Blizzard’s first expansion for Diablo 4 promises to learn from past mistakes

Blizzcon 2023 gave Diablo diehards something to get excited about in the form of the first trailer for the Vessel of Hatred, but that teaser for Diablo 4’s first expansion didn’t give much detail beyond the obvious. 

In line with previous Diablo expansions, Vessel of Hatred will continue the story that began in the base game. As is tradition, it’ll also add a new character class to the game and offer up a new slice of gothic scenery to traverse and explore.

While Vessel of Hatred will jump straight to the new stuff with a fresh face, Diablo 4 associate game director Brent Gibson said that the expansion would give players less keen on seasonal content updates a good reason to return to the game.

“We’re picking up where we left off. We’re going to find out what Nyrelle’s been up to,” he said.

That search for answers will see the map seen in the base game expand southwards to encompass the region of Nahatu. This isn’t the first time that players have visited this corner of Sanctuary, but the return of locations like Travincal and Kurast brings with it some problematic baggage. 

Originally introduced in Diablo 2’s third act, the jungles of Torajan were originally named after – and to some degree inspired by – the Indonesian tribal culture of the same name. Torajan is also the home of Diablo 3’s Witch Doctor, a character class that has been criticised in the past for the way its visual design incorporates various tribal aesthetics and tropes.

Gibson said that the series’ latest destination would attempt to remedy some of this and approach the relationship that Diablo’s fictional setting has with its real-world counterpart with additional sensitivity.

“As a team, we decided to make sure that we’re staying inspired by cultures around the world and that culture is amazing, but we don’t want to be lifting from them and so in this case we’re deciding to change the name before folding it in creatively.” 

To that end, the previous name of the region is being de-emphasised in favour of Nahatu.

“If you’re an outsider, it’s Torajan. If you’re from the area it’s Nahatu,” he explained.

While every Diablo game to date has only ever managed a single expansion, Gibson said that the roadmap for Diablo 4 could stretch much further.

Rather than be intimidated by the high standard set by Reaper of Souls and Lord of Destruction, Gibson is excited by the chance to contribute to that legacy and build on the version of Diablo 4 that shipped earlier this year. 

“Every opportunity whether it’s a season or expansion is an opportunity to get better,” he said.

“I’m happy we’re finally in a live situation. We can talk about what’s important. We’re in the middle of making Vessel of Hatred so we have the opportunity to listen to the community as we’re going along.”

Diablo 4 lead balance designer said that Adam Jackson said that from the ground up, the team had a long-tail vision for Diablo 4 in mind from the very beginning.

“[Diablo 3] is a fantastic game and a lot of the learnings from it you see in [Diablo 4],” he said.

“I don’t think that this game would be as good as it is if we hadn’t learned a lot about how to support a life service game with a seasonal cadence and what you have to iterate through to make a really crazy expansion.”

Even between Diablo 4’s first two in-game seasons, Jackson said the team has already learned a lot about what walking the line between the game it wants to build and the experience that longtime fans of the series expect looks like. 

“We wanted to make our combat more thoughtful and purposeful. That’s why we have the evade button. That’s why we have a cadence to how you do things.”

Jackson explained the team understood going in this direction would go against what players were used to but underestimated just how much it mattered to them.

“We knew that players wanted to zoom and go quickly and you see that, whether it’s levelling, the number of monsters on screen or just the speed of everything.”

 “We knew they wanted to [reach] level 100 but we didn’t know that they would see it as such an expected thing that they definitely should be doing, right? Because when you think of Diablo 2 and getting to 100, most people didn’t. It was an achievable goal and a long-term goal but players were okay back then.”

 Jackson said that the industry and the culture have changed a lot in that regard.