AION Closed Beta First impression [Review]
I was actually kind of worried when I approached Aion. The current trend in domestic games is that they try too hard to imitate mainstream games, and I was actually concerned about Aion turning out to be a complete copycat or similar enough to be called a clone.
Twelve PM
Upon first contact I yelled out yay. Of course, it was out of excitement rather than satisfaction. The characters were as sexy as Johnny Depps buttocks and made sense of the saying if being beautiful was a sin, the punishment would have been overly cruel. It was so pretty that it made me wanna give it a nice little whack in the noggins. Depending on the choice, it was possible to make your character as ugly as an Orc, so it would appeal to those who enjoy a wild style of aesthetics as well.
Now, lets explore the world of Aion more in-depth. The review is based on the Closed Beta version of Aion so keep this in mind when reading this.
Character Customization
The blizzard from the west seems to have completely revolutionized our trend in online gaming. Many ugly players in real life that at least wanted their characters to be pretty were poked fun at by groups who eventually changed the phrase Im into this kind of stuff into meaning Ill dig my grave so please bury me gently. Aions character customization is not much different from other online games.
But, keep on spamming that Ramdomise button and you just might find the face of your long-lost brother; its just that likeable. Staying true to NC-style.
caption: its not baskin robbins but theres fun in picking your flavour
Hair, face, special feature 1 & 2, hair colour, eye colour, skin colour, voice. Total eight combinations are present to meet your customization needs. Its diverse to the extent that you just might mistake your character for an Asmodian or Kim Yong Man.
Freedom
Freedom of movement is determined by whether u can jump over that rock in front of you or not. Unbelievable, but a number of online games released in 07 allow you to jump but not was it only impossible to jump over a knee-height fence, but you couldnt walk back down from the hill you climbed up earlier.
Visibly, Aion allows you to walk over or jump over things. (there are a few places you cant go on top of but they seem more like bugs) After getting your class transfer, you even get wings so theres enough of freedom of movement.
Then what about freedom of leveling? I decided to pump out two level 10 characters, one by doing quests and the other by grinding. The result? Quests were a bit faster. Since one was a warrior and the other a mage, there may have been a few class-based differences, but there were no visible differences. Quests also gave you money and rewards which made it much more worthwhile.
Freedom in contents isnt quite sufficient yet, but since only contents up to level 10 is available so its a bit too early to judge. According to Team Leader Ji Yong Chan, Aions contents start at the max level. (Ah, Déjà vu).
Caption: NC-Scale name length! (caption reads: my naming sense has no mercy, be prepared)
Graphics
There are two embarrassing things about picking in, one is your nose and the other is graphics. WoW is known for having a world thats alive and breathing. Aions graphics are very detailed and artistic. Its an upgrade from Lineage 2 and theyve added tons of new emotes. If there was a game that would make your girlfriend fall in love instantly, that would be Aion.
One negative aspect about the graphics is that when you run through the world of Aion, it feels like your character is sliding on an ice rink, almost to the point of looking like its floating. The environment and characters dont seem to be in complete harmony either. This was a problem frequently pointed out since Lineage 2, so it was greatly improved, but still seems to need work.
Technically speaking, Lineage 2 used the Unreal engine and Aion used the Cry engine. Cry engines used for FPS games, and it was praised for its ability through a game called Far Cry. Many have pointed out that the engine isnt suited for an MMORPG but the Aion team have modified the engine to suit Aion.
Controls
Steven Seagal has two types of skills. One is breaking the neck and the other is a roundhouse kick. You can break a neck whenever you want, but you cant perform a roundhouse kick as freely. As you are breaking the bad guys necks mercilessly your roundhouse kick icon will light up, and this is when you use your roundhouse kick. Aion calls this combo system.
This needs to be worked on more. It activates randomly so its rather difficult to use strategically and the effects and damage are identical to normal attacks there really isnt an apparent reason to use it. Controls need a little fix as well. Due to the auto-attack system, moving is possible, but you dont really feel the NEED to move your character. There are parry and block options, but you can block from any angle, even facing away from the enemy, but it will still block so there really is no point in turning around to fight.
Caption (top): Im hitting you because I care. If I were angry, Id hit you with a combo.
Caption (bottom): Combo system is present but theres not enough reason for you to use it.
Control plays a very important role in MMORPG. For example, theres a monster called Chuck Norris who can use a roundhouse kick so powerful that you cant slay him alone. You can do so easily by joining a party, but it takes time. Thats why you need control.
Lets say you use up all your cool down time skills to drain his health and drink pots or use bandages when necessary. With the right timing, use your skills with precision to knock out Chuck Norris. This is what control is all about.
Lets have a grand finale.
[Public 1.]StevenSeagal: looking for someone to help me kill chuck norris
[Public 1.]EvilZombie: lol its easy I killed him alone
[Public 1.]StevenSeagal: omg
Well, I suppose its too early to say this and that about controls when youre just a lowbie with only 5-6 skills, but its not like you suddenly master the controls once youre at max level. The combat aspect of the game, as of now, doesnt provide enough excitement. If your health drops down, drink pot and bandage yourself. Striking the enemy feels good but since the overall difficulty is low it feels kind of boring at times. Since there are player feedbacks coming up as we speak, it would be better to get these fixed during the closed beta.
