For someone that discovered Nexon through their cutesy card game and family-friendly online MMO Maplestory, the latest roster of games are a bit of surprise. The headliner for this change appears to be Vindictus, an ambitious MMO that stresses action and visual flair. Vindictus uses the Source engine, which allows for multiple destructible elements in the game, including environments and armor. The result is a game that plays like a combination of your third-person action game of choice, and the typical MMO. There's really nothing typical about the way that Nexon is doing MMOs, including their focus on releasing all games as free-to-play.

Crumbling environments can damage characters and can be used during battle to damage monsters. As armor is destroyed during battle, it will eventually reveal under-armor layers and player will take more damage. In the demonstration at E3, we saw characters using lots of combos during battle, as well as secondary weapons and grabs. Some of the actions are even accompanied by dramatic cut scenes, blurring the line between what has traditionally been a static set of options during MMO gameplay. Nexon shared with us that Vindictus features four classes during characters selection at this time, with others being added along the way. The trailer that accompanied our demo included a cool mage character that will be playable at a later date.

The "big idea" behind Vindictus is how well it merges action gameplay with the typical MMO mindset. Players can dive in and explore with a party, or solo their way through familiar territory. There are plenty of things in each area of the game that can kill or seriously hurt a person, making Vindictus a great opportunity for some inspired cooperative gameplay across well-networked teams. The larger purpose behind your battles in Vindictus isn't clear to us yet, but we liked what we saw, and hope to get our hands on the game when it launches this Fall.