We Just Played Vindictus

There are a few new updates to discuss for Vindictus, such as the game's open beta status and new cash-op--the in-game store that lets you trade real money for in-game items. The cash-op lets you primarily purchase only two types of items: convenience items, such as various potions that can aid your progress or platinum tokens that will let you take extra trips on the game's boats; and superficial apparel items (primarily clothes, hats, and boots) that don't affect your character's power level at all, except for a few types of special inner armor (again, underwear) that increases your character's luck score. This, in turn, increases the chances that monsters will more often drop better loot for you.

The biggest update, however, is the upcoming addition of Evie, the game's third playable character. Evie is a female wizard who begins her career wielding a magic staff, which she can use to pummel her enemies in melee combat. Her greater strength, though, is her magic spells, which can include swift, fiery projectiles and slow-burn, close-range detonations, as well the ability to summon magical companions to aid her in battle. We tried out the staff-wielding Evie ourselves in a play session with several Nexon staffers and planned to skillfully time and place our magic spells. But that all went out the window in minutes once we landed in the new zone of Ainle, a town attacked and burned by hordes of troll-like monsters. Once the monsters started spawning, the action got hectic, and it took us a bit of time to get used to Evie's options of casting damaging spells from a distance, summoning (and then hiding behind) her golem companion (which forms itself out of any nearby environmental debris, such as stray brooms, barrel fragments, and rocks), and poking enemies with her staff, which was, given how fragile she is, a last resort.