Redefining the MMO genre both free and p2p
Vindictus is that one game that makes you question what you have been missing, it is something that you never expected at an era like this, with WoW style games being the front runner MMO's. Not for long, this game will put future developers on their toes, why games such as Star Wars: The Old Republic are already looking outdated before release.
Vindictus is a game way beyond its time. It won best free game of the year 2010, and best game of G-star 2010 in Korea, a huge feat considering it's free. If you have been following Blade&soul, you already know how big G-star is. While it does have a great player base in North America, more people probably know about it in Korea (sorry, no raw numbers).
This is a full Action MMO experience, the way it seems almost all new MMO's are being released (DC universe online, Divine souls, Blade&soul, Guild wars 2, etc). Is it the future of MMO's? The problems with MMO's is they could feel a bit passive, so maybe. For what this style lacks, we might see an even better option with Blade&soul, which tries to blend traditional MMO with action MMO, and maybe hit the sweet spot, we will see.
But enough about other games. What Vindictus does great is give you a totally new experience, that's right, everything they do here is either completely original or a fresh new take to other mechanics. For instance, you can group up with people for dungeons, but while you wait you can slash away with your skills on the boat. Even the crafting system feels fresh, with NPC's like ferghus taking care of your metal-type crafting early on (with a small fee), until you expertise in one of the fields. When crafting yourself, expect to spend sometimes 3+ minutes on a single piece of gear, and it feels much more significant because of that.
Graphics
From screenshots of Vindictus, you may realize that the graphics are impressive both free and retail. Let me tell you, running on max, I can confirm these indeed do justice, if not lower the beauty found here. The graphics are so gorgeous, they seem usable for a cinematic cut scene, which just so happens to be the case with all of their cutscenes. All of the animations are done with such finesse, I would be surprised if they didn't wire up a live actor/acrobat for every single motion done in this game. I currently have over 2,000, yes 2 THOUSAND screenshots in my library, and none of them have the same action or feeling as another. At the end of a battle, it gives the party 4 or more snapshots trying to best capture the last moment of battle, you see them all and have the option to save the shots. You will be clicking that save button a lot.
Gameplay
Gameplay? You have many ways to play, mouse mode, keyboard, and controller. Mouse mode is the most traditional for PC games, WASD keys plus a few hotkeys, and the right and left mouse button for hard smash/normal attack. Keyboard takes this to full keyboard, I have yet to experiment with this, and finally controller is well... duh. The combat couldn't feel more natural, it gets a lot done with these mouse buttons. Depending how many normal attacks you do then smash, it will do a different move, which gets even more complex when you add additional strings. For example L>L>L>R might be a skill you have. Then advancing it you can string even more, L>L>L>R>R, then L>L>L>R>R>R. Some even include hotkeys to the combos, so if you were skeptical about not having 3 pages of hotbars for spells, don't worry about a little efficiency here.
Bosses
Bosses. Oh man. Another area this game shines are the bosses, In-cre-di-ble. These bosses can be pushovers but can also be very challenging, some fights will have you dying more than you can count. Group play is almost always required in this game, especially for new players. They did nerf a few earlier bosses unfortunately to help newer players solo, but this will not effect the later portions of the game. You must learn every boss encounter to be able to attack his openings, and practice practice practice if you want to solo some of these monsters. This is highly rewarding, and I hope most people who try this game stick with until they see where the real meat is. Nexon definitely wanted to reward their higher level players with some incredible, intense, jaw dropping boss battles they had to offer. Just when I thought this game was already damn good (and hard), they threw another curve ball with Irukul, a level 51 raid boss that will have you relearning the game again. I am now level 65 and their latest patch, only a few days old as writing this, the first, FIRST dungeon mission was a full 8 man raid against a stone golem that had my party in a 40+ minute battle of death, death death, and finally victory. Very reminiscent of my first Irukul.
Conclusion? Sorry, read the first lines of every paragraph for an insight to this. But I will leave you with this: Vindictus is a game that raises the expectations, even as high a stature as Blade&Sou, of quality and polish, and new-gen gameplay. Within my first few MINUTES, I had seen a glimpse into how far this game has come. Picture this: A gnoll takes a swing at me, I block it and proceed with my 4 hit combo followed by a finishing kick, which knocks him into a pillar, which then breaks and shatters the stone on top of him for a satisfying burial. If you like MMO's, fighters, action games, give this game a try. If you don't, give this game a try.