Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Thoughts/Review after beta.
Ok I thought I'd make this thread to give people my thoughts after playing the beta, other people who have, join in too or make your own thread.
I have only positive things to say about my beta experience, except for one thing(see the *)...
First off I had always been hesitant to try Aion, even if given the opportunity for a beta until I got a new computer (which I will buy before release). My system is: AMD Athlon 3800x2, 1GB DDR400 ram (I normally have 2GB, but about 2 weeks ago one of my sticks went bad and was causing crashes, so I took it out, along with the other stick like it), Geforce 7600GT, 750GB Barracuda. I was able to play at what I would guess, is settings about 3/4 the way up. My sliders were all 1 notch away from maximum (5 notches total), using Glow effect 1 with AA off. Aside from Elysium, and loading the one town (see pics below), much to my surprise, everything was amazingly smooth on my crappy computer. For comparison, it ran pretty much as smooth as WoW, and way smoother than L2, while looking better than both.
See what my settings looked like: (and as usual, screenshots will never do justice for the look of a game)
Notice the FPS counters...
They really did an amazing job with this, when logging in or teleporting, theres hardly any load times. There are no black screens, and when I alt tab, everything is ready to go in an instant...I don't think it could be any more efficient.
Music:
The music is as amazing as anything else...I haven't turned my Winamp on for days, and normally I spend 90% of my time on my home PC with it going. Each zone has separate background and combat music.
Movement/Flight:
Movement and flight we're perfect...I would describe the feel as a mix of WoW and Guild Wars, the point to click was better than L2, even connecting to a server that couldn't be further away, it was as if my char was moving before I even clicked the ground. I hardly saw any noticeable lag at all...I experience more lag in an hour of WoW, than I would through 10 hours of Aion, and the server is on the opposite side of the Earth. There were also no major geodata problems, whenever I attacked or aggro'd a mob, it would be the right distance away, and the auto attack would always cause you to face each other...I was never attacking a mob that was obviously too far away to be hit, or inside my character (the exception being if I had moved while the mob was just approaching me...and if I backed my character off to the right distance, the mob would stay in place).
The flight I would describe as WASD/Mouse swimming in WoW, or point/click swimming in L2...its probably exactly how you would imagine it to be.
Combat/Skills/PvP:
Combat and skill usage was extremely fluid and fun. This is solely based on my experience as playing a Templar, but I had more skills than I knew what to do with (not really, but well over half of my attacks were skills, rather than normal shots...and it appears to be similar for all other classes). Melee attack do not consume mana or any form of energy system, you can spam them forever.
I had 2 shield attacks (one was a stun, the other a dmg attack) which would only activate after what I would guess is a successful shield block, and also had a "guard stance" where you put your shield up in a more defensive position, and it would increase your blockrate, however using a skill cancels the stance. There was also a long re-use shield bash/knockback that you can use whenever you want.
I had one attack with a debuff, which seemed to increase the damage of 2 other attack skills (they would be almost not worth using when the mob didnt have the debuff). For my main combo after the first attack, I had 2 choices, one was an 8 second buff which absorbed X amount of damage, which usually lasted close to the full 8 seconds, the second was just a damage combo. I would always start off with the buff skill first as it had a longer re-use, and would not be ready by the time the first skill in the combo was ready.
To be efficient, you need to interrupt mob skills, use yours at the right time and order...some skills have longer reuses than others, so when doing your combos (just regular combos, not the skill chain combos) you need to alternate their orders to make sure you aren't stuck with gaps in between skill usage the next time around. Efficiency is key...I could kill maybe 10 regular (2 dot) mobs without rest using skills right, often indefinitely while after every few mobs, using a 4 sec cast self heal which every class gets. In a certain area (where the parot transformation quest is), I was able to kill 2 or 3 of the 4 dot (harder) mobs at level 18, while I saw level ~20 Gladiators, Rangers or Assassins resting after 1 mob.
Duo's or small groups seem to work out well in the harder areas. While duoing with a Chanter, he would have to rest mana every so often, but while he was resting I could keep going and get healed once he was done...Although I do have one concern that classes may not have a defining role in the hard PvE areas such as dungeons. (ie: does everyone follow the tank, wait for him to get aggro, CC the right mobs? Does all hell break loose when someone breaks CC, attacks before the tank or gain aggro?).
Aside from some small duels, I don't really have much PvP experience, but with my time in beta, and seeing things from CBT3, and putting experiences of ganking, castle sieges and PvP during open world raid bosses...putting 2 and 2 together, I don't see why it wouldn't live up to its expectations.
Questing/Map/Radar:
The questing and map system is great. Quests are similar to what you would find in WoW, or any other game, but the quests you get are generally in the immediate surrounding area of the quest giver. Its not like grabbing a bunch of quests in a town and then having to run all over the map from point A to B, then back again. You get a few quests from some NPCs, and those quests will all be in the immediate area, after you do them and then hand them in, you might get a few more, or get some that lead you on to the next area of quest givers. Quests are also separated into 2 categories: chain and single quests.
