by Jeff Woleslagle on Jun 13, 2011
Karok, the giant of the south, will be the game's fourth playable
character and the first new character since the game launched last
September. As the only player character able to grab an opponent and
enact all kinds of creative damage, from hilarious drop kicks to
swinging the enemy like a baseball bat into a pillar and much more,
Karok adds a new level of physicality to Nexon's already brutal stable
of Vindictus
characters.
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Queen's Glory
armor.
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Southern Winter
armor.
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Swift
armor.
But there's more to Karok than meets the dropkicking thigh. Karok
carries a shield that’s more used for bashing - like a club
– rather than a shield. Accordingly, Producer Jae Ho Hwang
called the stone-like chunk a Pillar. Watching over my shoulder, Jae
showed me how to “pillar charge”, twirl the pillar
in a “whirlwind” attack, and even sling it at a
faraway enemy. When Karok flings his Pillar, he enters
“unarmed mode” – with slightly more
attack power than usual. At that point, Karok can either stay
fisticuffs, pick up random stuff lying around to use as a weapon a la
classic Vindictus
style, or retrieve his Pillar.
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Karok laying some lumber with
a Bash attack!
Starting at level 40, Karok starts receiving a bonus point per level
that he can place in either the Paladin or Dark Knight skill tree.
Early in the demo level (too early - before Jae could explain the
effect), I hit the Z key, and after a straining, energy-crackling
transformation right out of
style="font-style: italic;">Soul Calibur,
and Karok turned from a melee/healing oriented Paladin into the highly
damaging Dark Knight form. Jae explained that there’s a major
drawback, however – at the end of two minutes, all of
Karok’s armor breaks as he returns to Paladin form. So, while
powerful, this is an effect based save for the bitter end of a boss
fight.
At the higher levels, Karok gets access to spells like the
area-of-effect devastator Earthquake and Boss Grab. A well-timed press
of the E key allows Karok to grab bosses while their down and give
style="font-style: italic;">Vindictus’s
toughest enemies the same sort of grabby, drop-kicky, wall-smashy
treatment. You’ll have to be on the ball, though –
I wasn’t able to trigger the effect during the demo boss
fight, though I did see the prompt flash several times.
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A Whirlwind attack.
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Grabbing a boss!
Karok enters
style="font-style: italic;">Vindictus
this Wednesday, June 15th, and he’ll need all his skills to
take on the Succubus – one of the new bosses slated for
Update 5. Unfortunately, the Succubus wasn’t a part
of the demo, but her bed-thrashing cosplay representation formed the
centerpiece of the Nexon booth at E3. According to Jae,
she’ll make her appearance in
style="font-style: italic;">Vindictus
in August.
Between then and now, players have plenty of time to level up Karok and
learn all his skills. Thanks to Jae Ho Hwang and the Nexon team for a
quick look at Karok at E3 2011.