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So after playing for about 3 days(level 15)
Ok so after playing for about 3 days for my friend, for about 8 hours each day I have to say that, as an ex lineage 2 player, I am amazed. I havent seen end-game or high level stuff yet but the game is really interesting so far. The start is simple. You choose your character type, 1 tank (Warrior) 1 high dps / weak HP (scout), Mage, and cleric. All of these split in 2 other classes. i.e Scout becomes ranger or assassin. The character customization is off the hook. Probably the best physical (head, body) customization in any MMO.
You begin in the starter area and you can already see the beauty of the game. The artistic style is awesome and so are most places. I have to say, that in my opinion, this game has probably the best animation in any MMO so far. The idle animation is top notch unlike most stand still idles. You also have a plethora of emotes.
To move on, you get your first quests. Quests are the usual grindy 'go get x items, kill x monsters, investigate x place' types. Depending on your race choice, you get Missions (NOT quests, its different). It's a quest-chain type mega-quest. You do many missions revealing an event, giving you major xp and rewards. The game also features in-game cutscenes to help you find the place of the quest or just watching the lore progress.
Skill-wise I play an assassin and the skills so far are good. Counter attacks, stun attacks, surprise attacks etc. At level 7 you get your first chain-skill. These work similar as Combos from AoC. You hit one power, and then another one needs to be executed so you can have more damage and an additional effect on the enemy. Assassin though is a later lever boomer so its not really easy to start with.
Moving on, there's gathering on this game and bunch of proffessions. You can gather from the usual herbs, ore etc to Silver, fruits, food etc. I personally havent tried any profession yet because I dont want to bother with item gathering and making since beta is over in 2 days. But from what I saw there are sh*tloads of proffessions.
At level 10 you can get your ascension quest. This gets you tot he capital city of your race and the leader recognizes you as a citizen of your race. You get your wings then. Flying areas are specific and you cannot fly in every each place you visit. But you can double tap Space to jump and fly for a less painful fall. In the areas you can fly, if you have played City Of heroes, its something similar, but you it is timed. You cant fly forever. At level 15 I am you can fly around 1 minute or so.
Now back to combat, there's a bar below HP and MP bar, called DP bar. This DP bar fills everytime you kill a monster, and at a certain ammount you can execute some DP specific attacks that do rather good damage
. I havent experienced PvP combat yet, but I love how arena works. Arena basically is another zone. You can enter as a fighter or spectator. Its a free zone, you can fight or sit down, chat etc. But its all versus all unless teamed. Here you can take a look of the arena : www.youtube.com/watch
I will repost again when I advance a few levels. I hope this mini review of the 15 levels so far gave you some more information 
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Comments
I like your review, I disagree on a few points but thats not why I'm posting.
Please break up your post a bit, its really hard for the average person to just read through your wall of Text, it really is worth reading too.
Thanks! ^^
i favour your detailed review.
And , i'm looking forward to your repost after you reach the lvl require for pvp system
LOL
Great review indeed.
What I'd like to say about this is that video games especially MMORPGs are boring the beginning except for Final Fantasy XI, jk that game is boring.
But you stated that this game is beautiful in the beginning, remember Age of Conan? Age of Conan was a good game in the beginning, beautiful and well polished.
But what a game needs is a storyline + quests to keep you interested and wanting to come back for more, or what happens next. And, it seems as if this game keeps your interest very well.
As for end game:
- A continuous storyline driven by monthly updates and expansions
- Competitive PvP end game
- Involving crafting
- Legion Alliances
- PvE raiding with REWARDING REWARDS
Thanks for the review. I'll definitely be playing the Chinese retail
I also played in the ending days of the chinese open beta. I agree on many of the things you pointed out.
Aion is by far the most beautifully made game I have seen so far. Unfortunately my system is not able to run this game on full high graphics, but I was able to get most of it to high without crashing my system and I have to say, that the reaction was similar to the first time I played half-life 2 on high settings.
