Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred Review (PC, PS5 [Reviewed], Xbox Series)
Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment
Release Date: April 28, 2026
ESRB: M – Mature

I’ve had an on and off relationship with Diablo IV since launch. It was good at release. Or I thought it was, until I grinded it so hard and so fast that by the time I reached level 100 I was completely burned out and skipped the first season altogether. But, I’ve come back for every season since then, and there’s still always a ceiling where I’d grind myself into a wall, lose interest, and step away for a while. That cycle repeated itself basically every season. Lord of Hatred is the expansion that finally punched through that ceiling, and right now I have zero interest in stepping away from it.

Diablo II has the legacy and the mythology, though I could never get into it. I didn’t play it then, and today I would enjoy it if it didn’t suck ass when it comes to inventory and basically QoL stuff. Titan Quest is better than Diablo II, but that’s neither here nor there. Diablo III has the fun, the addictive loop, and the reason I kept going back for years. Diablo IV at launch felt like it was trying to honor both and sometimes felt like it fully committed to neither, but leaned more towards II with the grind of it.

Blizzard has been slowly course correcting since then, steering it in Diablo III’s direction, and Lord of Hatred accelerates that process dramatically. If you’ve been on the fence about coming back, or haven’t touched it since you bounced off it in year one, this expansion is your reason to return.

The Warlock Is the Real Deal

The Warlock is the headlining new addition, alongside Paladin but we’ve already spent months playing it, and it earns that billing completely. I’ve been running two different builds since launch, Dread Claws paired with Terror Storm and Hell Fracture with Apocalypse, and both feel phenomenal in completely different ways. The class has a distinct identity and a satisfying feel to it that wasn’t always something every class in Diablo IV could claim. There’s a weight and a personality to what the Warlock does that makes it feel like it was built by people who actually play the game and wanted something that felt cool, not just something that filled a roster slot.

I’ve pushed my Warlock to Torment X and hit Paragon 160, and I’m still not bored. And I know, it’s only been a little over a week. But usually, by this point, I’d be steamrolling most of the content and about ready to call it quits and move on to something else.

Lord of Hatred also has me doing something I haven’t done in a while: rolling alts. I’ve got a new Rogue and Sorcerer going, and I’m just getting started on a Paladin and Spiritborn. When a game has me genuinely excited to explore other classes rather than just grinding out the one I main, that’s a sign the foundation is finally in a good place. I just wish the War Plan skill tree was account based and not character based. That’s the one grind issue I don’t care to revisit on alts.

The Horadric Cube Changes Everything

If the Warlock is the flashiest addition, the Horadric Cube is the most important one. This is the change that has had the biggest impact on how the game actually feels to play for me, and it’s not close.

For the first time in Diablo IV, I feel like I have real agency over my gear. I can target the stats or perks I want, work toward the rolls I want, put in the grind to earn the resources, and then make meaningful decisions about what to do with them. It can be expensive, it can take a while, but there’s a solid path to do it and that’s what counts. And while I’m playing the game to get the resources required, maybe a better item drops or at least one with a better base to work from.

The Transfiguring system layers a gambling element on top of that, letting you push your gear even further at the risk of screwing up something you’ve already built. That tension between being satisfied with what you have and pressing your luck for something better is exactly what a loot game should feel like, and it’s something Diablo IV has struggled to deliver until now. I loved Vaaling in PoE, and Transfiguring hits that same gambling spot. Though it doesn’t seem to make items worse quite as much as a Vaal in in PoE does for me.

The Horadric Cube makes gearing feel like a pursuit instead of just a slot machine.

The War Plan Revamps Everything Without Adding Anything New

This is the one change that has impressed me the most, because it costs nothing and changes everything. The War Plan didn’t add new activities to Diablo IV’s endgame. All the content was already there. Helltide, Kurast Underground, Nightmare Dungeons, the Pit, Infernal Hordes, and Lair Bosses. What it did was give you a structured path through them, a sequence of activities to run back to back with rewards tied to completing the plan rather than just grinding individual activities in isolation.

