Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred Review: Story Shines, Grind Stalls

Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred opens with a jolt, not a warm-up. Blizzard’s April 28 expansion throws Lilith back into the mix in a new, more sympathetic role, while Mephisto wears Akarat’s body and drags the story toward Skovos. That setup gives the campaign real momentum, and players who bounced off Diablo 4’s earlier story work will feel the difference immediately.

That said, the expansion still can’t escape the series’ bigger problem: the campaign remains the worst way to play Diablo 4. Lord of Hatred makes the story stronger, the boss fights sharper, and the new systems more focused, but the loot flow still clashes with the game’s grind-first structure. If you care more about seasons and endgame loops than cutscenes, this expansion matters because it shows Blizzard finally understanding what makes players keep logging in.

What Is Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred?

Blizzard released Lord of Hatred for the action RPG Diablo 4 on April 28. The expansion centers on a new campaign, with Lilith returning in a more sympathetic role and Mephisto inhabiting the body of Akarat as the story moves through Skovos, which the review describes as “Diablo Greece.” That shift matters because it gives the campaign a stronger identity than Vessel of Hatred, which the review calls inconsequential and thematically adrift.

Lord of Hatred also adds systems that reach beyond the story, including War Plans endgame playlists, unlock trees for each endgame activity, the return of Diablo 2’s Horadric Cube, Talisman loot slots, and Charms with set bonuses. Those changes are the real long-term draw for players who live in Diablo 4’s seasonal and endgame activities, because they make progression clearer and loot more rewarding. If you only want a campaign ride, though, this expansion still asks you to sit through the part of Diablo 4 that feels least efficient.

Campaign, Boss Fights, and the Story’s Real Strength

Lord of Hatred’s campaign starts hard and keeps pushing. Blizzard loads the opening cutscene with a shocking twist, then keeps bringing in iconic series characters and killing others off as the story moves forward. Lilith’s return does a lot of heavy lifting here, and the review credits her visual design and Caroline Faber’s voice performance for making her instantly compelling again.

Mephisto’s role gives the campaign its strongest hook. He inhabits Akarat, a Christ- or Mohammed-like prophet figure, and the story follows him to Skovos, where he builds an army from Akarat’s adherents. That setup gives the campaign a nasty edge, because the player keeps watching a crowd get pulled toward a figure they believe is a savior while the game quietly reminds you he is “secretly and irretrievably evil.”

The boss fights are the other major win. Akarat’s priests sacrifice themselves to become boss monsters, and Lord of Hatred piles these encounters on, especially near the end of the campaign. Some of them sound like proper skill-check fights, with the review calling them “properly challenging dances with death,” and that’s exactly the sort of thing Diablo 4 needs when the story is trying to justify your time instead of wasting it.

Why the Campaign Still Fights the Game

Even with all that, the campaign still runs into Diablo 4’s structure. The review says the campaign’s loot tables are parsimonious compared with almost any other activity in the game, whether you are early or late in the leveling curve. That means the story keeps asking for your attention while giving less back than seasonal play, endgame playlists, or the other systems Blizzard has built around the core loop.

That mismatch makes the campaign feel like a slog, even when the writing and set pieces improve. The review is blunt about the advice: blast through it on a high-level character who is already well-equipped before starting a new seasonal hero. That’s a pretty clear verdict on where Blizzard still has work to do, because a campaign shouldn’t feel like a detour from the game’s most rewarding path.

Endgame Systems, Loot, and Class Changes

Blizzard clearly spent time tightening the post-story game. War Plans work as playlists for activities like Nightmare Dungeons, Kurast Undercity, the Tree of Whispers, and Helltides, which makes the next step easier to choose instead of leaving you to stare at a messy map and wonder where to go. Each activity also gets its own unlock tree, so players can shape both risk and reward instead of just grinding on autopilot.

The Horadric Cube is the standout loot feature because it pushes Diablo 2’s old item-crafting idea back to the center of the game. It can upgrade Common items into Uniques, and the review says that instantly turns trash drops into desirable ones, even more so than Magics and Rares. That’s a smart move, because it gives every pickup a little more tension and makes the item hunt feel less disposable.

The Talisman system also lands well. It adds new loot slots for Charms with beneficial effects, and the focus on set bonuses makes the system more legible than Runes, even if it is less flexible. On top of that, Blizzard simplified and clarified the skill tree for all classes, with each skill now offering three sets of modifiers and one Variant effect that can completely transform the skill. That kind of clarity matters in Diablo 4, where messy choices can turn a build into busywork fast.

Lord of Hatred also brings back the traditional Diablo map overlay, and the review likes being able to look at the center of the screen instead of the minimap while riding a horse. Pathfinding now marks your route on the ground in-game, which should make travel less awkward and reduce the stop-start feeling that can creep into open-world play. Fishing also appears, though the review treats it as an odd fit for a world as grim as Sanctuary, especially when the game’s nightmarish armies are still doing their worst in the background.

Warlock, Paladin, and the Class Split

The expansion’s two new classes matter because they change how players engage with the season and the endgame. The Paladin earns the praise, while the Warlock gets a more mixed response. The Warlock leans hard into demon-summoning flair, with purple summons, fire, and eldritch chains, and the review says its Apocalypse build delivers “sheer explosive power.”

Still, the Warlock doesn’t fully land mechanically. The review compares it to the Sorcerer and the Necromancer, saying it feels stranded between the two rather than carving out a clean identity of its own. That makes the class look flashier than it plays, which is a problem in a game where build identity should be the payoff, not the costume.

By contrast, the review says the Paladin feels like a magnificent resurrection of one of fantasy’s great archetypes. That contrast matters because it shows Blizzard can still make a class that feels instantly right inside Diablo 4’s systems. When one new class clicks and the other feels like a half-step, you get a good read on where the expansion’s design confidence is strongest.

What Doesn’t Work

Lord of Hatred fixes only half of Diablo 4’s campaign problem, and that leaves a hard edge in the final verdict. The review says Vessel of Hatred’s story was inconsequential and thematically adrift, and while Lord of Hatred improves on that, the campaign still sits at the bottom of the experience because the loot is stingy and the structure fights the game’s own best habits. That is the core flaw here, and Blizzard doesn’t hide it well enough.

The review also takes issue with Diablo 4’s campaign style more broadly, saying the seasons’ lightly orchestrated tours through the game’s opulent grind have a more instinctive and rewarding rhythm than the campaigns’ labored drama. The Warlock gets a mixed reception for similar reasons: it looks wild, but it plays too close to the Sorcerer to feel fully original. Even the fishing system, funny as it may be in isolation, feels out of place in a world this bleak.

Lord of Hatred is a good, meaty expansion, and Blizzard deserves credit for finally giving Diablo 4 a campaign with real bite. The problem is that the game’s best rhythm still lives in seasons, endgame playlists, and the item chase, not in the story path that should have carried the expansion’s weight. If you want the strongest version of Diablo 4, this is the content that points the way forward; if you want the best moment-to-moment play, the review makes it clear you should still skip past the campaign whenever you can.