Test: Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred – The ship of anguish

The bigger the debate, the greater the expectation of redress. In the case of Vessel of Hatredit is indeed the guillotine that awaits Blizzard, since the most hardcore players, those who are sometimes on the verge of Münchhausen syndrome when it comes to Diablo IVexpect nothing more and nothing less than a pure and simple revolution, a magical DLC capable of remodeling the initial game so that it best fits the image of their fantasies. With “Vessel of Hatred”the ax will slip, the blade of disappointment from the fanbase will fall: because there will be no revolution. It’s even fairly certain that it was never in the pipeline. Because the credo of this Ship of Hate is simple: content, content, content… And a huge final disappointment.

Chronicles of Ordinary Hate

Vessel of Hatred directly follows the story of Diablo IV. You will therefore be required to have finished the campaign of the main game to access it. Neyrelle, now in possession of the Soul Stone of Mephisto, left for the jungles of Nahantu, south of Estuar to find the way to save the world (or not). The narrative promise of putting an end to the Neyrelle saga has been kept, thank you Blizzard. VOH reserves its share of surprises, doses of fan-service, and turpitudes worthy of Mephisto’s reputation. This one is the real hero of this expansion, its influence extending slowly but surely, like a pernicious disease whose symptoms only appear after a slow incubation. Mephisto literally embodies hatred in all its forms, and his resurgence threatens to destroy not only Sanctuary, but also the fragile alliances forged in the ashes of previous conflicts.

The storyline of this DLC shines with its careful writing, reconnecting with the tragic and metaphysical depth that made the mythology of the series famous. The dialogues are impressively rich, and the dubbing has received the greatest care. Tinted with a dark poetry which fits perfectly with the twilight atmosphere of the game, they were already one of the narrative assets of the initial game, and here the essay is transformed. If we do not escape a set of clichés concerning the oratorical escapades of certain secondary characters, we will still note that we will be confronted with a much better overall quality compared to the general average of the current video game landscape.

However, despite a well-conducted main plot that is captivating in terms of its issues, we come up against a final wall which makes the adventure bitter. As the climax approaches, and we feel that the balance of the world is close to the ultimate shift… Vessel of Hatred decides to remind you of the worst things about managing quests in an action-RPG. A big flashback to the early 2000s, you have to complete unnecessary Fed-Ex quests, talk to a whole gallery of characters who only delay the deadline, and interact with NPCs who seem to have forgotten that the Apocalypse is here. Ambiance Don’t Look Up at Blizzard, we didn’t see this coming. So we grind, we whip, we run from right to left with our supercharged Sacresprit in splendid settings, with the final apotheosis of Vessel Of Hatred…which won’t happen. Because in reality, Vessel of Hatred is not the great narrative conclusion of Diablo IV. The DLC plays with your patience and your expectations, until we realize that we will not reach the Holy Grail of a true ending. GaaS format requires, it will probably be necessary to re-sign later to obtain a conclusion worthy of the name.

Sympathy for the Diablo

Here we enter the greatest paradox manufactured by Blizzard: despite this Amazonian narrative torture, Blibli’s science of visual immersion does its work. The jungles of Nahantu are sublimely tortured, full of life, verdant, and yet, we feel that under each leaf, at the foot of each tree, danger lurks.And Man vs Wild of dressed pixels, but without editing, and with real stakes. The artistic direction finds here one of its most beautiful expressions. The play of light, the obsidian, carmine and emerald hues, the atmospheric effects distill a sensation of visceral oppression. Every corner of this universe seems to breathe suffering and darkness, which reinforces the immersion and amplifies the epic dimension of the adventure.

The town of Kurast, which we had not visited since Diablo II is back, more beautiful than ever. Time has done its work, its stones have eroded, some areas have been destroyed, others rebuilt, and yet, the crucial elements of this city are still in the same places. We recognize the places, we immediately identify the docks of Kurast, its statue carrying a portal on its knees, the lights of the city center… As if we were returning to this childhood village that we knew well during a family vacation, and which, two decades later, has changed without having changed. In Kurast, everything has changed, but nothing is different.

