If you like hack and slash games I highly recommend Vindictus. You can find it at http://vindictus.nexon.net/.

To start off I’m not personally impressed by the character customization but its not too bad either. I just imagine the future could bring a whole lot more.

You’ll start off the game in the Prologue which isn’t necessary but is a nice quick way of not only throwing you into the action while giving you the few explanations of game-play but also jumping you into the storyline immediately and showing off some pretty nice graphics and a hint at whats to come in the future dungeons by pitting you against your first “boss” pretty quickly.

For any experienced gamer starting out should be easy. After the Prologue to the story of the game you’ll start off in the basic town where you can start picking up available quests. The quests are obvious on the mini map and inside the buildings where you talk to the NPC’s by showing a yellow chat bubble with an exclamation mark or question mark indicating whether you have a quest to obtain or turn in. Interacting with NPC’s may seem like its taken a step back but personally I enjoy the old school RPG feel of it, the simpleness of it enables you to just keep in the action without having to run around gigantic cities and literally spend hours flying between different quest NPC’s. For some people that will be a downside but don’t forget that the main premise of this game is pure hack and slash.

There’s a lot going on with the interface but thankfully it’s also very easy to understand and follow. Interacting with buildings and NPC’s is as simple as just walking your character up to it. When you want to go in a building you just walk up to the blue lit area that marks the doors and you automatically enter it. Anything you want to interact with you just walk up to it aside from looting items and dungeons and ya know, tapping your left click button to swing away.

Starting a dungeon is a bit different than some games I’ve experienced but that was also pretty simple to figure out for any experienced gamer. Of course the NPC’s tell you where to go and everything but sometimes if you’re new maybe you forgot. You’ll go to the “docks” and will be able to either join other peoples missions or start your own. There are bulletin boards in which you start these missions. You simply walk close enough to the bulletin and you’ll immediately see the available games that other people have started up and are waiting for others or you can Launch your own game and select the missions you want to do, how many people you want to be able to join or just play solo.

The RPG elements are there but very basic which is something I can appreciate in a hack and slash game. You earn “AP” through doing missions and bonus achievements in a dungeon and it is how you improve your characters damage done, damage taken, lower the chance you get knocked down, increases your chance to dodge and so on. Its basic stuff that allows you to enhance your character but still always be on the move and kickin butt. The skills you decide to enhance can only be done one at a time, its not a big deal tho as you really only need to enhance 1 skill at a time anyways. The skills will take more and more AP the higher you advance them. You can only have 100 AP at one time so you just want to keep spending it as you earn it pretty much.

You’ll start off with all your basic gear which includes the secondary weapon. I wanted to mention the secondary weapon because its actually quite fun and although you only need it on bosses I feel that makes it even more fun because depending on your secondary weapon they have different effects on the bosses. Hacking and slashing a boss down is plausible for most, but you’ll definitely want to use secondary weapons because these bosses can destroy you if given the chance. Spears can stun them, you can use a grappling hook to drag them to the ground as your team-mates slash away, its pretty neat. These secondary weapons do come with limited uses per dungeon.

Gear is obtained through quests and also through “crafting” although the crafting is not done by you the player. You bring the NPC’s the materials and they will craft your gear for you. I suggest you just keep all the items you get while playing from the start no matter how lame you may think they are. You can get some cash for selling them on the auction house or vendoring to the NPC’s but you should make enough cash without having to do that, and you may regret having sold those items you got earlier on.
However you can also buy the gear off the auction house so its really up to you on how you manage your in game money. Your inventory will seem like its filling up fast and it may feel overwhelming, but you’ll be fine.

Fast paced non stop action in 3-D, easy to jump right in any time you want.