The main campaign of Diablo IV was always meant to be a large prelude, to set up a much larger series of events. Introducing a new evil, Lilith, daughter of one of the prime evils, Mephisto, felt almost like an opening act to re-introduce her father. This made the Lord of Hatred expansion almost feel like more story to power the live service parts of Diablo IV and give us the Paladin and the Warlock classes.

I was so wrong; the Vessel and Lord of Hatred stories not only build upon the campaign’s setup, but craft a dark and poignant story that not only concludes, but also changes everything.

While playing Lord of Hatred, a new Banksy appeared in London — a statue of a man walking off the podium, blinded by a flag that he so proudly parades. That is the synopsis of Diablo IV’sexpansion where Mephisto, the prime evil of hatred, takes the guise of a charismatic god-man, Akarat who turns followers with miracles and then blinds them with hatred through visions.

For an isometric game, every screen is a work of art, with performances that really push the story along. From the lush jungles of Nahantu to the mountainous coasts of Skovos, the eight-plus hours campaign felt longer. Especially as the last few chapters went by, it was clear that Diablo IV was coming to a definitive end. At the same time, it felt it was just the end of the Hatred arc that began with Lillith. Without any spoilers, the ending does close the book, but it also points to the possibility of many others in Blizzard’s bookshelf. There are still stories to tell in Diablo IV.

Making a comeback from Diablo 2, is the Paladin, filled with a righteous energy and imbued with power from the heavens. A fairly straightforward class, but with a surprisingly robust set of builds that can shred enemies, characterised by a slight technical playstyle of a Rogue with the power of a Barbarian.

Never have I had so much fun hurling hammers like Thor to make them glow, then exploding enemies with a dazzling shield throw. It was Thor and Captain America rolled into one, while calling down spears from the sky and manifesting angel wings that obliterated enemies with tendrils of light. 

The Warlock is the other side of the Paladin, a dark warrior who thrives at taming the fire and brimstone, bending them to his will. You manifest lava and hellfire, dark pools of the abyss and summon forth all forms of demons to defeat the demonic hordes. A fun, overpowered class to play, but only for a short while. The pulsing effects of pink, red, purple, orange and blue turn the entire battlefield into a Holi party.

Good luck seeing anything, and to add to that, you have your own demons that mix in with the general demons, making dungeon runs tiring for the eyes. For me, the Paladin, wins this round.

In addition to the two classes, Blizzard has bought about a huge swathe of changes across the board. From a cleaner skill tree, that organises and gates skills well, which makes it easy to play around, tweak and even change, to an optimised endgame with a new feature called War Plans, which are playlists of activities you can just set up and dive into. This makes the already crowded activity list of endgames a lot easier to plan, especially for those with limited play times.

It goes without saying, Diablo IV pushes the envelope when it comes to the amount it can pack into one screen. The atmosphere evokes the first Diablo’s eerie demonic darkness as shadows flicker across dark dungeons. Rich temples have their ruins strewn across Skovos and savage seas bash the coasts. Monsters are varied and die in pools of gore, depending on how they are hit. The effects just light up the screen and for an isometric game, there is so much detail to unpack.

A devastating conclusion to its first saga, Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred provides some long-needed closure. Excellent storytelling brings two polar opposite but equally fun classes to dive deep into with tons of re-playability in the endgame as you keep wondering if we will see the next prime evil step out of the darkness.