Vindictus Gamescom 2011 Preview

Most MMO players will have heard of the hack-and-slash MMORPG Vindictus; most notably for the fact it has been out in North America almost a year and has yet to see a release in Europe, a dissapointment to many. But with its beta scheduled for September and the official release hopefully in October, the game is about to hit Europe and Nexon are hoping in a big way.

Knowing the feelings of many EU customers in regards to the delay, they have tried to make up for this to their European customers by introducing an 'Xtreme Edition'. The Xtreme Edition (XE) has an upgraded combat system that is more action oriented than in the original implementation. The characters are of a higher level, so they are faster, stronger and they can inflict higher amounts of damage. XE will also allow players to be able to jump, to attack enemies mid-flight, and create combos. Although they will release the game in Europe a year after North America they are aiming for them to be the same, content wise, by next summer.

The game is created using the Source engine, and full advantage has been taken with world interaction. For example, if there are barrels and boxes, they can be broken and thrown around. Furthermore, you can use the environment to your advantage when attacking opposing forces. If there is a trap on the map, then you can lure the enemy into it. You can push the enemies against - and attack them against - the wall, and if there is a cliff, or an edge, you can throw them off it. The interaction possibilities are endless and are thrown at you in masses for action focussed situations.

There are no particular classes, but the characters you can select have different abilities and skills. These combat skills and abilities can't be altered – they are selected at character creation. Players can change what their character looks like, however they cannot change the sex of the character. You can alter their height, hairstyle, hair colour, etc. in the character creator, and you can also dye clothing and weaponry to make your character look completely different and individual. Some examples of customisations you can buy with real money are accessories, tattoos and different hairstyles than the one you originally chose. Everything you wear is also hand-crafted. Customisation is reasonably well handled, and already received well in the US so we're sure the EU will be enjoying that aspect just as much.

Being a hack-and-slash title, there are melee weapons which your character can wield, however we were not shown any gameplay with a projectile weapon. Therefore at this stage we are unsure of whether these will be included or not. The possibilities and capabilities of the engine are certainly there so this could be a posible direction of expansion.

The game is set in a fantasy world with different missions for your character to go through. Each mission has a story, which turns into an episode. Stats are provided to view your own progress; however you cannot view anybody else's which does take the competitive edge off a bit seeing as there is also no leaderboards as of yet.

Nevertheless, there will be a PvP (Player versus Player) mode, so there will be some cut-throat action for the more bloodthirsty and competitive in nature. There will also be co-operative play where you will be able to play with up to four players in normal co-op play, and up to 8 players in some of the larger dungeons.

Vindictus wasn't a very high-priority game on our radar originally, nevertheless, once we'd been to see it our opinion changed dramatically. I would say that I'd put this on my personal 'Games I'd like to Buy' list, but this is going to be free-to-play, and could be one of the first item mall titles that takes a reasonable amount of my hard earned money...