Stigma System
Lets say theres a baseball bat with a hole and you stick in a stone that says <+ Fireball> into the hole and it makes the warrior wielding the bat able to shoot fireballs. Its similar to FF7s materia system. Aion calls it Stigma system. During the frontier tests, however, only socketed items were available and not the jewels themselves so we couldnt really experience it.
Knockbacks, suspending the enemy into the air, knocking out the enemy and things like that can be granted through stigma. It might just be a waste if youre socketing things like +10 strength though.
Caption: Stigma System
RVR Abyss & RVR
(Caption) Tabs: My info/stigma/Abyss/Title
Abyss Point: 0 AP
Abyss Rank 0
Abyss Gauge
This is the real thing. Its not a battle that takes place in an instance with 10v10 or 40v40. Several hundreds participate under a few commanders for an objective. Games that have been commended for features like this are Lineage and the Dark Age of Camelot. The features been dying out recently but it sure has created some pretty crazy legends in those games. People went as far as to broadcast the sieges real-time.
Caption: Lineages sieges were incredible.
Caption: Those who have experienced DAOCs RVR know what the fun of mass pvp is.
The problem here is technicality. Such a pressure on the server could crash it or lag it. Knowing NCSoft, theyve pulled off sieges with over 1,000 players in Lineage 2, so this probably isnt going to be a problem.
Now they just need to give the motivation to fight in the Abyss. Aion developers are currently developing the game with the Abyss as its central focus.
Its not an exaggeration to say that the success of the game depends on how well they design the Abyss. Abyss can only be tested AFTER they implement the Asmodians into the game, so we dont know anything about how this works yet.
Titles
Mike Tyson has two titles; one is nuke fist and the other nuke teeth. Its not something you give yourself, you have to satisfy certain conditions. One game thats known for the title system is Mabinogi. Aion seems to have adopted this system, but it really isnt anything important so thatll just be it for now.
Sound
I could give the game 90 out of 100 for the sounds. Frankly I dont know much about music, Ive only listened to Nirvana and Radiohead back in the army then I havent really listened to any music since.
Aions OST sounds very mystical to someone like me who doesnt really know music at all. The music was done by Ryo Kunihiko; click on the link below for any more specifics.
Soul stones, the successor to soulshots?
Whatever game it is, MMORPGs always have a form of money sink in the game. WoW has repair cost, and without a form of money sink the economy will become inflated.
In Aion, its potions and soul stones. Majority of the players who have reached level 10 have stated that soul stones arent really needed. To say it simply, due to the low difficulty of the game, its sufficient to kill everything with normal attacks or just skills alone.
At this rate, the soul stones in Aion will probably become a PVP or raid item. The price will probably be fixed accordingly. If you make 2000 gold an hour, 250 gold isnt all that much for the cost. But, if you make 500 an hour and the soul stone costs 250, then its a different story. If its like Lineage 2 and the soulshots take up 1/3 of your income, itll just become an annoying burden of a system.
ts too early to be worrying over this. Aion at its current state offers you an easy experience getting your equipments through rewards from quests and drops. Soulshots formed the center of the economy in L2, but it isnt so for Aion. Its closer to buff potions found in WoW, where people searched the auctionhouse for them to use right before an RVR or a raid. Dont start ripping out your hair just yet. Your hair is important. Youll feel it when you get older.
Optimization
The optimization is done really well. It was a little choppy in major cities, but it ran at 30 frames per second in normal fields. Go with the recommended specs rather than the minimum requirement.
Caption: My PCs specs (bottom half)
Caption: Detailed and beautiful graphics
Conclusion
It isnt fresh, but it is very chewy.
This is my review. Aion doensnt have anything fresh or revolutionizing (of course up to level 10). All the contents were limited and features such as stigma, abyss, interaction system were nowhere to be seen YET, but the basic frame for those features were well set-up. New skills given every time you level really made leveling worthwhile. There were as many quests as there are cowpies on a farm. Divided into missions (story driven) and quests, finishing them one by one was really interesting. They expanded on WoWs quest system by adding in cutscenes as well. Location tracking system was implemented as well to help out the newbies, and the rewards really made me realize the importance of doing quests.
The most important part is that the game was fun. The more you play, the more you get into the game; not sure if thats because of the new combos you get at each level, story-driven quests, or the beautiful graphics.
One thing I know for sure is that I felt the need to keep playing and had fun doing it. Games nowadays require you to learn to play the game for you to have fun with it, but Aion doesnt require you to learn anything. The games easy enough to approach and has a variety of contents for people of all ages, ranging from teens to 50 year old men.
This is the strongpoint of Aion. If Aion only fixes the problems pointed out by the closed beta testers, Kim Tack Jins happy fantasy probably wont end up just being a dream.
*in love*
Vieles altbewährtes mit neuen Kniffen und dem einen oder anderen neuen Feature. Grade das "Fliegen" samt "Luftkampf" ist eines der Hauptbestandteile warum sich Aion abhebt. Verdammte Scheisse es gibt sogar Kampfskills für Magier, die ihre Gegner in die Luft befördern damit der nächste Elyos der grad vorbeifliegt ihn mal so richtig eins drüber zimmern kann ;D 
