriors that take down foes with glaives, quarterstaves, polearms, and the powers of the four Spirit Guardians.
When it comes to action RPGs like Diablo, I prefer to play melee-fighting characters so the Spiritborn was a no-brainer pick. Choosing this class was a pretty good introduction to the world of the dungeon crawler series. Even long-time Diablo players can still find this DLC worth playing as they can try their hand at the new class if they want to shake things up.
While I haven't reached far into the story as of writing, the campaign definitely has me hooked. The Mercenaries, which you unlock throughout the game, are a big help, especially when I have to face a hoard of enemies. They also each have their own backstories, which really immerses you into the game.
During the early days of the expansion pack's release, some users were reporting that it was crashing on their PC. I was playing on an HP Omen Transcend 14, and my playthrough was quite smooth-sailing, save for one time the game got very laggy.
VoH also adds Kurast Undercity, where you can grind and farm items, end-game co-op Dark Citadel, and Runewords.
There's more to play and unlock in the world of Diablo IV with Vessel of Hatred and I can't wait to dive deeper into this series.