Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred

1. Summary

Lord of Hatred picks up where Vessel of Hatred ended: Mephisto, disguised as the prophet Akarat, heads for the islands of Skovos, and the player follows. Most reviews recommend it, and the campaign is what they praise most often. 78 reviews praise the story or the campaign, a few rank it among the best stories in the series, and 30 say the expansion beats Vessel of Hatred (two say its story is worse). Players also like the reworked endgame built around War Plans and the Horadric Cube, the two new classes, and the cinematics and soundtrack. The Paladin draws almost no complaints, while the Warlock divides players.

Cost is the most frequent complaint. 24 reviews call the price too high, tell readers to wait for a sale, or object that Vessel of Hatred owners got no discount when the older expansion was folded into this one, and half of those reviews still recommend it. Ten resent that the Cube, War Plans and some skills for the existing classes sit behind the purchase. Other complaints cover bugs that stall quests, the base game's cash shop and battle pass, and a campaign some find slow and padded, which several reviewers resent having to finish before the Cube and War Plans unlock. 21 reviews dislike the writing; among negative reviews, only money comes up more often.

2. What keeps coming up

What players praise

The campaign and its endingHigh

78 reviews praise the story or the campaign. A few rank it among the best stories in the series, and one wrote: "First Diablo title I recommend for the Story experience alone." Players single out the dark tone, the Lilith storyline and the final fight with Mephisto ("it has possibly THE best final boss in the entire series"), and one says it fixes problems the base game's campaign left behind. 30 reviews compare it with Vessel of Hatred and rate it higher, some by a wide margin ("thirty steps up from the Vessel of Hatred").

Critics of the writing (21 reviews, 17 of them negative) call the plot predictable, say characters act without logic, and object to how Lilith is written. One calls it "the worst writing of any Diablo game, DLC, expansion, or spin-off", and two reviews say the story is worse than Vessel of Hatred's. Players who liked the story mention flaws too: one wanted more of Mephisto on screen, and another found the middle of the campaign "a little tedious".

War Plans, the Horadric Cube and a fuller endgameHigh

The reworked endgame gets praise in 44 reviews, 41 of them positive. The additions they name include War Plans (a board of chosen activities, each with its own skill tree), the Horadric Cube for crafting and rerolling gear, Torment tiers up to XII, Greater Rifts in the Pit, talismans, a loot filter and a map overlay. "the cube is a game changer," wrote one player, and another said "the endgame is finally complete".

Players who like War Plans also list problems with them. Activity trees barely level when you play content that isn't on your board, which one player says creates "a strange situation where simply playing the game is actively working against your long-term progression." War Plan progress is tied to one character and can't be synced in a party, and one reviewer calls the gold cost of changing the board unfair. Cube critics say it becomes useful only once a build is mostly finished, leans on RNG, and can't target a single affix to reroll. One review adds that War Plans reset every season, and another that every character is worthless once a season ends. Fishing, a new side activity, gets a lukewarm reception from the two players who discuss it.

Paladin and WarlockHigh

Of the 41 reviews that discuss the two new classes, 33 speak well of at least one. The Paladin gets the warmer reception: 16 reviews praise it and one calls it "the greatest ever Paladin archetype put into a game". Some fans say they had waited for it since Diablo II or since Diablo IV's launch. Its two complaints are that a core class like the Paladin is sold with the expansion at all, and that it was nerfed right after its early-access period, before that player got to try it. The Warlock divides players more, with 13 reviews for it and 7 against. Fans like its look and its build variety ("Warlock is the first class where I truly felt that every build plays drastically differently"). Critics call it clunky, odd or boring, and one says it "feels like it was designed by someone who never played Diablo 4 before."

Cinematics and soundtrackHigh

The cutscenes and music get praise in 36 reviews. Players call the cinematics stunning or amazing ("jaw dropping cinematics"), and 20 single out the soundtrack, one as reason enough to buy: "Worth it for the new ost alone." Another liked its "bittersweet and melancholy guitars." Six negative reviews make an exception for the visuals or a particular cutscene. One reviewer saw far fewer cinematics than the others describe: "Besides the first one, there are NO cinematics in the story!"

