Aion

[Syntax1985]

i know theres a few old aion threads but i thought id make a new one as a review + feed back from others playing beta.

 

well i bought the Aion beta key from my local GAME store ( uk ) it was only £2 so i thought what the heck. i was pretty anoyed to be honest to get home, open the case and find a card inside the case with my key, nothing else. which ment i had to then download a 9gb instalation file to play. so keep that in mind before anyone grabs the beta set from shops.

 

i wasnt expecting alot from aion to be honest, im looking forward to much for KOTOR online to care about much else at the moment. and my first impressions were a bit "meh" when looking at the site.

 

character creation is what really peaked my intrest, you pick from one of two factions ( simular to wow ) and one of four classes ( which each split into 2 differnt choices later on ), being one of those rare wierd peopel that actually really enjoys playing a healer, i took the role as priest.

 

as far as skill sets go, character creation had none. although its rare in mmo's i did see this in conan, ragnorak and a couple of others, i like to be able to choose stats etc. but that aside, the creation is very advanced and pretty much garentees no 2 characters will look alike, which is always a plus for me.

 

{ Note, i havnt rescalled these images from a 1920 resolution, so may take time to load on slower net connections }

 

Character creation screen basic

Character creation screen advanced

 

Another nice thing for those of you that hate going into so much detail, there are tons of preset heads + bodys to choose from, so its still easy to get the character you want.

 

i entered the game expecting to be grinding for 500 hours to get to level 2 after playing NCsofts lineage 2 game, or hitting max level in 5 minutes, Cough guild wars :P

 

but it seems after many years, NCsoft have finally found the perfect balance between leveling, and the curve is wonderful. it took me about 4 hours to hit level 10, which is were you choose your proper class ( for me as a priest i had the choice between chanter ( buffer ) or Cleric ( healer ) ) and it didnt seem tedious at all, the quests were fun, and theres alot of movies ( guild wars style ) to make a compelling storyline.

 

the game play again is very customizable, you can play modern type W,A,S,D run arround jumping + killing movement, or quickly change to baldurs gate birds eye click and move. and everythign between.

 

which is what the strongest point of Aion is, its freedom to the player. play who you want, how you want. nt to mention the game is designed to run on pretty much all systems.

 

im playing on max specs and at first i thought the graphics should be better, but then i remebered Conan, and what a flop that was because only 5% of the worlds population could play it. and only 0.001% wanted to.

 

aion, although maybe not super HD and enough bloom comming off your screen to give u a suntan, does have the guildwars + lineage 2 attention to detail, the characters look great and the scenery is very diverse.

 

My character in max settings

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anyway back to gameplay, the whole "flying" thing turned out to be gimmick, you can only fly in certain zones and for a limited time. this is normally based on quests arround flying ( killing flying monsters etc ) and mass pvp between the 2 factions is mainly done in-air. however when you are flying, you have full control over where you go, which is fun in a game this size. another thing is there is actually stuff in the sky, its not just you flying in a open air boring sim, theres places to go, peopel to see etc, so although limited, it is a huge aspect of the game.

 

weeee im flying

This is what gives the game an edge, the wanting to explore'ness

 

The people in the game seem very helpful, friendly and chatty, but you have to keep in mind this is beta, everythigns for "fun" here, in the real game your going to have power gamer's, self declared "pro's" gold sellers etc, but somethign that is very nice is how well the party system works, exp is boosted ( as in most mmo's) but the classes just ALL seem to work with each other, theres no "omfg hes a rouge, ditch him hes useless in a party" they all seemed designed to fill a purpose in group gameplay.

 

The game is "expensive" im getting about 40coins per kill, it costs 500 for the mana potions for my level ( 11 ), so not the most pleasent marketing world, i cnt comment to much about trade as no one does it ( beta-laziness) but there are jobs ( gathering /crafting) so i guess theyre trying to place more emphasis on buying from players rather then npc shops.

 

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Conclusion -

 

i actually am really enjoying myself playing this game, which is something i couldnt of said about other mmo's ive played recently. im enjoying the storyline enough to want to knwo what will happen next, im enjoying exploring this diverse world, im enjoying the quests, as there kinda WoW style ( not all "go kill 5 of this" "go take this pie 50,000 miles to fred the pie eater for 5exp" etc although theres obviously some of that in there) grouping is a joy due to compatabilty between classes, and the play style feels "loose", i dont feel the need to whck out a pocket calculator and start running numbers on how to get the highest magical crit etc.

 

if you took the questing system from wow, the storyline system from guild wars the beatifully detailed world from lineage 2 and the character styling from final fantasy online, and whacked em in a blender, youd have Aion. and its one nice tasting smoothi.

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Am i going to pay 2 play this game on release? prob not, im going to see if i "miss it", ive got my heart set on KOTOR online to be honest.

 

Do you recommend i buy the beta ? 101% yes, its well worth it for just £2, and you also get a free hat that gives + exp bonus and a fire emote on the real game when launched, that is of course, you can stomach the 9gb download.

 

Is this going to beat wow? of course not, wow has to many fan boys. but based on purely fun / diversity / storyline etc, it already has in my books.

 

( Seriously, i dont want wow fan boys posting here saying im wrong, this is my PERSONAL opinion, take it somewhere else.)

 

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This is my first ever proper attempt at a review so i hope its helpfull to some people. ive only scratched the surface of this game but if youd like to know anything in paticular, please ask below and il do my best to answer A.S.A.P.

 

id love to know what others have thought that have tried Aion, and what others who havnt impressions are of the game.

[overload1977]

i have been watching this game for over a year and it MAY be the new wow but yea i think KOTOR online will be great :)

 

aion looks nice but will will have to wait and see how good it gets after beta :)

 

and how much is it going to cost a month ??? if it under 10 pounds i may play it

[Vagrant0]

and how much is it going to cost a month ??? if it under 10 pounds i may play it

I believe there was talk of it being f2p, but with one of those cash shops where people can buy instant power. Unfortunately this seems to be where a good majority of recent MMOs have been going, one way or another. It's an asian based MMO, so the chances of this are about as high as the chances of you needing to grind your ass off for a level after you've advanced past the "newbie" point. The real grinding probably isn't implemented yet so that people can betatest end game content.

[Syntax1985]

well this games been out in korea for a while now ( i think 2 years ) and so far no mention as of yet of free to play, im assuming it will be £10 per month.

 

not being funny but far to much money went into making this game to make a profit soley from peopel paying £3 here and there for a in game T-shirt.

 

Depends if it flops of not. so far NCsoft have no free to play games in such a money ( cash item store ) however they do offer slight inhancements for cash E.G = Guildwars - buy bonus missions, extra character slots, skill unlocks = non of them unbalance game to normal players.

 

Tabula Rasa was a huge flop for NCsoft and even that remains pay 2 play.

 

 

Edit: just found this =

 

~: Source AionOnline.com {F.A.Q} :~

 

How much will Aion cost?

We anticipate Aion will be similar to our other subscription-based games, featuring a boxed product and associated subscription fees.