Vindictus is a new Free-to-Play MMO from Nexon. But, it’s not an MMO like most of what we’re used to seeing. In fact, Vindictus is a game with an interesting story, broken down into chapters paired with a fast-paced and immediate action based combat system. Instead of traditional MMORPG-like targeting and ability-keys, Vindictus is all about the hack and slash combat controlled with just a click (or fifty) of your mouse. The story is based in Celtic mythology, which personally I love, and the whole game is built on the Valve Source engine, so it runs beautifully. I could layout all the similarities between this game and the many other MMOs out there, but instead, let me tell you how Vindictus is different.

Vindictus has a character system that’s based around characters — not classes. This means you’ll choose between one of three characters. Each character is similar to the ones you’d find in your typical character class trifecta, close approximations to a tank, dps and a mage. Each character will level in ranks (1 through an as of yet undetermined level cap) and then be customizable with skills bought with ability points. The characters level doesn’t determine the skills or abilities available to them, just the places in the game they will have access to.

The environments in each chapter are completely destructable, or useable for destruction. So every barrel, crate, column ect can be smashed. Most of them can be picked up and smashed or thrown at your enemies like a weapon. And in some cases your can even hoist up defeated enemies and use them on current ones. Character armor is also destructible, meaning that eventually if you don’t watch yourself, your character might be running around in their “inner armor” AKA: underwear.

At launch the game will have two chapters each with different environments so it’ll feel like your character has moved or traveled somewhere new to start off on a new adventure. The game will not launch PvE only, but the team is looking at PvP abilities and that might be included in the game at a later date. As mentioned it’s also launching as Free-to-Play as all Nexon MMOs are. However, the micro-transactions available in the game (where they’re going to be making their money) doesn’t affect how you play the game, and will be mostly cosmetic.

Aside from the story and the difference in game play (which sounds more like Dragon Age and less like an MMO) the other thing I found interesting about Vindictus is the fact that the game is launching a little more aggressively here in North America than it’s other Nexon counterparts. Typically, games translated from the Korean market have a slow release here, appearing a year or more after it launches there, and there’s not a lot of changes made between the games. I’ve found in the past this sort of literal translation and localization of a game still has a sort of barrier to game play for North American players — it feels different to play, though we can’t always put our fingers on it. However, Vindictus has only been in Korea for about 6 months and after the game launches is estimated to catch up to the Korean releases in a year’s time. Also, the developers are planning game play changes, special events and special character titles that will be specific to North American players.

The Open Beta for Vindictus opens September 15th, and we’ve been told there will be a special difference to how this beta is handled when the first wave of codes goes out.

Seriously, I definitely think this is worth the time to try it out. Especially for those of you that might be fans of Dragon Age. I know I’ll be giving it a try again when the beta hits later this month. You’ll hear more from me when I have more than one instance under my belt.