Diablo IV Lord of Hatred Review, Gameplay Impressions, Videos and Top Features

Diablo IV Lord of Hatred from Blizzard is the second major expansion to the hit game that has enjoyed a strong lifecycle since launch in 2023. 

A follow-up to the first major expansion, Vessel of Hatred, Lord of Hatred learns from some missteps there, intently listens to player feedback and offers explosive overhauls to core systems like skill trees. 

Standard expansion highlights apply, of course. There is a gigantic new region, two new classes that bring back player favorites and boatloads of content. 

Between how the game's lifecycle has unfolded so far and what's promised here, Lord of Hatred has the chance to usher in the best era of the game yet. 

Graphics and Gameplay

Diablo IV has always looked good and had the expected fun ARPG sound design. 

But a series-first trip to Skovos, the expansion's new area, needed to be done with care. It's a big deal, lore-wise, to say the least. 

And good news: Skovos has good-looking forests, volcanoes and the expected varied locales with a Mediterranean slant. It's a treat for the eyes and immersion levels while being impressively packed with little world-building tidbits at every step. 

Granted, while impressive from a presentation and immersion standpoint, the bigger subject is the gameplay itself. 

Diablo IV brought a refined ARPG experience to the forefront at release and has smartly tweaked it since. 

That continues here. New animations, attacks and abilities, plus new enemy types and bosses to overcome, really flesh out the entire package. 

The highlight, though, is the two new classes: 

• Warlock
• Paladin

The Warlock, as it sounds like, is essentially a summoner. The twist is that, unlike the base game's Necromancer, the character can outright sacrifice those summons strategically for attacks and boosts, but they need to manage becoming corrupted in the process. 

As for the Paladin, triumphantly returning from Diablo II, it's also exactly what it sounds like on paper. Sword and shield, tank-like and able to dial into a handful of different playstyles, it's a straightforward approach to a combat specialist who can control an entire zone. 

It should go without saying this far into the game's lifecycle, but combat is punchy, flashy and addicting. It's always a treat to see the effort put into a build translate to the battlefield itself. Plus, experimentation is a straight-up blast, too. 

Beyond the usual suspects like dungeons and strongholds and the like, new public events and little wrinkles help keep things distinct in the new region. 

At the very top among these is a new rare event titled Echoing Hatred, which spawns infinite enemies and increases difficulty with rewards based on how long players can survive the onslaught. 

Not only is it straightforward fun, the challenge is borderline addicting as Diablo IV climbs from world tier Torment 4, all the way up to…Torment 12.  

Expansion, indeed. 

Endgame and more 

Skovos, birthplace of humanity, is a fantastic setting for the story. So is the contrasting nature of the two new classes, with one a demonic summoner and the other a warrior of the light, which really plays to the themes of the entire game so far. 

The campaign itself is fun and checks the expected boxes. Beyond the campaign, Lord of Hatred does the usual MMO thing in which it dramatically overhauls parts of the base game, too. The Pit, Towers, level cap and skill trees get some love in ways that are hard to undersell. 

Diablo IV's endgames have been somewhat mixed. The base game's endgame got repetitive quickly for those with major time investments. The tree of whispers was fine there, but the Vessel of Hatred expansion's raid activity showed the dramatic difference in endgame qualities and structure. 

Lords of Hatred, by comparison, shows a careful attention to player feedback while taking the overarching design in interesting directions. 

New progression wrinkles certainly help. The Talisman lets players slot in Charms from sets to buildcraft and earn bonuses. A Horadric Cube, brought forward from Diablo II, is more endgame content that enables forging and customizing, refining builds further. 

Another fun wrinkle is a playlist element called War Plans, which lets players sketch out activities to tackle in order. Doing so progresses its own skill tree with rewards in each of the activities.  

This is the big one. War Plans means instant action. It means avoiding the old stuff like trying to find zones where endgame activities are happening. Players just warp there and take part in them, and it pulls from base game and expansion endgames, creating a nice variety. 

This expansion goes big on simple quality of life features that are so obvious, it's surprising they weren't already in the game. The big one is the loot filter, which lets players filter down on the items that actually go into their builds.

A map overlay revamp now lets players pull up the map and still continue the fight in the background, not interrupting something. A big deal while, for example, navigating tricky dungeons. There's a new pathfinder element too, tracking one's journey to selected areas. 

Oh, and did anyone mention a relaxing bit of fishing has been added, too? 

Kidding aside, Diablo IV still has a fantastic suite of options in the menus and runs well. The iterations on progression and endgame are exclamation points that impact every player in a positive way, to say the least. 

Conclusion

Lord of Hatred marks Diablo IV heading into its best-ever state. 

Some of it is the fun story, expansive new locations, enemy types and the two contrasting classes, sure. 

But most of it boils down to excellent quality-of-life features and updates that don't necessarily require a purchase. Simple things like loot filters, drastic overhauls to skill trees and more player agency over the events they play and the rewards they earn refine the entire experience into peak form. 

Without a doubt, this signals the best era yet for Diablo IV, which should earn back plenty of lapsed players while also marking an excellent jumping-on point for new players.