Diablo® IV: Vessel of Hatred™ Review Summary

Despite a praised Spiritborn class, impressive visuals and audio, a well-received campaign, and overall fun, the poor story and lack of a discount for existing DLC owners hold it back.

Spiritborn class highly praised: The Spiritborn class is consistently described as fun, powerful, and well-crafted, with many players calling it a highlight of the expansion. It offers varied playstyles and remains enjoyable once a strong build is assembled.

Visuals and audio impressive: The game's graphics, environments, and aesthetic are widely praised as beautiful, while voice acting, music, and sound design are consistently rated exceptional.

Campaign well-received: The campaign is described as enjoyable, coherent, and well-paced, with an engaging story and high-quality cutscenes. Many players appreciate the continuation of the narrative.

Game is fun overall: Many reviewers simply state that the game remains fun and entertaining, with the new class and campaign contributing to the enjoyment.

Expansion generally enjoyable: Players find the expansion entertaining and solid overall, with new content and updates that add value to the base game. Many consider it a worthy addition.

No discount for existing DLC owners: Players who already own the previous expansion receive no discount when purchasing the new DLC that includes it. This forces loyal customers to pay full price again for content they already own.

Poor story quality: Many players find the story terrible, bland, or poorly written, with weak characterization and no satisfying conclusion. The narrative is consistently criticized as a major weakness.

Overpriced for content amount: The DLC is considered too expensive relative to the amount of content offered, with many stating it is not worth the price. This sentiment is widespread across multiple clusters.

Previous DLC given free without compensation: The old expansion is now bundled for free with the new DLC, but players who bought it earlier receive no compensation or discount. This devalues prior purchases and feels unfair to early adopters.

Little content for the price: The DLC offers very little content, such as a short campaign, for its high price. Many players feel the price is unjustified given the limited hours of gameplay.

New campaign and story: The expansion continues the main story with a new campaign, side quests, cutscenes, and story content involving Mephisto and Akarat's corpse.

Spiritborn class added: The expansion introduces the Spiritborn class, a new playable character with multiple viable builds and attacks based on four different spirits.

Mercenaries system included: The DLC adds a mercenary system with hireable companions, selectable skills, classes, a skill tree, a shop, and relationship progression.

New class and character builds: A new playable class is added, along with new character build options and detailed character progression.

New endgame activities: The expansion adds endgame content including the Dark Citadel (a co-op raid requiring at least 2 players) and Kurast Undercity (a multi-stage time-attack dungeon).

Frequent game crashes: Many players report the game crashes regularly, including during boss fights, fast travel, and specific quests. Crashes persist even after disabling features like DirectStorage and DLAA.

Lag and stuttering issues: Players experience frequent lag, delays, stuttering, and frame drops, especially in multiplayer. The game can feel like a slideshow and has hitching and rubberbanding.

Poor optimization and performance: Optimization is extremely poor, with hardware not sufficiently handling the game. Performance is iffy on medium-low end machines and consumes excessive RAM and VRAM.

General bugs and technical issues: The game is described as buggy with numerous technical issues affecting playability. Some report the game does not function at all.

Server and connection problems: Server lag, downtime, and connection issues occur, particularly during launch, ruining fights and gameplay.

Wait for a sale: Many reviewers recommend waiting for a sale before purchasing. They find the expansion too expensive at full price and suggest buying only at a discount.

Not worth the price: Several reviewers state the DLC is not worth the money, even at a discount. They feel the content does not justify the cost.

Worth it for Diablo fans: Reviewers who enjoy Diablo 4 or the genre find the expansion worthwhile. It is recommended for fans who want more content.

Do not buy DLC: Multiple reviewers explicitly advise against buying the DLC at all. Some suggest getting it for free instead.

No future expansion purchases: Some reviewers refuse to buy future expansions unless a complete edition is released or reviews are overwhelmingly positive. They also avoid pre-ordering.

Community fair range: $30.00 - $45.00.

Game completion: 12.0h.

Story completion: 8.0h.

Endgame: 60.0h.

Players often enjoy the opening or new class at first, but the DLC’s story and campaign quickly become tedious or boring for many, so enjoyment tends to fade.

Friction: Weak and slow story pacing; Campaign becomes tedious; Forced co-op Dark Citadel; Glacial progression and RNG grind; Paywalled progression systems; Boring open world and reused content.

Story-Seeking Casual Completionist: Plays solo through the campaign, side quests, statues, dungeons, and waypoints while avoiding heavy endgame grinding. Motivation: Experience the continuation of the campaign and complete zone content rather than optimize endgame systems. Stance: deep sale.

Disillusioned Diablo Veteran: Tracks paragon and skill-point gains, buys multiple Diablo releases, and evaluates expansion value through long-term account progression. Motivation: Continue long-term Diablo progression and collection value while receiving fair treatment as an early supporter. Stance: no buy.

Build-Driven Endgame Optimizer: Follows build guides, compares meta options, farms endgame content, and values mechanical power gains over narrative. Motivation: Unlock stronger builds and endgame power through the new class, runes, paragon, and expansion mechanics. Stance: buy.

Steam Deck: The Steam Deck feedback shows severe friction. The Steam version still depends on Battle.net, users dispute the Verified badge, and multiple reports describe launch failures, startup hangs, and frequent crashes or freezes. Some users report smooth performance with good Wi-Fi, but the dominant evidence matches the Broken category because the game can fail to launch and remains unstable for a meaningful share of Deck users.

Linux and Proton: Steam Deck and Proton compatibility evidence is mixed. Some users report that the game runs great or amazingly on Steam Deck, but multiple reviews describe Battle.net launcher failures, missing install/play options, and a disputed Verified status that blocks or deters Deck play. The game is not universally broken on Linux/Steam Deck, but launch reliability is inconsistent and users may encounter launcher-related friction.

Monetization: The audit finds strong predatory monetization signals: the paid expansion is described as locking runes, character access, and season progression, while other reviews allege that core upgrade features were removed or degraded to force buying new content. Reviews also directly mention in-game microtransactions, skin expansions, and a paid season pass. Widespread complaints about DLC rebundling without discounts for existing owners are real-money pricing issues, but the high score is driven primarily by paid power and create-problem-sell-solution patterns, not by DLC price complaints alone. No evidence of real-money gacha or loot boxes was found.

External guides: The feedback is dominated by endgame friction: Dark Citadel requires external walkthrough research, high Excellence levels demand billions of EXP, and RNG raids are solo-unfriendly. No review explicitly requests farming locations, drop rates, loot tables, inventory or selling guidance, crafting data, map fixes, or bug workarounds. The strongest wiki-tax signal is instructional dependency on walkthrough and build knowledge.

Bundling causes repurchase for owners: Many reviewers note that the new expansion bundles the previous DLC, forcing owners of the previous DLC to repurchase it to get the new content. This is seen as unfair to loyal customers.

Previous DLC no longer sold separately: The previous DLC (Vessel of Hatred) is no longer available as a standalone purchase and is now only included with the new expansion (Lord of Hatred). This change limits purchasing options for players.

High price point criticized: The expansion is priced at around $40, which many reviewers find too high for the amount of content offered. Some compare it unfavorably to the price of full games like Baldur's Gate 3.

Free DLC with new purchase: Some reviewers note that the previous DLC is now included for free when purchasing the new expansion, which is beneficial for new buyers but unfair to existing owners.

DLC content is too short: Multiple reviews mention that the DLC has a short story and provides little content, with some calling it the shortest Diablo DLC they have played. This contributes to the perception of poor value.