Vindictus

I've been on a bit of a free-to-play MMO kick lately, and my friends got me into this game called Vindictus. Vindictus is available from Nexon

My first reaction to Vindictus was positive. I liked that dodging attacks was based on my reaction time and not just an evasion stat point. When I first started playing, I was unaware that it was a source engine based game. Vindictus has you interact with the environment as well as enemies. You have to interact with the environment to progress through the dungeons on top of using the environment to kill your enemies. Freeze a gnoll to death? Pick up his frozen dead body and fling it at the next gnoll. After gaining knowledge that it was a source engine game it became very noticeable. The game is very physics-heavy, including but not limited to the jiggle-bone physics on the female characters' breasts.

So far I've only touched the Evie class. Evies are the only magic-wielding hero in Vindictus. You start off using a staff and high damage magics, but later on you may also choose to switch from purely magic to using a scythe and a different set of abilities. You start off with 3 basic attacks: Magic arrow, a fast and low damage attack; Mana Mine, a moderate damage dealing stationary ball that inflicts damage when an enemy runs into it; and Firebolt, a high damage and Area of Effect spell that will incinerate whatever it collides with as well as the enemies nearby.
Magic arrow is used by left clicking and requires no build-up, however mana mine and firebolt and any of the more advanced magics require a charge or build-up used with the right-click. You hold down right click until the bar fills for level 1 spells, and you fill the first bar, let go, and fill the second bar for level 2 spells and so on.



The battle system isn't something I'm entirely used to in a MMO. Dodging attacks requires you to physically move your character out of the way by walking, sprinting or jumping. Normal enemies will be knocked back or knocked down by your attacks; bosses however are unfazed by your puny attacks and will keep on trucking when you hit them. to stagger a boss enemy you must either use one of your secondary weapons such as a spear: hit F, aim, and toss. If you run out of your secondary weapon you may also use an object from the environment such as a clay pot or a broken piece of a column, these are thrown in the same manner. Dodging attacks from bosses as an Evie is very critical because they can typically do enough damage to kill you in only a few hits.



Armor has durability and can be broken in battle. However unlike typical durability systems, armor can be broken even if the durability has not reached 0 but can be fixed mid-battle. Basically armor can be physically broken by heavy attacks mid-dungeon and will suffer durability damage, use a field repair kit to repair armor and wear it again. Even after fixing it mid-dungeon you will also need to take it to Ferghus in town and get its durability repaired.

The trade system is a bit inconvenient. There is no direct trading between people you must either list something on the marketplace (auction house) or send it through the mail. Both methods cost you money, and the mail takes an hour to send, unless you pay more for instant. This is really only a minor inconvenience as I've done very minimal item trading.

The way Vindictus uses titles is new to me as well. In Final Fantasy XI, a title had no benefit to wear. In MapleStory and Mabinogi you may wear a title and get the stat bonus from that title only, however in Vindictus once you earn a title the stat boost is permanent and you wear the title purely for show. You are free to wear humorous-sounding or badass titles while still getting the stat bonuses from the others.

Fishing is rather fun of an idea. YOU USE A HARPOON CROSSBOW. Here, let the video explain it.


There are a few things related to Half-Life 2 in Vindictus, as it runs on the Source engine. I noticed the yellow liquid spatter from killing spiders is the same as that of a Headcrab from Half-Life 2, the blood spatter is the same from Half-Life 2. The Hoarfrost Hollows dungeon has the same texture, but different color as the antlion tunnels from Half-Life 2.
There are also obvious references such as the headcrab hat and various other things like crowbar weapons and combine masks

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