Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred is revealing too much too soon and Blizzard risks ruining the joy of discovery

I, like many Diablo 4 players, have been incredibly excited for Diablo 4's second expansion, Lord of Hatred, ever since it was first revealed at The Game Awards. As the April 28 launch date draws ever nearer, I've had to really distance myself from any coverage. Which is kind of the opposite of what every other publication is doing right now, but it's for my own sanity.

While I'm normally all for Blizzard's crazy marketing campaigns, remembering the KFC collaborations and cathedral paintings, I'm not happy with the amount of story reveals going on in the weeks leading up to this launch.

I'll preface this very first world problems rant with the disclaimer that I'm well aware I'm being majorly oversensitive here. I could, of course, just log off, but I really wish there were less information out there about the expansion right now. It's a bit like those movie trailers that go on for too long and give away the entire second act. Save some of the magic for the actual experience!

The information disconnect

Mechanics, new gameplay features, and the like are fair game, of course. But specifically, story spoilers are something I’m desperately trying to avoid. If you've been expecting a constant stream of Diablo analysis from me this month, my silence is simply a defensive maneuver.

This personal, self-imposed media blackout has put me in a strange position compared to the rest of the community. While I’m over here covering my ears and eyes to avoid hearing a single word about Mephisto’s itinerary, a large portion of the player base on Reddit is currently up in arms for the exact opposite reason. They feel they aren't getting enough of the right kind of information.

The recent exclusive coverage (notably through IGN and I'm not knocking them, they are simply the messenger and doing a good job) has become a major point of contention. While I’m worried about seeing too many cinematics, the hardcore community is frustrated that the endgame deep dives they were promised haven't come to fruition. They are starving for the meaty bits: horadric cube recipes, more on war plans, and these new torment levels, etc. It’s an unusual turn of events. Blizzard is simultaneously showing too much of what makes the world feel alive (the story) and not enough of what makes the game feel playable (the systems).

What may satiate this is the announcement of a new Developer Update stream on April 23, I'm sure that will provide some more mechanical details the playbase crave.

I will add that I think the previous interviews and developer chats on War Plans and new class skills were completely sufficient, and I don't really want a much deeper dive than that, personally. I'd rather have as much be saved until the launch as possible, but I'm merely sharing some community sentiment here.

It's hard to pull off a true surprise, but Blizzard have proved they can do it

My final straw, and real motivator for writing this piece, is something I saw on Twitter/X this week that pushed me to even mute the word Diablo from my feed entirely. There was a specific reveal, not that I will discuss here, but it's a returning character. One that I think, while hinted at previously, had it been actually saved for the expansion launch, would have been a real mindblowing moment in-game. Blizzard has been incredibly good recently at reclaiming the element of surprise, so not to appear to be doing so with Lord of Hatred right now is really perplexing.

The 30th Anniversary Diablo celebrations were a masterclass in shadowdropping and delighting an audience. Launching a new class and content for Diablo 2: Resurrected was something nobody saw coming. The April Fools event where a giant chicken World Boss, dubbed Chi'Khan was dropped into the game, was also complete genius and so unexpected I didn't believe it was real. Thankfully I realised it was very real before the event ended.

Recently, World of Warcraft has had its own jaw-dropping moment with a secret boss phase that rocked the e-sports community. To pull these things off in an era of data mining is truly impressive stuff. Let's keep that train going until Blizzcon.

The unexpected could still be to come

Regardless of what we've seen (or have been trying not to see in my case) so far, I do hope that thre is something completely unexpected waiting for us in the backdrop of the Skovos Isles or in the depths of some dungeon. Perhaps we'll finally get the elusive cow level? What cow level you ask? There is no cow level.

As we count down the final days, I'll be dodging cinematics and lore breakdowns like Neo dodging bullets, and I'll see you guys on the other side of the inevitable server queues on April 28. If you're going to be playing, let me know in the comments if you're playing Warlock, Paladin or taking one of the older classes through the new campaign.

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