Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred Expansion Review
Hatred looms over Sanctuary, and on October 8, Vessel of Hatred, Diablo 4’s first expansion, will continue to unveil the story of the Prime Evil Mephisto’s return. Thanks to Blizzard, Wowhead was granted access to an exclusive, week-long Vessel of Hatred playtest, and for over 300 hours combined across all team members, we were able to dive deep into the expansion’s campaign, the new Spiritborn class, its leveling and endgame systems, and much more!
The Campaign
Diablo 4’s first campaign, which launched alongside the main game in June last year, was generally well-received by both game journalists and community members.
Without spoiling Vessel of Hatred’s story, we can safely say that Blizzard has kept up this momentum and crafted a fantastic campaign fit for a first expansion. We can’t and won’t tell what the campaign is about, of course — but we can tell you how it felt to play Vessel of Hatred’s campaign.
First, we advise you to play through the campaign on Normal difficulty if you decide to experience it with your first Seasonal character. Campaign quests reward incredible amounts of experience, and we won’t defeat millions of monsters along the way, so playing through the campaign on Hard difficulty, which grants 75% more monster experience, wouldn’t be worth it anyway. In the end, most of us hit around Level 50 by just playing the campaign on Normal. The pacing felt great because it balanced leveling speed well while fully embracing one of the expansion’s main features — a new storyline to explore.
Now, back to the story: Diablo 4’s first campaign ended on an unsettling note. Yes, both Lilith and Inarius were taken care of — but what about Mephisto, the much Greater — or even — Prime Evil? In the end, Neyrelle took fate in the form of Mephisto’s Soulstone into her own hands, which started a character arc that, up to this day, isn’t universally loved by the community.
With the start of Vessel of Hatred’s campaign, the player decides to follow Neyrelle