This nostalgic blast will grab the hearts of veteran players of the license with both hands… But sure to leave newcomers with an impression of surface beauty. What will unify players will be the lush, organic chaos that spills over into temples and dungeons. If their internal architecture does not shake up the foundations laid by Diablo IVwe can only be seduced by these statues of ancient gods dominating the corridors, by these glyphs carved into the stones of forgotten sanctuaries… The goal is to make us feel tiny, crushed by the weight of this strange heritage lost in the limbo of the jungle. And it works, even more so when you walk in the shoes of the Sacresprit, this new class offered by Vessel of Hatredmaking us the successor to a lost tradition.

Bad spirit

The major novelty of the gaming experience is this: the introduction of the new Sacresprit class, a fascinating hybrid class mixing divine magic and demonic corruption. The Sacresprit draws its power from an ambiguous connection with ancient forces, neither celestial nor infernal, but natural, existing on the edge of these two worlds. An avatar that will be a sort of echo of the Assassin classes Diablo 2 and the Monk of Diablo 3. A specialist in martial arts, he is comfortable at close range as well as at mid-range, his weapons of choice being the staff, the halberd and the spear. A quick tour through his skill tree reveals several possible paths for him, each marked by the sigil of a totemic animal.

Gorilla skills provide abilities to absorb damage and increase the possibility of destruction, an ideal option for frontline players. The Guardian Spirit of the Eagle focuses on accuracy, movement speed, and grants lightning damage. This form allows you to produce Focus, an improvement that boosts the character’s avoidance abilities and speed. The path of the Jaguar offers very aggressive skills and grants mobility with combo attacks that deal fire damage and generate Ferocity, an attack speed buff that increases over time. Finally, our little darling was the Centipede Spirit Guardian (beyond the fact that the staging of his appearances is exceptional): designed to control the crowd of enemies that fall on you, with skills based on continuous poison damage, and movement control. Each of these entities benefits from an ultimate attack full of fireworks and special effects of all kinds, similar to the appearance of a titan on Earth. A feast for the eyes, carnage in the enemy ranks.

The second major addition of Vessel of Hatred is the presence of mercenaries, who can accompany you in your explorations. Born in Diablo IIincreased in Diablo IIIthe mechanics of mercenaries take on another dimension here. Four distinct classes are offered: shield bearer, ranger, berserker and a demon. The abilities of these mercenaries are largely recycling of abilities from other classes, it must be admitted. But with a fairly basic leveling and inventory management system, and a common point mechanic allowing you to boost the mercenary who is largely overrated at your side, we expected much better. Knowing that mercenaries are absent if you play in a group, they are therefore reserved for solitary players. Except that mercenary skills are subject to trigger conditions and sometimes long reload periods. You will therefore not be able to count on a pnj super saiyan capable of saving your butt in critical moments. Which is a shame because we see real possibilities for synergy of skills between mercenaries and players, but which suffer from a lack of luster unworthy of a Blizzard game. We hoped to be able to spend hours respec our avatar while optimizing our favorite mercenary as best as possible, it will not be the case.

A feeling of disappointment which gives way to a certain loneliness after a few hours. Because due to major balancing problems, Vessel of Hatred will offer almost no challenge. The Sacresprit class is so versatile and overpowering that you end up riding the game and sweeping away hordes of monsters like straws. It is only in the last third of the DLC, before the famous incomprehensible wall of annihilation of issues that we exposed above, that we really appreciate the gameplay issues of this new class, and the possible supports that could supply the mercenary. But it all falls flat like a failed soufflé. We will console ourselves with the cooperative challenges of the Dark Citadel in endgame, or with the time trial dungeons of the Lower Deeps of Kurast, echoes of the Nephalem Rifts of Diablo 3. In a given time, we will try to advance as far as possible in theundercity of Kurast by defeating as many monsters as possible, for increasingly interesting rewards. A nice challenge, but with a sour taste of déjà vu. A sentence which alone sums up the impressions left by Vessel of Hatred.