Lord of Hatred offers a grim, emotional, and satisfying conclusion to the Age of Hatred saga that began in Diablo IV’s original campaign. A gripping narrative paves a perfect playground to explore the newly introduced Skovos region as the expansion’s entertaining new classes: Warlock and Paladin. Tack on new endgame systems designed to simplify and further incentivize post-story activities, and Diablo IV has another strong argument to dive back into Hell.
Picking up directly after Vessel of Hatred’s cliffhanger ending, Lord of Hatred wastes no time raising the stakes, often to heart-wrenching degrees. The race to prevent Mephisto, who takes the guise of a benevolent Jesus-like leader to corrupt the hearts of Skovos’ citizens, from plunging Sanctuary into an age of hatred is a dark and captivating adventure with some fun twists, namely the return of Lilith. Delving deeper into what makes the Daughter of Hatred tick is among my favorite parts of the narrative, and a strong supporting cast of familiar friends and new allies bolsters the adventure. If this is it for Diablo IV’s story, it sticks the landing well.
Whether you’re summoning hellspawn demons to sic at foes as a Warlock or shield-bashing them and unleashing divine fury as a Paladin, both classes are entertaining additions. Regardless of the class, though, the skill trees have been expanded with new unlockable perks that deepen an ability’s capabilities, such as reducing cooldown times, unleashing more projectiles, or inflicting a status effect. I like how these new options let me further tinker with unlocked abilities and provide even more room for experimentation.
Skovos offers a beautiful new region to explore, thanks to its scenic Mediterranean-inspired main city and seaside ports that feel distinct from the rest of Sanctuary. In addition to cutting down thousands of new demonic and human threats, you can complete a fresh batch of fun sidequests, explore new dungeons, and engage in the light but enjoyable fishing minigame. Those looking for meaningful progression, though, can equip new Talismans that allow for further specialization. Up to six of these charms can be worn (though slots must be unlocked), and range from small perks, like x-percent more healing or attack power, to multifaceted improvements, especially when matching sets are equipped. Though I can’t say I always noticed significant improvements in how my already-powerful characters performed while wearing Talismans, I like having a new factor to consider when tailoring my loadouts.
After rolling credits on Lord of Hatred’s story, War Plans provide a quick and enjoyable avenue to engage with the existing endgame content. War Plans essentially allows players to create a playlist of randomly selected activities, be it Nightmare Dungeons, Helltides, the Pit, Infernal Hordes, and more, to play one after another with no barrier to entry for increased rewards (on top of what you normally earn from the activity itself). Best of all, War Plans warp you to the queued activity, saving you from searching the large map to see where the specified activity is taking place. As a more casual player who only revisits Diablo IV when a big expansion drops, War Plans takes the hassle out of figuring out what activity to play and how to access it by spoon-feeding me this content without overwhelming me.
Additionally, War Plans add progression trees to each piece of endgame content; complete an activity enough times, and you’ll unlock modifiers that alter how that activity unfolds going forward. For example, you can change the type of rewards earned, add specific objectives, or spawn certain enemy types. Completing endgame stuff just for loot doesn’t always hold my interest for long. Adding progression meters to the activities themselves, however, is a compelling argument to keep playing just to see how many wacky stipulations I can unlock and add to them.
Echoing Hatred is another fun, if simple diversion that tasks players with surviving increasingly difficult and dense enemy waves for as long as possible. There’s not much to this challenge, but I’ll always enjoy slaughtering a bunch of monsters. However, Echoing Hatred is, by design, an exceedingly rare and difficult-to-access activity; I only got to play it once and only because of a press-exclusive shortcut. This is ultimately a smaller addition compared to the other new offerings, but one that still provides some fun.
Lord of Hatred accomplishes what a good expansion should. A strong story puts the likable cast through the wringer, and I was hooked to see it to its eventual conclusion. The new classes are fun, and a raised level cap (70), expanded skill trees, and more Torment Tiers (up to 12 now) provide more room for growth and replayability. War Plans provide a streamlined avenue to engaging with the already dense endgame content in a way I greatly appreciate. Lord of Hatred is an exceptional cherry on top of Diablo IV, further cementing the entire package as among the best action RPGs of the generation.