The effect is remarkable. Before Lord of Hatred, I was tunnel visioning almost exclusively on Nightmare Dungeons and the Pit, occasionally popping into Infernal Hordes when I had keys for it. Everything else I mostly ignored, only running Helltide to drop to get some mats to summon bosses.

Now I’ll run Helltide for the War Plan if it’s got something behind it I want to do. I’m dropping into Kurast Underground because it fits the plan and it’s actually fun and fast.

The War Plan recontextualized the entire endgame just by giving it structure and a reason to engage with all of it, and it made me realize that a lot of what I’d been ignoring wasn’t bad content, it just didn’t have a reason to exist in my rotation. That’s a design lesson worth paying attention to.

The Activity Tree skill system helps the activities freshen up with rewards and challenges. It’s a nice addition, and makes the endgame feel a little better. It’s like the activity trees in PoE but not as big of a pain to level.

If there’s one issue with it, it’s that maybe it could use a few more path options so if you really don’t care for Helltide you might could avoid it more often. And while we’re at it, maybe make sure Helltide is always up. Even if it’s only a couple of minutes, I hate seeing “Sanctuary is at peace” when trying to speed through a War Plan and stuck waiting for Helltide to return.

A Word on the Story

The story is fine, or seems like; I’ve heard good things from someone I trust on it. I skipped most of it. I don’t play ARPGs for the narrative, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise for a review.

If you care about the lore and the cutscenes, Lord of Hatred apparently has a solid enough story to chew on. If you’re like me and you’re here to build a character and murder things by the thousands, you can safely skip through the dialogue and not miss anything that affects your enjoyment of the actual game.

These games are all about the endgame to me, and the faster I can get there, the more fun I have with it. So yeah, I don’t care about the story or the cutscenes. Diablo lore means nothing to me.

The Complaints

Lord of Hatred is the best Diablo IV has ever been, but it’s not without frustration. The biggest ongoing issue for me is the instant kill problem. There are still too many things in this game that can just delete you without warning. Execution swords are bad enough. Vile Lunatics are worse. One moment you’re tearing through a mob, the next you’re at the death screen trying to figure out what just happened. It’s not a difficulty complaint. I’m playing on Torment X and I expect things to hit hard. What I don’t love is dying to something I never had a chance to react to.

The screen clutter makes this worse than it needs to be. When you’re inside a massive mob and the entire screen turns into a chaos of colors and particle effects, spotting the thing that’s about to kill you before it kills you is a real challenge. I’d love to see Blizzard take a page from Dragonkin: The Banished here. That game has a Death Log and an on-screen DPS tracker that would make a world of difference in Diablo IV. At least you’d know what actually killed you and whether your build is performing the way you think it is. Right now you’re mostly just guessing.

The Best It’s Ever Been

I know there’s a vocal segment of the Diablo fanbase that spent years demanding Diablo IV be dark and gritty in the Diablo II tradition. And it was, and it was also kind of a slog at launch.

Blizzard has been gradually making it more like Diablo III since then, and I’ve been on board with every step of that journey because Diablo III is the reason people played Diablo for years after it came out. Fun is not a compromise. Lord of Hatred leans into that fully, and the game is better for it.

As a standalone expansion judged on its own merits, Lord of Hatred is five stars. As a judgment on the full Diablo IV package as it stands right now, it’s finally earned a high four. I’m landing on four stars overall, but understand that number represents where the whole game is today, not any shortcoming in what the expansion itself delivers.

This is Diablo IV at its best, and its best is very good.

Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred gets a four out of five: COMMENDABLE.

If you’re a Diablo IV fan, you can check out more of our current and upcoming Diablo IV content here. Or you might be interested in one of our recent game reviews, say another ARPG that’s definitely worth your time and money in Dragonkin: The Banished. And don’t forget to check out the latest Riot Retort.

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