Published , by Will Borger
Published , by Will Borger
I’m not really a Diablo guy. I’ve never played the original game, and I have no nostalgia for the series. I only played Diablo 2 because my friends did. I played Diablo 3 once with friends at release, realized I really didn’t like it (though people I trust tell me it’s gotten much better in the years since), and never played it again. I don’t like loot. My eyes glaze over when I have to compare two chestpieces to see if one has 1% better lifesteal. I look up the most efficient builds because I don’t like doing math and planning build synergy makes me want stab myself in the thigh with the nearest sharp object. I am, in every way, the type of person who should not like Diablo 4. But it was one of my favorite games from last year. And Vessel of Hatred is just more of Diablo 4’s best part: its story. But there’s a lot of really cool stuff here, so if you fell off during the smaller, seasonal updates, like me, there’s plenty to keep you coming back.
What drew me into Diablo 4 was its writing, and Vessel of Hatred pulled me back into the narrative Blizzard so wonderfully spun. I’ll spoil as little of Vessel of Hatred as I can here, but I can’t talk about the story without spoiling Diablo 4’s. If you haven’t yet played the original game and would like to, I’d recommend you skip ahead to the paragraph a little ways down that says “Okay, spoilers over.”
Still here? All right. Vessel of Hatred picks up a while after Diablo 4 ends. Neyrelle, the young girl who accompanied you in the base game and absconded with the Soulstone containing Mephisto, Lord of Hatred, is trying to find a way to defeat him (and the other Prime Evils) for good. She’s foolishly taking on this task alone, and like every Soulstone that has ever contained a Prime Evil, hers is beginning to fail. The battle she wages against Mephisto isn't just for the future of Sanctuary; it's a fight for her very soul. And slowly but surely, Neyrelle is losing. Mephisto is perverting her body and poisoning her mind, causing her to lose control and often murder the people around her with demonic corruption that literally explodes from her body. It’s only a matter of time before he completely possesses her.
You step back into the boots of the Wanderer, Neyrelle’s friend and all-powerful demon slayer. She needs your help, so you have to find her. The story that follows explores trauma, grief, loss, friendship, the corruption of institutions, the idea of stolen valor, what we owe each other, what happens to us when we die, the power of legacy and belief, and what, ultimately, we’ll sacrifice to protect the things we love. There’s a lot to Vessel of Hatred, just as there was a lot to the base game, and while I don’t think Vessel of Hatred quite reaches the narrative heights of Diablo 4 (it’s a substantially shorter experience, and doesn’t have the runtime to develop its ideas that the base game does), it plants its flag atop a high peak. Vessel of Hatred does an admirable job of continuing that story and going to new and interesting places while honoring the story that Diablo 4 did so much to build up.
Vessel of Hatred finds its power in its smallness. Instead of saving the world, you’re trying to save a friend. You could kill Lilith; Mephisto is immortal. To him, death is a revolving door. It’s not enough to kill him. You have to stop him from coming back to life. In one dialogue exchange, the Wanderer admits that she (I played a female Rogue) is little more than a fist. She was not the heart nor the soul of the merry band of misfits you built in Diablo 4. She was a sledgehammer; you pointed her at a problem, whether it was a random demon or Lilith herself, and that problem ceased to be. Her importance existed in relation only to Neyrelle, to Donan, to Lorath, to those who could actually do the things that Sanctuary needed done if it was to be saved. At best, the Wanderer is a stopgap measure, a salve applied to a burn; she can make things better in the short run, dull the pain, but curing what ails Sanctuary is not something she can accomplish alone.
It’s a stunning admission for a video game protagonist; often, we inhabit chosen ones, supersoldiers, demigods to whom the world — and the game narrative — itself bends. Here, you are powerless to stop what is happening to Neyrelle, at least alone. That requires something beyond you. It’s a smart storytelling choice that allows you to remain powerful in the way that Diablo, with its loot and levels, is designed to make you powerful without making you the solution to every problem. You are a fist, and you can’t punch your way out of the return of a Prime Evil. Not if you want to save her.
In another memorable exchange, a character trying to help Neyrelle fight through Mephisto’s illusions asks her to remember what’s real. The ground under her feet, Neyrelle says. The axe in her hand. When pushed for a third thing, Neyrelle goes beyond the physical: the fact that her mother chose Lilith over her. That’s real. And, left unsaid, that Neyrelle could not save her, had to watch you kill her. We are all the result of all our damage, our pain. Diablo 4 understood that. Vessel of Hatred understands that. But it is not all that we are. The other character reminds Neyrelle that they, her friends around her now, in that moment, are choosing her. That she is not alone. When it settles into these moments, these intimate exchanges, Vessel of Hatred’s story sings.
Okay, spoilers over. There is, of course, a game here, too. New to Vessel of Hatred is Nahantu, a jungle hiding the overgrown ruins of once-great civilizations. With Nahantu come the Spiritborn, a new, martial arts weapon-focused class based around spirit animals — jaguar, gorilla, eagle, and centipede — that the Spiritborn can customize and combine to suit their playstyle. I didn’t play Spiritborn much during the review period (I was too busy throwing knives at everything with my Rogue), but I did pal around with one a lot, and it seems very cool. I’m interested in spending more time with it.
You can also recruit and level up mercenaries that will join you in the world, which is a nice touch if you like to play alone, and something I really appreciated. For folks who wanna play with friends, there’s the Kurast Undercity, a time-attack dungeon you can use to level and farm loot. You can even influence what kind of loot you’re going to get by using special items and completing in-dungeon challenges. There’s also a new endgame PVE dungeon with more in-depth bosses and mechanics called The Dark Citadel that you can tackle with friends. It’s the kind of thing that I can see an old WoW raider like me losing entirely too much time to.
There’s a new party finder. There are Runewords you can slot into your gear for unique effects that must be triggered certain ways, depending on how you mix and match effects and triggers. Character progression is being redone for everyone with access to the base game. New seasonal content. And on and on it goes. Vessel of Hatred is doing an awful lot, and everything I interacted with either felt great or left me wanting to see more.
This is not a review. I’m not going to leave you with a number or a single word to sum up my experience with Vessel of Hatred. I left it remembering why I loved Diablo 4 so much, satisfied with the story I’d been told, and excited by what would come next. I left wanting to play more Diablo 4; to see what I’d missed. To spend more time in that world and with those characters, and to share that story with others. I left wondering about what might come next. Vessel of Hatred is not a “happy” story because Diablo is not a happy story. In this world, winning is living to fight another day, and dying before the demons you’ve dedicated your life to slaying finally corrupt you. No hero escapes Diablo unscathed, something Vessel of Hatred understands. Victory is, at best, buying time, and it comes at a great cost. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth fighting for.
Vessel of Hatred deals with big ideas, and it’s not afraid to upset you. But as an expansion, it welcomed me back to Diablo 4 like an old friend inviting you into their home with a cup of hot cocoa and a warm fire after you’ve spent hours braving a snowstorm to see them. I can’t think of more you could want from an expansion than that.
These impressions are based on a copy of the game provided by the publisher.