Now typically when you hear "free to play" or "Nexon" or "Aunt Gertrude is only staying for a little while," you think "....meh." However, I'm here to say, I was absolutely blown away by the game's introduction and... wait for it... graphics! Being a free to play game, you aren't expecting great production values but Vindictus is different. It is driven by the Steam engine and easily played on low spec systems but it is absolutely gorgeous on higher spec rigs.
If you like Monster Hunter, or the Warriors, or essentially any hack-n-slash game that's out there you will probably like Vindictus. Your characters are mildly customizable; you pick from a template (right now either Lann or Fiona) who have their own fighting styles that you cannot change. You can then modify that character's appearance for hair, height, skin tone, etc (etc includes chest size for Fiona characters... bonus!).
The draw to this game is the interactive environment and team play capability. You trek through "dungeons" vanquishing all sorts of badies and you typically find a boss at the end who is significantly more powerful than the peons you've been blasting through. For those of us who play Monster Hunter it's the equivalent of fighting a Velociprey vs. a Rathalos... except with a health bar. You can have other players with you during these quests which obviously helps during boss fights but it's much more than just an extra set of weapons. There are chain restraints that players are able to use to capture/orient the boss monsters in order to allow openings for characters not using them. I haven't personally witnessed this yet but it's intriguing as hell!
21-Sept-10 === UPDATE (Note: I'm playing as Lann, the double sword fighter)===: I was beginning to get worried. Things were becoming repetitive -- there's only so many sword combos, different ways to present the same level structure, and limited enemy types to fight but I powered through. Much to my relief I started learning a new skill that varied my sword fighting up a bit. It allows you to use your remaining stamina in a series of quick thrusts and you can end with a smash attack that gets more powerful as you use more stamina. The downside is you have to gauge whether or not landing a powerful hit is more important than getting out of the way of an oncoming nail-bat! This makes fighting a bit more harrowing... but I like it. My dodging skill just gained a nice boost, the ability to quick dodge in a different direction after my first one (think of the Trickster Style for Dante in DMC:4) which allows for faster kills AND the ability to land critical hits. Apparently, there is a small window of time right after a beast uses its attack that any hit you land will do un-godly amounts of damage... I didn't discover this mechanic until I had progressed through the game a bit further.
Boss fights used to be just hit and dodge and that was incredibly easy, the skill it took to take down "bosses" was almost nil. Their attacks really weren't damaging, so if I got clobbered no big deal Hit and move and wait for his incredibly exaggerated attack animation to finish... then I arrived in front of my first real boss. A quick in game cutscene executed a dramatic entrance of a huge red were-wolf type creature (a Gnoll Chieftain) with a hammer longer than one of Lindsey Lohan's lines of cocaine. I was like, "*Sigh*... no big deal just a bigger boss." That's when he came sprinting towards me, mouth full of foam, and blasted me like a golf ball across the arena whilst knocking out 3/4's of my health in one swing. The next two words out of my mouth were along the lines of "Heavanly manure!" or something like that, but that's when I realized... ok this fight is for real. I got up and for the first time quaffed a health potion... and much to my chagrin (or delight to the secret masochist inside me) you go through a drinking animation when using potions or other team-aiding equipment a la Monster Hunter! Needless to say he came over while I was leisurely sipping my life juice and quaintly punted me into a pillar and incapacitated me. You can't just hit Quickslot 1 and heal instantly, utilizing an item requires forethought, strategy, and calculation! At that moment I knew I'd spend a little bit longer on this free-to-play than I have in the past. Luckily, I decided to accompany a fellow Vindictus-er on this quest so he was able to revive my splayed out, unconscious fighter. So with my head now in the game, we proceeded to stab, slash, duck out, throw rocks and jugs, heave spears and finally we conquered the beast... and I had reached level 10. Woot!
This game, once again, is impressing the hell out of me. So far in beta the game is pretty solid, there are lag issues here and there when playing with others but that's to be expected. The amount of side quests you can do seem to be healthy and offer decent rewards to make you actually want to do them. Character progression is going to be interesting since everyone is using the only two base characters offered right now but once you reach higher levels you will be defined by the skills you've dumped your hard earned Action Points (AP) into.
Vindictus is turning out to offer a bit of depth for the tenacious, so you do have to like grinding a little bit. More updates to follow as I discover more!
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