Aion is Where I Wanna BeFebruary 25th, 2008 by Gloria
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As Spring approaches I grow more anxious about the impending release of Aion: Tower of Eternity for the PC. This game has been on my “Oh God, OH GOD I want this game” list since one of my good friends sent me a few links to the videos of it from E3. It’s been in development for a good while, while the company making it has released tantalizing details sporadically so as to keep the drooling public (me) hooked and on the edge of our seats until it does come out.
I’m not going to compare Aion to any other MMORPGs on the market because doing so would be foolish and detrimental to all MMOs out there. Each online game, as far as I’ve seen, has brought something wholly unique to the gaming table as a whole, and comparing them in a bizarre contest just does them a huge disservice. Some people like World of Warcraft, others like Guild Wars. Saying any one is better than others based on any criteria (be it number of players, graphical capabilities, etc.) just doesn’t work. Surely there is a standard that all MMORPGs aspire to reach, but if they were all carbon copies of each other. Well. That would be pretty damn boring.
Aion is being developed by NCsoft which is famous for its other titles like Guild Wars, City of Heroes/Villains, and Tabula Rasa. Truthfully I’m a bit wary of the company myself. I do understand that within NCsoft are several different studios that work individually on their own projects under the general umbrella of the NCsoft name. However, my experience with their games in the past has been a lot of glitter and not too much substance. Keep in mind, these are my opinions. Several friends of mine absolutely adore City of Heroes/Villains. For me, though, the most exciting part of the game was the character creation. Actually leveling and playing said character became a chore after level 2 when I realized those drab office buildings weren’t going to be replaced by any startling landscapes. (I also got a little sick of seeing cheap knockoff characters like Pullverine and Pooperman) I felt somewhat the same way about Guild Wars, as well. I just hit a PVE ceiling and there’s only so much armor dye that can keep me amused.
That said, Aion’s development is unique in that the game designers have actually constantly asked for input into the game’s structure since its debut at E3 ‘06. Specifically, at the E3 preview, people could only fly in designated areas. After asking for general critiques, the overwhelming reply from the audience was, “Why can’t we fly anywhere we want?” Their response?
“Good point.”
So now one of Aion’s selling points is free-form flying available relatively close to the start of the game. (Level 20, which most MMO players know is a drop in the bucket) There’s no reputation or money farming involved. No mounts either. And you can fly pretty much anywhere, including major cities. That excites me.
The visuals in the game are absolutely stunning, even on the lowest setting. It uses Crytek’s CryENGINE, which may sound like alien-speak to some, but it basically means that the stunning visuals will interface almost flawlessly with your computer. In short: Smooth, pretty running. You will fly over gorgeous landscapes without that annoying hiccup as your processor tries to find the ‘landtexture34234.bmp’ file.
The game-play hinges on skill combos. Basically, you can’t stand in one place hitting your fireball key. Well, you could, but I doubt anyone would want to take you anywhere. Now, let me explain. When I play MMOs, I play to feel epic. I want everything I do to be huge and amazing. I want the ground to shake when I cause an explosion, I want monsters to tremble in fear! In most other games, I haven’t found this. It’s hard to feel epic when you’re one of 5 people standing in one spot making a pretty sparkly rainbow of colors explode and they somehow manage to do unimpressive damage.
Aion’s skill combos look and feel (yes feel) epic. The assassins literally rip through their targets. Oh, and get this, their spellcasters actually cast using their spellbooks. What a novel concept. And as one of my best friends said, “Wow, they actually made polearms look cool and not be a completely useless weapon set.” MMyep.
As if that wasn’t tantalizing enough. Aerial combat. There I said it. Aion is going to be both a PVP and PVE centered game with aerial combat playing a large role. Yes, you can PVP in the air. It literally adds a whole new dimension to your gaming.
Now the part of the game that has me genuinely entranced. Most MMO worlds are programmed to be linear. No matter how many times you do that quest, or beat that boss, it’s eventually going to come back and the world isn’t going to be any different. Aion’s world revolves around the three factions (Two playable, one NPC) vying for dominance over the planet. Whichever faction starts to turn the tides of battle, well, to the victor go the spoils. The planet starts to reflect whoever is doing the most for it. How cool is that? Seriously?
There are two playable factions, like I said. They represent light and dark, but not in a good vs. evil sense. One side of the planet is literally darker than the other. The third faction is comprised of dragonlike creatures who will also try to gain control over the world. Sometimes these NPCs may help you, sometimes you may have to team up to beat them. It’s all really dynamic.
There are also some smaller features that are pretty cool. You can fuse armor together to gain stats but keep the look of a particularly cool helmet that you liked. Elemental pets evolve as their casting counterparts grow in level, etc.
The only thing I’m not fond of is the emote system. The emotes the characters use are just…not…normal emotes. They don’t seem fluid at all. But hey, it is a fantasy world I guess.
So I guess I sound like a total fangirl. I kind of am, but I’m not going to put all my eggs in one basket. I’m hoping that Aion lives up to the reputation it’s gained. (At least with me) But I’ve learned that having too high expectations for something often leads one to be let down.
Oh, release date? Yeah they haven’t set a solid one for releases outside Korea yet. The tentative schedule is around Q2 2008, but hey! If any of you crazy NCsoft people are reading this and want to shoot me a beta invite…wink wink nudge nudge!
