What screams ‘slaughter’ more than a collaboration with Bethesda’s ‘Doom’ franchise for Blizzard’s ‘Diablo IV: Season Of Slaughter’ battle pass and content? I don’t think I can think of a better combination. ‘Doom Guy’ and ‘The Butcher’, I am in heaven this season, but Sanctuary itself couldn’t be deeper in the throes of Hell.

Travelling to Gea Kul, you will begin your quest with Teyana, an apprentice who believes there are new magics to harness in the world. Knowing of your both ethereal and tainted blood, she believes you are the key to unlocking its power with her master and renowned Demonologist mentor, Kkhulrami. They discover you are the perfect conduit to harness demonic magic, and you go along with their experiments, only to be turned into the infamous demon, The Butcher.

Needing no introduction to a seasoned Diablo fan, being able to turn into The Butcher is a very cool character, bloodied cleaver and all, and a great spin on the gameplay of the season. I do, though, wish they had entwined at least a few more story missions into this season to make his placement feel a bit more purposeful, since he really is a Diablo star villain. Still, it’s overall an enjoyable little subplot to the game.

Playing as the Butcher will offer you a bounty of rewards, too. Visiting Shrines of Slaughter found in the PVP areas, and Helltides with meaty offerings will turn you from your human body into the iconic demon himself, with his own set of unique and ruthless abilities.

Killing demons or humans alike will reward you with fresh meat, which you can use to buy bloodied gear and kill streaks will give you more brutality to unlock items at the bounty board, a staple of each new season’s content.

The nearly opened Butcher Shop is also found in Gea Kul. This new form of bloodied gear has an extra feast, hunger or rampage aspect that gives buffs in certain areas per kill or every certain number of kills.

It’s pretty intriguing to use these different buffed gear at the beginning, but none of them is particularly different or interesting aside from the aspects over time.

Also, dropped throughout dungeons and Helltides are Slaughterhouse Keys. These are a really interesting addition as they open up portals in the Butcher Shop that enable you to teleport through time to reminisce as you carve your way through towns and their protectors.

This additionally earns you fresh meat to buy and sell with. This dungeon was repetitive, but so fun you don’t really care as you mince through so easily, townfolk and pathetic Druids trying to protect the towns.

The battle pass is played through Reliquaries as usual, but this time there are 5 of them instead of the usual 4. You will now find an exclusive ‘Doom’ themed one amongst the lot with some actually impressive weapons. The base Reliquaries are unlocked using favour tokens, a common theme in previous seasons.

Still, the Doom one requires Dark Ages currency because the collaboration is, in fact, an actual ‘Doom: The Dark Ages’ partnership, more specifically. The Doom-inspired gear is pretty easily achievable through just average gameplay times.

If you look in the shop, you will find very, and I mean very detailed, beautifully gory and gritty skins for each class, a dragon mount and 2 pets too. They are all very on brand for Doom: Dark Ages, but of course have very exorbitant prices, with the Doom Slayer alone being 2500 platinum, meaning buying the closest 2800 platinum bundle makes it a $AUD37.45 skin.

There is also a Deluxe Battle pass that can be upgraded, allowing for an Alkaid cosmic bear pet, Wings of Firmament reactive back trophy, and instant access to a bonus armour set, which is glistening with neon light aspects. It certainly looks vibrant and elitist in style, but you would want it to be for a paid extension of the pass.

Overall, I have probably enjoyed this season the most so far. Bringing in an iconic character like ‘The Butcher’ and putting gear from an iconic franchise like ‘Doom’ seems like the perfect storm in a teacup. I only wish they had done a little more with the story, but these little snips are always a nice little touch tagged onto the battle pass.

As they progress, it really feels like they are putting in more effort into the seasons, but I am still hanging out for this new DLC coming on April 30th.

Written by: Stacey