Vindictus is a great jump in and play action MMORPG, but it's repetitiveness and server issues will drive some away.
These heroes or characters are same as classes to many other MMOs. There isn't a golden triangle so they just plays towards a certain combat style rather than a healer, dps, tank role. Lann uses twin swords for a fast and to slice and dice his foes that covering much ground making him good for boss fights and clearing mobs alike. Fiona wields a sword and shield for enhanced survivability in the battlefield while punishing her foes' misstep. Evie is the "mage" that can either charge up one powerful spell to launch a massive one hit strike on her opponent. Karok is a hulk, which is able to beat and throw his foes and even some bosses around as if they were made out of paper. Kai is the only range this game uses a bow and arrow, with just enough close quarter moves to allow some player, while not ideal, a change of pace. Vella is the newest character and hero introduced her who also uses twin blades but unlike Lann is also able to counter and detect enemy projectiles dealing a great deal of damage if the player can get the timing down.
From using twin swords to ripping your foes apart with Karok's muscles or raining down arrows from a safe distance the game makes you feel like a boss or a hero. But can also be called as "Hack and Slash" and there's certainly a lot of it. Many of the enemy will just stand there as you rip them a new one when they do attack they will miss or you will have interrupted it from as it takes them a good 10 seocnds to prep for it. However, bosses, are much different while earlier can just be treated as another mob, later ones will require proper usage of all your skills especially if you use to tackle them on the harder settings and of course the harder settings provides a better reward. However many of the environment are the same. You will find yourself running through the same dungeon for a quest or a loot over dozens of times, killing the same enemy a hundred of times and killing the same boss again and again. Though with the newly added Season 2 content helps lessen the grinding as Season 2 dungeon scales to you level allowing you to use them to fill in gaps if you run out of side quest to finish.
All your combat is done inside a dungeon or in an instance with is all this hosted by a party leader there isn't an open-world. While most of the dungeons can be run alone players who wish to finish them quick or play with other may experience long waiting times for party members. Also as of the time of this writing the server has been unresponsive. Many times when starting a dungeon or joining one you will be met with server delays forcing you back to town. At other times it can be just hard to log in. It's very possible when you finally log in the game doesn't recognize you and still registers you as offline making you invisible to friends and guild mates. There have also been reports of players getting wrongly banned after the release of Season 2 content. Also with the lack of recognition and response from Nexon to fix these issues, and many others, I fear they may be here to stay longer than some players.
Nexon advertise this game, and all their game, as a free-to-play, but I would like to take this time to warn players before getting into this game does follow a pay-to-win model. Much content from their online shop gives those who are willing to spend money access to extra loot, pets, experience points, outfits, and even access to early access to endgame gear for a short period of time. Though, I feel that this plays a smaller role to the game as there isn't much emphasis on PVP, but only PVE. So players who has bought content off the store can often provide a ticket to victory in some tight situations. However, from my experience of playing buying in-game content doesn't make you much stronger than your party members.
Now onto what I think is the most important factor of most MMOs, the endgame. Sadly, there is not much. After you get 70 (or now 80) your endgame is mainly a grindfest to make money or to further enchant your current gear, keeping in mind that enchanting gears is purely luck based.
Vindictus a truly unique game that allows a fast pace hack and slash that is heavily burden by Nexon's lack of support and repetitive dungeon grinding. However for those who have enough willpower to work for their reward and don't mind the heavy grind Vindictus is truly one of a kind "free-to-play" out there. For those who aren't will find Vindictus a hard place to call home.