In Diablo 4 DLC Vessel of Hatred released on October 7, in order to live up to the expectations of players, the game developers not only added some new content: such as the new class Spiritborn and the new explorable area Nahantu, but also updated the main story based on Diablo 4 base game.
If you often play MMO games, you will find that the main story in these games is the key to stringing together the entire series of games, and the same is true in Diablo 4. besides some casual gameplay or some daily repetitive tasks that can farm Diablo 4 Gold, other world bosses and major events are often centered on the main story.
As an expansion of Diablo 4, the updated story content in Vessel of Hatred is essentially a continuation and supplement to the story of the base game. It should also play a role in filling the gaps in Diablo 4 story and paving the way for the new season or new DLC.
But does the update of the story in Vessel of Hatred really do these things? If you want to know, let’s find out together.
What Does The New Story Of Vessel Of Hatred Tell?
Diablo series of games is as dark and treacherous as its name leaves players with the impression that it is full of conspiracy and battles. The game is centered on Eternal Conflict between High Heavens and Burning Hells for Worldstone, and uses this conflict as the foreground and background of the story of each game in the series.
In Diablo 4, humans live in Sanctuary between Eternal Conflict. This setting not only emphasizes the importance of human movements in war, but also shows how humans will use their free will to influence this conflict through the subsequent development of the story.
In the updated story of Vessel of Hatred, the girl Neyrelle takes Soulstone containing Mephisto to the jungle area of Nahantu, hoping to face Mephisto directly and prevent his influence from spreading further to Sanctuary.
In fact, this is basically the theme of the story in Vessel of Hatred. Because if you’ve experienced the expansion, you’ll find that a large part of the story is about chasing Neyrelle’s footsteps, hoping to find her before the corruption of Soulstone destroys her from the inside out.
Therefore, this storyline does not further portray the battle of High Heavens and Burning Hells, but focuses more on Neyrelle. It can be said that this is a smaller and more personal story compared to the stories in the previous few games.
On this basis, the newly added Nahantu area in DLC is a refreshing change, replacing the dark and endless despair in the previous Sanctuary with bright and saturated colors. And as a background location, it effectively complements the tribal theme of the story and sets off the special ability of the new Spiritborn class to use animal souls to gain supernatural powers.
In fact, you will find that the background of Vessel of Hatred has nothing to do with the main battle in the series of games. The people of Nahantu have always been working hard to defend their land.
This is where Eru, a key character in DLC, comes into play, as his greatest wish is to ensure that Nahantu is protected from Mephisto’s corruption. Unfortunately, he ultimately makes a deal with Mephisto for a variety of reasons, and loses everything for it.
There Is A Story Disconnect Between Vessel Of Hatred And Base Game Of Diablo 4
While the new story and setting of Vessel of Hatred gives players, a brief respite from Eternal Conflict and a chance to experience different areas and classes than before, it is precisely because of these elements that there is a certain disconnect between the story of the DLC and the main story of the base game of Diablo 4.
One of the biggest unresolved plot points in the story of the main campaign of Diablo 4 is that Neyrelle trapped the essence of Mephisto in Soustone and then disappeared without explaining the subsequent developments. Therefore, people were originally looking forward to the game makers to explain this plot point in Vessel of Hatred.
At the end of Vessel of Hatred, although Neyrelle is freed from her connection to Mephisto Soulstone, some dialogue confirms that she is still connected to Mephisto and will face him at some point in the future. In a sense, you can think that the unresolved plot point of Diablo 4 has been resolved, but this is not specific and complete enough to be convincing.
All the main story of Diablo 4 set up for the expansion Vessel of Hatred never fully resolved the plot holes left in the base game, but only extended its original ending. This also means that although Vessel of Hatred has many highlights, it still does not really continue the story of the base game.
However, this is not entirely a disadvantage for players. Since there is no strong coherence between the stories, players can directly enter the expansion without playing the main campaign of Diablo 4. This is good, but it also shows that the story of Vessel of Hatred is not very meaningful to the overall narrative of Diablo 4. However, we can also expect the game developers to release new expansions to resolve these unresolved plot points.
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