We Just Played Vindictus (and the New Character, Evie)

If you're not already familiar with Nexon's Vindictus, it's both a free-to-play online role-playing game and a 3D beat-'em-up reminiscent of the console-based Dynasty Warriors series. Or, if you prefer, it's a 3D version of the classic side-scrolling brawler Final Fight, except once you're done kicking your enemies' faces in, you also get experience points and loot. Vindictus (also known as Mabinogi Heroes in Asia) is now in open beta as of a few weeks ago and offers two different playable character classes. First, there's Lann, a fleet-footed, offense-focused warrior who wields dual swords; then there's Fiona, a more-defensive character who wields a sword in one hand and a shield in the other. In the game, once you create a character, you can hop onto a boat to head out to an instanced dungeon, paying for a few trips with a handful of free coins that are regularly refreshed in your character's inventory.

You may also know that Vindictus is powered by Valve's Source engine, the same engine made famous for popularizing in-game physics in action games like Half-Life 2 back in 2004. There's a lot of physics-based stuff in Vindictus as the game lets you both smash up environments and actually wield environmental objects (as well as debris from said smashups) as impromptu weapons. This is not unlike how our old Final Fight buddies Cody, Haggar, and Guy could pick up pipes and swords to whack their foes way back when. Source also lets Vindictus display visible damage to your character's armor and items on your character model as you play. Fiona's shield can eventually be shattered, for instance, and characters who fail to maintain their already-damaged armor may end up on the battlefield stripped to their skivvies (known in Vindictus as inner armor). Fortunately, unlike the game's outer armor, the underwear in Vindictus is completely indestructible, so the game won't offer any wardrobe malfunctions that are wildly inappropriate for younger audiences.

There are a few new updates to discuss for Vindictus, such as the game's open beta status and new cash-op--the in-game store that lets you trade real money for in-game items. The cash-op lets you primarily purchase only two types of items: convenience items, such as various potions that can aid your progress or platinum tokens that will let you take extra trips on the game's boats; and superficial apparel items (primarily clothes, hats, and boots) that don't affect your character's power level at all, except for a few types of special inner armor (again, underwear) that increases your character's luck score. This, in turn, increases the chances that monsters will more often drop better loot for you.

The biggest update, however, is the upcoming addition of Evie, the game's third playable character. Evie is a female wizard who begins her career wielding a magic staff, which she can use to pummel her enemies in melee combat. Her greater strength, though, is her magic spells, which can include swift, fiery projectiles and slow-burn, close-range detonations, as well the ability to summon magical companions to aid her in battle. We tried out the staff-wielding Evie ourselves in a play session with several Nexon staffers and planned to skillfully time and place our magic spells. But that all went out the window in minutes once we landed in the new zone of Ainle, a town attacked and burned by hordes of troll-like monsters. Once the monsters started spawning, the action got hectic, and it took us a bit of time to get used to Evie's options of casting damaging spells from a distance, summoning (and then hiding behind) her golem companion (which forms itself out of any nearby environmental debris, such as stray brooms, barrel fragments, and rocks), and poking enemies with her staff, which was, given how fragile she is, a last resort.

In the role of a spellcaster, Evie's best bet seems to be doing just that--summoning a critter, hiding behind it, and zapping enemies from a distance. Fortunately for us, our Nexon employee companions were able to pick up the slack in battle, so the ugly, scrawny troll monsters of Ainle posed little to no threat until we reached the boss--a gigantic troll monster that gets his own cinematic cutscene. In this cutscene, which you can view in the trailer, the brute drags around a young fellow by the face and cruelly slams the youngster headfirst into a bunch of walls before tossing him.

The boss battle was chaotic, and we admit that we died a few times, primarily because of carelessness. Vindictus has a slowly recharging energy meter that determines how often you can use your character's abilities, and we grew restless as the battle wore on and weren't satisfied with hanging back from the massive boss and plinking away with spells. This was a mistake because this boss possessed a few powerful melee attacks, such as a leaping stomp attack that knocks you flat on your back and a running charge that will also bowl you over. Our companions advised us to try to stay back and hurl a few spears instead. Spears are an item, which, when wielded, change the game's perspective to a first-person, over-the-shoulder view to aim. If you can spear your enemies in the legs, you can limit their mobility so that they stay in place and take their beatings properly. The same is true of the game's chain items--basically a harpoon with a chain tied at the end to restrain your target.

Evie seems like a challenging character to play as a wizard and definitely handles differently from the up-close-and-personal styles of both Lann and Fiona, but we're told that all three characters will later have the option to change their fighting styles. Vindictus has a skill tree of various combat abilities you can choose for each character, like you've probably seen in other RPGs, but once you reach higher character levels, you'll have the option to switch to a different weapon style. We're told that Evie's alternate weapon will be a giant scythe (which has appeared in some of the game's earlier video trailers) that can impale foes and drain their health. It can also be used in tandem with a bloody string item that attaches itself to successive enemies when she scores a hit with it and can eventually be triggered with a follow-up ability that causes Evie to snap her fingers and pull the string taut, eviscerating her foes.

Lann, we're told, will be able to graduate to a more-damaging dual-spears-weapon style, while Fiona will keep her shield but will be able to swap out her sword for a warhammer that deals crushing damage. These higher-tier abilities will be added to the game, along with new zones to explore by boat on a "very regular basis." For instance, Nexon expects to add new zones to the game every four to six weeks, with the eventual goal of keeping up with the release of the original Asian version of the game within a period of three months' worth of updates (in other words, the Nexon team hopes to localize and push through all the new content from the more-mature Asian version of the game no more than three months after that content makes it into that version). Larger-scale updates, such as new playable characters, may take closer to a year to add. Evie, on the other hand, will be available in just two more days on October 27.