There is also a built in quest helper/tracker that shows exactly where anything involved in the quest is located, it even locates the nearest mob you need to kill on your radar. The map system is great, theres a WoW style map, and also a transparent map you can bring up so you can still see what's going on around you. The radar is great, shows everything possible, different colours for mobs, players, NPC's, and if you click a mob, it shows their aggro range on the radar.
Gear:
For gear, as playing a tank the game seems to be very armour dependent. You will have a very hard time killing mobs with armour even a few levels below you. You will notice a very big gain from say being level 17 with level 17 armour, compared to level 17 with level 14 armour. I noticed the effect in damage input from different levels of armour to big a lot greater than any other MMO I've played, although I think it may scale as you level.
There is not much variety in the gear for each level, but you will have opportunities to get new gear almost every level as you go up. For the most part I was able to afford gear each time I could get new parts. The gear is similar to WoW, as in whites, greens, blues. There were tons and tons available in the auction house and I never had a hard time getting anything.
Other:
*The negative part, is those soulshot things work just like L2...you can spam them, except they don't take any inventory space (you can put as many as you want in a slot in your equipment tab). They are in 3 categories (different damage increases, which appear to be static), and the best ones are quite expensive, however I don't think they would be if you are high level, unless there are new grades which I have not seen. I don't get the purpose of them other than a pointless money sink, once everyone is using them, they are completely pointless.
The game also has plenty of little things that make all the difference. More social actions/emotes than I've seen from any other game, things your character does while standing still (ie: brush armour off, swat flies, splash water around when you stand in it, pull out a leaf umbrella when it rains, and the things your char does while just standing there make it great). In hot desert zones, the heat gives off waves like you would see in real life, your char will take out a fan and start waving it to cool off. When standing against a hill your leg actually lifts up and bends, it doesnt go through the ground or float above it. You see actual reflections in the water, and it splashes and makes a sound when you jump in it, etc...theres plenty of things like that).
Well that's all for now, theres plenty of walls of text from rants and complaints on this forum, thought there should be one about the actual game and its highlights 
...like I was first told when asking how it was playing the OBT, its everything and more than I could have expected.
Comments
Wow! I read that review from beginning to end and if I wasn't already interested in this game, I'm even more so now. I love your attention to detail about the game's attention to detail. The part about the leg bending was really cool as I've seen to many mmorpgs just neglect minute detail that matter.
Also, I'm glad you're liking the Templar as that is the class that I really want to play once this game starts. I love it! If you could, please take some ingame videos using fraps or something similar. I want to see a templar in action.
Thanks, and glad you're having fun!
normally i dont read walls of text, but this was great. thanks for your review! can't wait to try aion, sounds like my kinda game. just hope it isn't too....uhm, asian. no offence:P
Looks like a fun game!
Thanks for review.
After reading that review I'd say that I do not like the graphics. But that's ok because when I plug in my ATI HD 4870 X2 X2 theeeeeeeen, I believe that after they work out the graphics and stuff like that, this game will really be looking great and far more important than that the most important thing in the world was that the fact that, great review, I'm really hyped about this game
Regardless the game is shaping up to be mana from heaven. Truly can't wait for the release in NA.
Burning in the depths of the pits of darkness let the fires of hell take you!
Let the fires become my sword and strike you down! Venom!
@op thanks for your detailed first impressions.
Only one thing is puzzling me, is it possible to switch off quest helpers and radar (it was possible in Vanguard) to search for things without arrows and dots on the map?
Very nice and detailed impressions thank you!
(,,,)=^__^=(,,,)
Very nice review. I have a few questions. You said point and click. Is this the ONLY way to move( I realize the flying is WASD) because if it is, this game is already not worth playing in my book.
Second, what about story? How attached to your character and class do you feel? If that first question can be answered with oh, you can modify the game to work like WoW's movement then I will be all over trying this game, but if it doesn't, I won't even try a free trial. Point and click in an MMORPG ruins immersion and just feels horrible.
Thanks in advance.
Nice review, but hardly any negatives, it just sounds too good to be true, so I'm a little skeptical.
O_o o_O
To tell you the truth, players that used WASD for moving there character where far better at pvping. You can use both but i found that wasd was the better option.
For the Story. I have no clue about that really. I could not read korean so I could not follow the story line.
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 dont speak a word of korean, and yes you can turn the quest tracker off.
I used a mix of WASD and click to move, I dont really find that click to move kills the immersion, because generally RPG games were of that style, WASD makes it feel like an action game...but I guess all these MMO's are just MMOaction games these days.
I use WASD to get started, or when I need to move quickly, but generally in combat and PvP i use the autofollow and click commands, sometimes mouse control (both mouse buttons) so I can have full control over my skills, and be able to click some Combos....kind of L2 style. When you click to attack a target, even a skill, you char will auto follow the target until in range, then do the command.
Here's a vid I made, but dont pay so much attention to the combat, as I was a noob, and didnt realize I was missing half of my skills, I didnt notice a second tab that the skill trainer had
www.youtube.com/watch
I'll upload a better plain combat vid later.
you will have to try it to be certain
QUESTION:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Xridnasa:
-
What's a "grocery store"? Is that like McDonald's?
-
ANSWER:
Quote:
Originally Posted by sidimazz:
-
Kind of, just without the rapist.