Gameplay wise its the usual kill (x) monsters or collect (y) items from said monsters. But thats an MMO. if you dont like that then stop playing MMOs. The combo system is like AoC's with the exception that you do actually have to hit with the attack combo skills for you to be able to go through to the next one (unlike AoC where you can just go through an entire chain to get to the last power blow w/o even hitting an enemy)
I got to around level 14 in gladiator, and I have to say that all the armor I got was beautiful. And the weapons themselves were intricate. Once i zoomed in on a weapon and it had scratch marks all over the edge. It looked like a real used weapon.
In my opinion, Aion gets a 11/10 for graphics. I say that because I did not even expect it to be that good. I saw the high quality trailers and I was still astounded when I played the game. The environments are gorgeous. In the areas you could fly it was specatcular. And it is funny to see yourself fall when you do not activate your wings.
One thing I like in this game is that it is not a huge grind-fest for money. Money comes relatively easy, but then again equips get increasingly expensive (does not necesarily include barter b/c you know people screw around with pries there all the time)
Ill just end with saying that this is going to be a game I want to invest in. =D cheers
Yeah can't wait for Aion. Whether someone likes it or hates it, it does seem to be getting overall really good reviews.
Last day of beta today. Also another update. Have you ever come across a piece of armor that gives you uber stats, but it has a crappy look? In aion, after you hit level 30, you can you remodel shop, changing your current armor/weapon skin to another. Also, in case you did not know, PvP Ranks give you special skills, depending on your rank. If you are not familiar with them, they are called Stigma skills (PvP Skills). You can take a look at youtube and search for Cleric Guardian transformation.
Last, the game seems to have an open-instances system. You dont need to go to an instance to experience a dungeon. I heard that the first REAL instance though, is at level 30. Can someone confirm it? I experienced an open-instance in the Black Claw village, where the mobs need at least 3-4 members in a team to die. I repeat again, that was not instanced.
Now for the animation, its by far the best in any game. The idle animations are superb. If your character stands in the water, the idle animation changes and your character spectates the water close, catch a fish, look at it and then throw it in the water again. If your character stands on a desert, your character gets a bit of sand in his hands and then let it off to the wind. DP Skills are acrobatic stuff, and so are high level chain skills.
I hope the game doesnt changes to NA, but with all these whiny little easy-mode players, I doubt that the game will really shine in NA because they release a live version now to China, WTF they need 5 months for NA release? I bet the game is getting changes, and I wont like it.
They don't need to change much IMO, the game is so full of win as it stand now in korea and china, Come on NCsoft don't screw us.
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
I played this game the past 3 days also and I have to say...wow I love this game, after 6 years of playing FFXI its nice to play a mmorpg where I find myself wanting to follow the story of the game not just to do quests to get to end game fast.
The graphics are very amazing and the mobs, although I only made it to lvl 13 before OB ended they were well created and not just basic mob cloned over and over again like FFXI.
The audio was nothing to special, I did like hearing the npcs walk around...I know odd thing to say but made me feel more part of this world. Sometimes you would get battle music when you are not in a battle but I'm sure that will be fixed before retail release in US.
I do wish you could fly longer at the beginning, I died a few times from forgetting about my fly bar
but I understand the timer since it would be very laggy in some areas if everyone could fly non stop.
My final points on this is:
Graphics 10/10 - Mind blowing world, I spent sometimes just looking around and going "wow..."
Audio 8.5/10 - Audio was ok but sometimes its a little overwhelming, and the battle music glitch.
Gameplay 8/10 - The gameplay was very well but it does tend to get a bit button mashing
Overall 9/10 - All I can say is goodbye FFXI when this releases and what is WoW? :P
Anyways thats my thoughts since I made fun of WoW at the end let the flaming begin!
Gameplay 8/10 - The gameplay was very well but it does tend to get a bit button mashing
This is what korean games are all about.click click click click click click
Good GX, no real fun content. (Big boobs Elves included) lol
Korean games please stay in Korea for `Bob` Sake!