Diablo has always been appointment gaming for me, ever since falling in love with the first game on a PC store demo kiosk. I spent over 100 hours with Diablo IV across PS5 and Xbox Series X and 7 different characters, and the launch period and first few seasons were incredibly fun, especially when running through the hordes with a couple friends. I remember with fondness when Diablo III made its late Switch debut in 2018, which was half a dozen years after it first arrived on PC. That Switch drop breathed new demonic life into the game, and helped make the wait for D4 a little easier to stomach. In a crowded 2026 slate, I'm not sure if lightning will strike twice in the same way. What I am sure of is that the Diablo IV experience on Switch 2 is solid and reminds me why I fell in love with the base game in 2023.

Having gone through some of the early seasonal play and the main story, I was eager to jump into the expansion content for the first time, which includes the Vessel of Hatred and Lord of Hatred expansions. This review is based on the latter DLC as it's the most recent and introduces two new character classes: Paladin and Warlock. Tending to favor spellcasters, I rolled with a Warlock and ended up specializing in Demonology, which allows you to both summon various demons to attack and throw them in barrages at your enemies. The build reminded me of a demon-focused Necromancer.

Following a pursuit of Mephisto by you and Lorath, your journey takes you to the new region of Skovos, which is an archipelago and the domain of bow and spear-wielding Amazon warriors. The cinematics are as good as ever and help tell a compelling tale of Mephisto manipulating the populace and your efforts to bring him down. With the help of villain-turned ally Lilith, you work to collect shards of a special dagger that's capable of finally bringing down Mephisto for good. The forests, coastline, and even volcanic biomes of Skovos make for an aesthetically pleasing backdrop as you gallop across the landscape on your trusty steed or stop to wreak havoc on foot.

Working with and against the Amazon warriors makes for a thrilling subplot, but some of the major twists in the main narrative genuinely shocked me. I can't confess to being a diehard Diablo lore follower, but the return of an old, familiar face made me smile from ear to ear. While all of this was going on, the current season (15) is full of throwbacks, and aptly named Season of Hell's Legacy. Reuniting with Deckard Cain and jumping into Waking Nightmare portals to relive infamous battles from earlier in the series made me even more nostalgic for a franchise that is near and dear to my heart. The moment I once again heard the sounds of Tristram that were so integral to setting up the tense but sad atmosphere of the first Diablo, I was enthralled.

On Switch 2, there are some noticeable performance and resolution sacrifices made to keep the game running smoothly. While I'd argue the trade off is worthwhile, it's difficult to fully recommend for anyone who owns the game on another platform or who wouldn't be playing a lot portably. You can opt for Quality mode that hits 1080p and 30fps when playing handheld and 1440p/30fps on the TV. The alternative is Performance mode with 1080p at 40fps portably and 1440p/40fps docked, provided you have a display capable of 120hz. Two of the hiccups that stood out to me the most were enemies popping up on screen only as you got close enough to them, and enemy animations slowing down noticeably during busier, more hectic skirmishes. This latter issue actually came up a fair number of times given that I was summoning multiple large demons for most fights. Fortunately, I didn't notice any slowdown to my character or in using my abilities, so the effect was more of a visual concern than a gameplay one. One final annoyance is that the always-online nature of Diablo IV means that you can't make use of sleep mode when you want to take a quick break from the action.

With all of my previous progress carried over via my Battle.net account, it was great to be able to go back and revisit some of my older characters, especially given that there have been a number of quality of life changes in the interim. More detailed skill trees, a higher level cap, and more meaningful/streamlined equipment progression make it so you feel stronger and more capable all the faster. In the 10-12 hours I spent with the Lord of Hatred expansion, I went all the way to level 62 playing mostly on Hard difficulty, which is 8 levels shy of the new cap of 70. I definitely feel ready to both tackle the new post-game challenges and maybe respec my Warlock to try some of the other possible builds.

If you've been waiting for a Switch 2 version of Diablo IV, the new content included in the Ages of Hatred Collection makes an amazing title even more robust. It might not be as impressive a port as Diablo III was on the original Switch, but it's serviceable, has fast load times, and very much feels good in the minute-to-minute gameplay. There are hundreds of hours of content, with more likely due out in the future as we await the 2029 release of Diablo V. I'm ready to try out the other new classes and jump into the post-game with some pals in the coming months, and I expect a fair bit of these adventures will happen on my Switch 2.