February 25th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
One thing I’ve always hated was having the same attack graphics from creating your character until the end. It looks like this might break that mold
February 25th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
Oh lord yes. And it actually looks like the characters are like, putting effort into doing the skills. Not standing on one spot lazily extending an arm in order to conjure a spell of mass destruction. No! In Aion they actually concentrate and put effort into it!
February 26th, 2008 at 3:42 am
This game looks absolutely amazing. I’m feeling very tempted, even though I am waiting for Warhammer Online.
Any idea on how it will work? Meaning, will it be like Guild Wars where you pay for the game/expansions and have no monthly fee and there’s not much grind involved, or will it be like Lineage, where grind seemed to be everywhere?
If it’s like Guild Wars, I am so there.
February 26th, 2008 at 3:58 am
Okay, Iwasn’t finding info on fees before I posted my previous comment, but found the answer to my question on the Wikipedia entry:
“At the moment the game is priced, according to NCsoft, at $14.99/month flat fee but this may be subject to change.”
February 26th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
Aion looks gorgeous. If it’s not just another pretty Asian grind-fest, I’mm totally check it out. Though I’m sad there are no pet classes. =(
February 26th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Yeah that’s the one thing I’m worried about Korean MMOs tend to just be about grinding. No questing or anything really. The only pet class I’ve seen is the spiritmaster, as they control their spirits in battles. Maybe the ranger too? None of the closed beta videos get into rangers very much.
I don’t mind monthly fees. I already am a slave to Blizzard’s money machine, heh.
February 27th, 2008 at 3:06 am
The fee itself isn’t the problem, it’s just that I see a bad tendency for the monthly fee MMOs to have a lot of grind involved (because the longer you take to achieve anything, the more money they’ll get), while in the non-fee games like Guild Wars you don’t have to grind much.
Anyway I will wait and see what comes out and then decide.
February 27th, 2008 at 10:04 am
The gameplay looks like a wrapper on WoW from the e3 video, to be honest.
Observing the wikipedia, it’s a pvp endgame. Bleh.
hope you like it though!
April 11th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Hey, I was linked to this and saw that there are still some unanswered Q’s within the comments so I thought I’d give you guys some answers.
As far as skills are concerned, NCSoft just posted a new video (class preview) with updated skill effects. It seems like they have been working really hard to make a great game better as we impatiently wait. You can see the video in HD here: http://media.curse.com/dl2/47/50/31.wmv/aion_classes_hd.wmv It may take a min or two to dl but is well worth the wait.
It is true that this game will likely be set up like L2 with monthly fees but free expansions bi-annually. I prefer this as I usually have multiple accounts and prefer not to have to go buy an expansion for all of them. Also the content in any single update in L2 contained as much content as you would expect out of a true expansion, so it’s not disappointing.
Leveling has been stated as being a bit tougher than WoW but nothing like L2. This seems to be a good curve because any decent gamer could cap out in WoW and only a select few could ever claim the same for L2. They have said the quest content will attribute to leveling quite a bit and PvPing also gives you exp, so it seems you will have many options for gaining those levels. They have made a point of saying that you can make it to max level both inside and out of the Abyss (RvR PvP zone) as well, although they have been adamant in saying that the PvE inside the Abyss will be better and provide its rewards.
“The gameplay looks like a wrapper on WoW from the e3 video, to be honest.” -vlion
I could not disagree with this more. Although they share similar structures, as almost all MMOs do, it is unfair to say this game is anything like WoW. This game has a much more immersive and mature gameplay in a pretty unique high fantasy world. I will however agree that PvP is a very large part of the game, I don’t see how you can consider it endgame. The PvP will begin as soon as you start leveling in the Abyss and will be integral to not only provide personal growth but legion (same as clan and guild) growth. The points accumulated through PvP, and possibly various other ways, is required to gain PvP rank which will open up rank specific skills, as well as legion levels which allows expansion and abilities for you and your legion mates, and lastly it will allow you to earn Draconic Items which are said to be equivalent to high end gear. There will be plenty of PvP end game, but it is also a major means throughout the game to get to that end.
A couple of things that were not mentioned were skills that have been designed specifically for aerial combat, such as rocketing off and intercepting a flying enemy, then slamming him into the ground, as well as a dive bomb type move to strike a non flying opponent from the sky.
The second feature, which is also the most unique, is the Stigma System. This system, which has been compared to the Materia System in FF7, will allow players to add proficiencies and possibly skills to their character that they would not normally have. They have kept this system in the dark so we are unable to determine its affect on the game, but it is a very fun idea with almost endless possibilities for making your character more dynamic and being able to tweak yourself into a hybrid of sorts to fit your own playstyle.
I hope this helps those interested in Aion. If you want a lot more info and healthy discussion of the latest and most correct info, then you should check out AionSource.com.
-Matt
April 21st, 2008 at 4:29 am
I came back to this entry after YouTubing some Aion vids and playing that certain music from Aiononline.com on loop for ages. The game looks absolutely stunning. Ironically enough, I was directed to the website from a huge topic requesting fixes for the hunter class on the official WoW forums.
The rangers in Aion look really awesome and just watching the combat made me go “I want to play this game!!” I really enjoy the epic, fast paced combat style that the characters seem to have.
May 15th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
o0o0o0o I am enticed by this game.. not gonna lie.. it sounds fun and looks beautiful!!
I never even heard about it before I read this (n00bzor? hehe) but now I’m all about trying to find out more about it. I’m not even an MMORPG player AT ALL.. never played WoW or any of the other games that are frequently mentioned on this site XP
But this game.. something makes me want to try it.