Skovos, the new regionMedium

Skovos, the Greek-inspired islands where the campaign takes place, gets praise in 18 reviews. One describes its volcanic coasts and its marble capital, and others like the brighter colors after the base game's gloom ("a really cool new zone that departs from the overwhelming grimdark setting"); one calls it "insanely beautiful". Four disagree: they find it small, largely empty, too colorful for Diablo, or filled with dungeons that repeat base-game layouts.

Where players are split

Boss fights and difficultyMedium

Nine reviews praise the campaign bosses, above all the final fight with Mephisto, and one player liked that they "actually forced me to pay attention and change how I approached the fights." Nine others complain about bosses: late-game fights that kill in one hit whatever the build ("No matter how good your build, late-game bosses still 1 shot you."), bullet-hell phases late in the campaign, attacks that land when the player isn't near them, and an unskippable cutscene in a boss fight players farm repeatedly. Four find the game far too easy. One finished the whole campaign in the gear they had at the end of Vessel of Hatred and found it "INSANELY easy even on Normal difficulty", and another reached Torment XII in four days.

The slower gear chaseMedium

Gearing changed with the expansion, and six reviews welcome it: the grind is "clearly more rewarding," loot "feels more earned now," and upgrades matter again. Twelve find fault with the changes. They say drops were cut so players would use the Cube, Codex powers now come from salvaging legendaries instead of clearing dungeons, endgame sessions turn into rerolling affixes, and existing gear lost its strength. "they have just made the game even more grindy and tedious," wrote one player who used to enjoy Diablo IV. A player who cleared Torment XII argues the opposite, that the Cube and the loot filter make gearing too easy and leave no real choices.

The reworked skill treeMedium

Eight reviews like the reworked skill tree for its extra skills and build variety, and for one Paladin player it "made the game feel completely brand new." Five prefer the old tree or say the new one removed choices, and one calls it "more brain dead and choiceless than the skill twig we had before."

What frustrates players

A steep price and no discount for Vessel of Hatred ownersHigh

Price comes up in 24 reviews, and 12 of them still recommend the expansion. Several say it is good but not worth full price ("Even though it is a GREAT expansion, it is NOT worth the price of admission"), four tell readers to wait for a sale, and the fair prices they suggest range from $10 to half the current price. In 12 reviews the complaint is the lack of any loyalty or upgrade discount. Vessel of Hatred is no longer sold on its own and comes bundled with Lord of Hatred, so existing owners paid the same as newcomers: "Existing VoH owners should have gotten a discounted price". Two players who skipped the first expansion call the bundle good value for them and unfair to earlier buyers. Seven reviews say the expansion is worth the money, several because Vessel of Hatred comes included.

Bugs, disconnects and performanceMedium

Quests that stall or soft-lock during the campaign and force a relog or a repeat come up in seven reviews ("Constant bugs during the story soft-locking the progression, terrible checkpointing system"), the most common of the technical problems that 20 reviews report (16 of those 20 are negative). Others describe disconnects that lose dungeon progress, Battle.net login errors that kept one player out for three days, daily crashes, lag and stutter even on high-end PCs, achievements that don't track (Skovos Sojourner among them), and balance bugs after launch. One player says the stutter went away on Linux. Another found that buying the expansion on Steam doesn't unlock it for the same account's PlayStation 5 characters.

The cash shop and battle passMedium

The most upvoted review in the set notes that "within a week, they were already selling WoW-style pets for $24.99 USD each." It is one of 18 reviews that complain about Diablo IV's monetization, which belongs to the base game but came up again with the expansion's launch. They object to expensive skins, mounts and pets, a battle pass with several paid tiers plus the Reliquary, shop notifications inside the game, and World of Warcraft decor items in the expansion's editions. Eight of these reviews still recommend Lord of Hatred, some with advice to ignore the shop.

