Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred

In December 2025 Vessel of Hatred stopped being sold on its own and was included with the Lord of Hatred expansion, which costs the same $40. Owners got no discount, no expansion-only option and no upgrade path. 48% of the reviews written from December 2025 on name the deal, and dozens more are one-line verdicts such as "scam" or "greedy" that give no reason. No other complaint in that period comes close. The requests are concrete: a partial discount, a separate purchase for the new expansion, or store credit. "if you are going to make existing DLC free with new DLC at least give existing DLC owners a discount even if it is just 5 or 10 $" Some had bought it on sale shortly before: "They had this on sale leading up to the preorder for the new dlc so people would buy it, just to turn around and delist it and include it with the new dlc."

A minority defends the move as normal for expansions or a good deal for newcomers: "This is how WoW, FF14, ESO, LOTRO, KOTOR, ect. have been handling expansions for the past 20 years." Of the 63 positive reviews from this period, 23 mention the bundle, more than half of them to defend it or to welcome getting two expansions for one price. Several of the owners who complain say in the same review that they enjoyed the class or the campaign.

The campaign draws more criticism than any other part of the new content: 198 reviews (19%) criticize the story and 60 (6%) praise it. A fifth of the critics (39) still recommend the expansion.

• Neyrelle. She is named in 4% of reviews (36), and 31 of those complain about her, mostly calling her annoying or saying the story spends too much time on her. "How is she so boring and annoying at the same time"
• The player as bystander. "The writers of the story had my character continue being Neyrelle's sidekick." Another reviewer: "your character has very little to no agency in what actually happens in the story of this expansion."
• The ending. About 40 reviews (4%) object to the cliffhanger, the filler feel or the missing Mephisto fight: "don't sell me a 40$ product that is just a setup for another upcoming 40$ product."
• Length. A similar number call it short. Reported times run from 90 minutes or less for the main quest to about 12 hours with every side quest, and one reviewer says "it only took me around 5 hours to beat it".

A few of the story's defenders like Neyrelle too ("I think she's a well-motivated character with intriguing flaws."). Others shrug off the campaign because they think the story matters little in Diablo: "each game is played for hours on end not for the campaign but for everything else". Some critics still praise the cinematics and the final boss.

About 105 of the 643 reviews written before December 2025 (16%) call the price too high or tell readers to wait for a sale. They set one class, one region and a few hours of campaign against $40, and $90 for the Ultimate edition with its cosmetics and battle pass. "Less of an expansion, more of a paid season." When reviewers name a fair price, it mostly falls between $15 and $25. About one in ten positive reviews also call it overpriced or advise waiting for a sale, like this one: "it's good. not really $40 good, but maybe for like $25 or less."

Launch day started hours late. A quarter of the reviews from the first two days (24 of 100) are about the delay, failed logins or an "Unable to find a valid license" error that locked out paying players, some of them on the $90 edition. In the weeks after, players reported crashes on teleport and at the end of dungeons, the "Fenris" and "Data Retrieval Error" crashes, frame-rate drops in Nahantu, quest steps that broke and had to be replayed, and disconnects in the middle of boss fights. "The real prime evil is the lack of polish." In all, about 85 reviews (8%) describe technical trouble, most of them written in 2024, though a few later reviews still describe crashes and quests that had to be restarted.

Part of the negative vote is about the base game: seasons that reset progress, the cash shop and battle pass, the always-online requirement, and an endgame that feels like an RNG grind. 3% of reviews (32) mention Path of Exile, usually to recommend it instead. "If you want killing demons to feel like a chore, Diablo IV is for you."

A smaller group objects to what the purchase locks away. Mercenaries, runewords and the new class sit behind the expansion, which some call pay-to-win in a shared open world, and others say belonged in the base game from the start: "It really sucks you need to buy DLC to unlock basic progression systems behind an expansion".

About 2% of reviews describe paying and not getting what they paid for: missing Ultimate edition items or battle pass, the game asking them to buy the expansion they own, Battle.net accounts that did not pick up a Steam purchase, and an expansion bought on one platform that does not carry over to another. "if you buy the upgraded version of the dlc have fun messaging support for days with hopes to receive the promised items you paid for" Two reviewers also dislike the wardrobe pushing the expansion's cosmetics at them; one says it promises them with the expansion when only the deluxe edition includes them.

Two reviewers warn that once the expansion is installed, a new character defaults to the expansion campaign and opens with a recap of the entire base-game story. One of them says "the game intro-video ruins the entire main game story."