I've been playing a bit of Vindictus lately. It's an action MMORPG that's sort of like Diablo. The game is over-the-shoulder 3rd person perspective like WoW.
But it's an action game where left-click is one attack, and right-click is a second attack. So you string these moves into combos like LLLL+R or LLL+RR.
It's more of a central hub with NPCs, followed by instanced dungeons/quests, than a virtual world. Each dungeon or quest can be run multiple times with up to four people.
The classes are named individuals, which I find odd, but seems to be a common thing lately. There's Lann, male who dual-wields swords, Fiona, who is female sword and shield, and Evie, who is a female mage. But you can still customize your character's look extensively.
As you level up, you improve your skills and combos, and get new abilities. For example, I'm playing a Fiona, and she's all about blocking hits. But when you're blocking, you aren't attacking, so there's a bit of timing involved.
Combat is very twitch-based, especially boss fights. There's lots of running and dodging out of the way of the boss' big special attacks (or blocking them at the right time). The animations are quite good and add a lot to the game.
One of the interesting things so far is that you don't really get weapons or armor from the dungeons. Instead you get materials and you bring the materials to crafters in town to make items for you.
It is not quite as polished as some of the big name MMOs. In particular, the central hub and all the NPC interactions and UI feel a lot more complicated than they need to be.
But the basic gameplay is very solid. Just running through waves of enemies and the boss fights are a lot of fun.
It's a F2P game. I believe that after the beginning quests, each dungeon/quest costs tokens to run. But you get a certain amount of free tokens each week.
In some respects, this feels like the game Age of Conan should have been.
As someone who has played to level 50, I can offer some additional insight.
ReplyDeleteThe F2P model of Vindictus can be restricting at time, but it's workable.
The majority of Nexon's profit from this game comes from the customization of your characters' appearance and/or the recoloring of their gear.
But like with all MMOs, the real meat comes with the end game, currently at level 70, and since leveling her seems, at times, to be comparable to Vanilla WoW's rate of experience gain, it can be a hassle, which is why being part of a guild helps as well.
Overall, I agree with your assessment, the combat system is solid and isn't like WoW's "Hit button, shoot magic missile' system.
I too play a Fiona and with the right kind of shields, she can counter attack with her shield if your timing is right. The other characters have their own unique methodology for combat and it certainly is entertaining, though the possibility of tedium also comes with a button masher like this.