A slow campaign that gates the endgameMedium

Forced stops at "artificially created doorways and checkpoints," long dialogue scenes, cutscenes that can't be sped up and fetch quests make the campaign slow or padded for 14 reviewers, four of whom still recommend the expansion. Several resent it more because the Horadric Cube and War Plans unlock only after the story is done. One player who did not enjoy it wrote "I played the story fully (Because it's REQUIRED FOR THE CUBE)", and another wrote "wouldve paid an extra $30 just to skip the campaign". Reviewers' estimates of the campaign's length range from about two hours to ten or twelve.

Features locked behind the expansionLow

The Horadric Cube, War Plans, a share of the skill upgrades for the base classes and the end of the base game's story all sit behind the purchase, and 10 reviews object that these belong to the core game. "I'm not a fan of locking a third of the skill variants for base game classes behind a paywall of this expansion," wrote one player who still recommends it. Others say the base game now feels incomplete without it: "The fact that it's basically required for the game to be any good is not, in fact, good."

3. The player conversation

42 of the 142 positive reviews are a single word or line ("Peak", "They cooked") with no specific point. Many of the longer ones weigh good content against a bad deal, and money comes up on both sides: 22 positive reviews still complain about the price, the missing Vessel of Hatred discount, the paywalled features or the shop, and money comes up in 22 of the 58 negative reviews. Some negative reviewers like the content and object only to the cost or to Blizzard's business model. Others reject the writing (17 negative reviews) or ran into bugs (13). Some thumbs-down reviews still rate the content highly: one scores Lord of Hatred 100/100 and votes against it, and six negative reviews praise the story.

Path of Exile and Last Epoch come up as the deeper games, with more customization and gear that matters more, while several reviewers describe Diablo IV as the more casual option and enjoy it as one. Four compare Lord of Hatred to Reaper of Souls or Lord of Destruction, the expansions for Diablo III and Diablo II.

Launch week brought 13 reviews, 7 of them positive. Most of its negative reviews were about buying the expansion or about the shop: Vessel of Hatred no longer sold separately, features held behind the expansion, shop prices, and a Steam copy that doesn't carry over to PlayStation 5. The next two weeks brought 93 reviews, 70 positive, and most of the endgame praise comes from April and May. Volume dropped through the summer, and a second, smaller wave of 29 reviews (17 positive) arrived in September. Those later reviews say little about the endgame and more about the campaign's pace, the need to finish it before the Cube and War Plans unlock, and the price.

4. What the developers could do

1. Offer Vessel of Hatred owners an upgrade price. Price is the most common complaint, and the missing loyalty discount bothers players who recommend the expansion as much as those who don't.
2. Fix quest soft-locks and save campaign progress more often. Players describe quests that stall until they relog, disconnects that wipe dungeon progress, and quests they had to repeat because progress was not saved.
3. Keep the shop out of menus and loot. Reviewers object to shop notifications, shop items dropping in play, layered battle pass tiers, and pets put on sale within a week of launch.
4. Make campaign dialogue and boss cutscenes skippable. Players who found the campaign slow want to skip its dialogue, since it has to be finished to unlock the Cube and War Plans, and players who farm one of the bosses want its cutscene skippable too.
5. Let the Cube target a single affix and bring back other routes to Codex powers. Critics of the gear changes describe sessions spent rerolling, Codex powers that now need salvaged legendaries, and drops they believe were cut to push the Cube.
6. Replace late-game one-shot mechanics with attacks players can read. Reviewers say high-Torment and late campaign bosses kill in one hit regardless of build, and one was hit by attacks they weren't even near.
7. Let War Plan progress count off the board and carry across characters. Players who like War Plans say activity trees barely level outside the plan, progress is tied to one character and can't be shared in a party, and changing the board costs too much gold.