Vindictus

[Deleted1217574User]

Having a good friend who's suddenly become caught up in competitive gameplay, I keep hearing over and over about various new MMO's and other multiplayer games he comes across. I'm not usually very impressed, but I must say, Vindictus has certainly done just that. Like the description says, it's a game using the physics engine made by Valve, who have made games like Half-Life, Portal, and Left 4 Dead, if you don't know. Basically, it's got a really, really great physics system. But, what I think is the best part is the graphics. They're beautiful, and not just by MMO standards. For a free to play game... These rival Oblivion's, are even better, I think. Perhaps that's nothing special anymore, I'm not sure, since I haven't touched an MMO since giving up WoW a year ago. But damn, this game is nice. I really recommend checking it out. Character choices are limited at the moment, but the ones that are up are not only amazing looking, but fun to play. And the whole thing starts off with a beautiful cinematic (!!!!). I highly recommend checking it out. Even if you're not usually an MMO fan, like me, you may like Vindictus.

[Vagrant0]

Pretty sure it isn't valve... Positive infact. The game is released in North America under Nexon, and is developed by Devcat, a Korean developer, most well known for a sister mmo, Mabinogi which has been around for a few years now.

 

 

But yeah, fun game for what they've managed to get working.

Edited November 14, 2010 by Vagrant0

[Deleted1217574User]

Nah, it isn't actually from Valve, but it uses Valve's physics system. Open source, I guess? If you Google Vindictus, read the little blurb thing beneath it.

 

"The official site for Vindictus, the ultimate FREE fast action fighting massively multiplayer online game built on Valve's Source engine."

My bad, I guess "Source" is the name of the engine, but still.

[Jagermh]

Pretty sure it isn't valve... Positive infact. The game is released in North America under Nexon, and is developed by Devcat...

 

The physics engine is borrowed from valve, you can see it says valve in the video on the homepage.

The "Source" engine is valve's latest game engine and is used by games such as CS:S, L4D and TF2.

 

EDIT: Just downloaded it and it disconects me from the server when I try to start

[overlord22]

It was fun, just got really repetitive. Destructible environments was a nice touch though.

[Deleted1217574User]

Yeah, so I noticed =/ That's generally my problem with MMO's; after a while, it ceases to be exciting. That's why I prefer PC games the most, you can keep modding and adding on, to the point where sometimes, it's an entirely different game.

[Dark0ne]

Is this actually an MMO or is it one of these "MMOs" that just turns out to be a 32-player game with a massive game lobby? Similarly is it turn-based or is it real-time?

 

I'm waiting for the first true real-time MMO that doesn't fail hard (like Planetside).

[Deleted1217574User]

It's really an MMO, similar to WoW in that you can quest on your own, or group up to tackle dungeons with a party and whatnot. Entirely real time -- It isn't even auto-attack, you click to attack, press a key to cast spells, hold space to block. I haven't gotten out of the starting town yet, so I don't know if there's even an open-world or anything to explore, but you can hop on boats to different dungeons on different quests, as stated solo or grouped. Actually, it reminds me a lot of Dragon Age, both graphically and in terms of gameplay, just with more people.

 

The biggest problem (in my opinion) is character selection. Not even creation, but selection. Basically, you choose from one of three (two more to come) characters that have a different fighting style. There's a mage, a DPS, and a sword-and-shield character. While you can choose things like hair style, eye color, and expression (And also chest size on the women =/ =D) You can't change the sex of your character. So, essentially, you'll see large packs of three different people running around, all with slight variations. It works well enough, though.

 

There are also a couple balance issues, which are to expected as I think it only moved past Beta a month ago. For example, the mage character has a "magic shield" that protects you from damage, until it is worn away, at which point you begin taking actual health damage. However, it doesn't wear away very easily, and recovers over a short amount of time. I had a friend who reached level 10 without his health ever once dropping below maximum. I've yet to see any other similar issues, yet I'd be surprised if they aren't there.

[Vagrant0]

Is this actually an MMO or is it one of these "MMOs" that just turns out to be a 32-player game with a massive game lobby? Similarly is it turn-based or is it real-time?

 

I'm waiting for the first true real-time MMO that doesn't fail hard (like Planetside).

It is unfortunately one of those games where you are dealing with usually 3 other people at any time within isolated instanced maps. Although the 6 person raid instances are kinda cool, most of the game is just spent moving from one instanced map to another with the town just serving as a lobby. The fact that many instances are either timed or just rushed through prevents most socialization. There really isn't all that much foundation for player interaction even in the lobby between the constant shifting around of players across one of 90 servers that handle the lobby and usually there's some bot spamming. The crafting system is a bit limited since you can only craft things which your character type can equip, what is open for crafting is based on what maps you've run, and you often have to run the same map a dozen or so times just to get one of those items that you actually need (damn ice crystals). Added to it with requiring all trades to go though an impersonal market board or mail, and the inability to re-sell items which were bought/traded through those means, and it has a very single player-like experience.

 

Although there is a foundation for guilds and many guilds try to run instances together, there really isn't all that much benefit to this since you cannot run through instances you havn't unlocked yet, and unlocking new instances either requires a quest, a certain level, or having run through previous instances enough times to meet certain criteria. So the best that a higher level player can do for a lower level player is just help them run instances that they normally could do with randoms... but a bit faster.

 

All that aside, there is a certain amount of fun associated with just running around killing stuff with pottery and breaking as much as you can. The physics engine is really where the game shines in being able to destroy parts of the environment, smack around baddies, or just impale your friends (assuming you have any and that they happen to be in the same map). The combat is real time and becomes fairly dependent on player skill, but still makes use of RPG type statistics for determining the effectiveness of attacks and what moves are available. Most of the combat stuff however is a bit limited since your character determines what weapons, equipment, and skills you can use, and leaves you with only one or two archetypes within that character set. Many of the more advanced skills are also not currently implemented so you tend to see a lot of people wearing the same equipment, using the same weapons, and with the same skill set. There is also a lack of a pvp option, so there isn't much room for bragging rights short of what titles you have grinded to get.

 

It's less of a MMO, and more of a game which one could play when they have 15 minutes to kill and want to have a little bit of action without being too involved in all the related processes (like WoW where it can take 5+ hours to get a competent raid together to do a level once).

[Dark0ne]

Sounds like it's Guild Wars with a bit of real-time combat. Dull instanced landscapes with a big lobby town that some how makes it an MMO.