In October, the first expansion for Diablo 4, titled “Vessel of Hatred,” will be released. To skip the campaign, players apparently have to complete it first. For some, that’s just a waste of time.
“Vessel of Hatred” will be released on October 8 and brings new content to Diablo 4:
- a new class – the Spiritborn
- new skills, legendary glyphs, and paragon boards for all classes
- mercenaries that function similarly to companions in Diablo 3 or hirelings in Diablo 2
- a new area and the continuation of the campaign
In a post on X, Community Manager Adam Fletcher explains that players must complete the campaign to skip the “Vessel of Hatred” campaign. However, some players see a problem here, as they want to jump straight into the new content without playing the story. Others say that having to complete the campaign to skip it is actually logical.
What are players complaining about? Specifically, the discussion taking place on various platforms is about skipping the campaign of Vessel of Hatred. Apparently, you have to complete it first in order to unlock the “skip function.” Some players view this as an issue.
One user asked on X whether there will be a season pause to experience the story of Vessel of Hatred (VoH) on the eternal realms before the season starts, or if both will start simultaneously, forcing players to choose between the campaign and “free play.”
To this, Adam Fletcher replied on X:
We will discuss this before the launch. There will be no season pause. Players must complete the campaign once to skip the VoH campaign.
Under the comment, “Clinton Butler” writes: “This is really bad. Many players have absolutely no interest in the story. It’s a hurdle that prevents them from enjoying the game. Allowing skipping harms no one, but allows players to enjoy the game as they wish. If they want to experience the story, they will play it.”
In the Blizzard forum, “Falling” writes that it would be nice to be able to skip the VoH campaign. “Give players who want to experience the story the chance to do so, but please don’t force it on us,” he thinks. He wants to utilize all features of the expansion without having to play the campaign. “After all, I’m paying for the expansion. And if I want to skip parts of it, I should be able to,” he writes.
Play through to skip – “It’s logical”
Are there other opinions as well? Yes, a few. In a post on Reddit, users discuss the topic. The top comment is from “ThanosWasRightHanded” and has gathered over 2,000 upvotes. He writes: “There are people in the comments who are actually upset that they may have to play the brand-new campaign, which they’ve never experienced, at least once.”
“Ymmera” wonders why people are upset about this. He states: “Of course, you have to complete the campaign at least once before you can skip it” – that’s logical. “Darksharq” writes that some people bought the expansion for the new class, not for the new story. Repeating the entire campaign would be pretty lame, he thinks.
And “Anxnymxus-622” points out that he can’t count how many people have said they skipped every single cutscene in the Diablo 4 campaign just to then say how bad it was. “_redacteduser” adds: “These are also the first ones to complain that there’s no content.”
For “tomkc518,” the main campaign of Diablo 4 was “fantastic, with the BEST cutscenes,” and he looks forward to playing it again and continuing the story. And for “AdministrativeAct902,” the campaign of Diablo 4 was “absolutely 10/10.”
Do I have to play the entire campaign? According to PC Gamer, Blizzard has stated in an interview that “players starting Diablo 4 for the first time with Vessel of Hatred will have the option to skip the main campaign and dive directly into the story of the expansion.”
According to wowhead, there will be a summary of the previous events for new players starting directly in the VoH storyline.
On Reddit, several users note that they are looking forward to the new campaign. Others write that they want to play the main story again – this time with the new class. MyMMO editor Benedict Grothaus has already played the Spiritborn. For two hours, he more or less tested it out and tried out the skills. You can read more about it here: Diablo 4: I was at Blizzard and played the new class of Vessel of Hatred – This is what the Spiritborn can do
