Pretty good for a free to play game; A combo-riffic grind.
Normally, when I try a Korean MMORPG I'll run screaming due to the lack of actual depth in gameplay. I expect the communal focus of the people must overshadow the fact that the games themselves barely play like games at all.
However, Cabal Online was different. It was ultimately the combo system that fished me and had me ensnared for over a week. Granted after completing a quest at level 10 (about 2 hours grinding to get there) this system basically has you activate an attack hotkey at very precise moments for bonus damage.
The really fascinating thing about the combo system is that, unlike many MMORPGs, it actually challenges the player in a meaningful, visceral way. Getting over a 11-hit combo is difficult, a 20-hit combo genuinely brag-worthy. Most MMORPGs are about grinding away, the gameplay itself easily mastered. The combo system, in providing a bit of game to that was hard to master, was an incredible breath of fresh air!
Then they had to go and screw it up. You see, like many F2P MMORPGs, Cabal Online does not back off on the grind much. Leveling is relatively easy, but skill grinding, using sword or magic skills to gain sword and magic ranks, is fairly obscene. If you have the patience to be punching weak monsters for days then you might disagree, but I suspect that most players would rather be playing a game. Then the quests themselves keep escalating to genuinely mind numbing proportions: where you're killing 10 mobs at level 5, you'll be killing 100 by level 40.
This game might have kept me a little longer if the Aura and Battle Modes (granted at level 20 and 30), which are essentially powerful temporary buffs, did not prevent combo modes while they were active until past level 90 or so. A ridiculous limitation that essentially limited the appeal of the game's main selling feature, the combo system.
Overall, the game lasted me until I hit level 40, by then I was so bored of retreading the same three starting areas, killing 100 mobs at a time to complete a quest, that I just didn't care about the combo system anymore. A very good showing for a free to play game, but I've better things to do.