Great review, thanks for taking the time to write it
Bravo!!
I could not visualize how hillarious it was in order to try out an ASian game where u folks ain't no clue of what their language is.
Is it like '' let the blind roam with his walking stick '' ?? anyway , great job on the comments.
Tell me about it bro. I was a OBT player and this is what i can say.
Story line = I have no clue
enchantments to weapons and armor = I got lots if enchant items from drops but I had no idea what they did, I just added them to my weapon and armor.
Quest = I could not do like 70% of the quest because it was in korean, but still made lvl22 in a few days.
But I got to say I had a blast in this game, it was a hell alot of fun, and it will be only better when I can play with friends and read everything in english.
And yes there are a few bugs, but they where few and far between and did not take away from the overall feel of the game.
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...
After catching your link OP, I got enough of a feel from visuals to know I'll be trying this one out. Usually when you read a review its hard to picture exactly what someone is talking about. The vid put it in proper perspective of most of what you were talking about. From reading your post I do think you backed up most of what is able to be proven with the naked eye without some kind of 'hands on'. Nice job.
The view in this game is pretty fantastic. Even though you cannot see everything in a capture vid, one can get a good sense of the horizons, spacial distances between objects look properly proportioned. One thing that I noticed and was really happy about, is the running.
The last two MMOs I had booted up on my rig (WARhammer and LOTRO) running makes the game seem MORE tedious. It's weird, but because the characters (at least to me) don't feel as if they are running at top speed. I have a Runepriest (Dwarf) and although he runs exactly the same speed as a human, visually it seems they run slower. My Bright Wizard in WAR, same thing, and he was a full sized human. When the running appears that way, it always seems as if it takes forever to get to a place. Watching your character run seemed like it got through areas FAST, even though it was probably a normal pace. The way the terrain and background passed, it seemed just right, very realistic. I like things like that in a game.
Some people don't like "cartoony" combat. Me? I like it. It reminds me I am playing a game and to not take it so seriously but to have fun and keeps it lighthearted. I loved the animations of FFXI and that style, I love this type as well, down to the damage stats how they roll off the mobs in differing sizes, not like Western type games where every number is usually the same, boring size. It breaks it up visually and I know that helps keep you interested in a game longer when you see twenty, thirty-six, twenty-two then FORTY NINE, all differing sizes and colors. ^^
The fact that its beta, makes it look better. It can only improve as most games do after beta.
After playing that boring mess that was WARhammer and going back to LOTRO, I will be happy to help support a new title with this type of product.
I do like my eye candy and I only hope the team dynamics play as well as the game looks. I don't care if the PvP works, just the PvE. WAR soured me on pvp for a good LONG while now, I think I'll stick with fighting mobs and bosses. Nice post OP.
"TO MICHAEL!"
Im playing in the korean release, yes, i know, I'm weak and couldn't resist :<
And they've fixed most of the "flaws" we could find on day 1 of release.
Things like changing target while throwing a heal would stop the heal and details like that is what I meant with flaws, and they are all already as we like it.
The abyss is incredible, a lot of quests, ran into massive pvps all the time, there's a lot of people and the rewards start being awesome, I'm only 3k AP away from getting my first abyss armor, and that's in a day only.
The abyss is filled with quests for level 25+chars, something I was missing in T3 looks like it's completed once you get there, all of that XP is done out of quests alone and there are already some level 38's -.- damn koreans.
Never been so addicted to a MMO before tbh.
i just hope that good items wont be too easy to get--i like challenge ..i like to work my ass off for some ass-wooping item
OP: thanks for the great thoughts/review. It made me even less patient to get my hands on this game and try it out.
Good post! I however have a question for the OP, How is Character customization as you've seen? ( Does everyone you see look the same? )
S H A D O W H A N D
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Final Fantasy 7
Played - All mainstream MMORPGS/Many others.
Favorites- Dark Age of Camelot/mordred,Shadowbane , Old school Ultima Online
spend 10 minutes reading up on Aion and you'll find it has more character customization than any other MMO, ever. No 2 chars will ever look the same unless they simply pick a preset look and dont bother to change anything around (dozens and dozens of hair styles, eyes, skin colours, then 25 sliders for the head/face and another 12 sliders for the body
just youtube a character creation video
Here's what combat against a 4/6 dot (elite mob) is like when the mob is 2 lvls above you on a templar
www.youtube.com/watch
anything higher (6/6dot) would be a mobt hat requires a whole party to fight...regular 2/6 dot mobs I could kill almost indefinitely.
I'm kinduv hoping Aion scraps auto-targeting for attacks in the NA/EU release. This is probably just me though... I'm so used to WoW game mechanics that auto-targeting seems a bit nub-friendly. I enjoy hopping behind casters as melee and watch there casts cancel out... or avoiding a huge blow that would otherwise kill you. If it auto-targets, that part of the aspect would be null. Of course, Aion is NOT WoW and I cannot expect the same gameplay...
Still, as of now, auto-target seems to me just as bad as clickers. Again, this is just my opinion
Too bad you guys didn't play on the Tiamat server, kinda sucks that most (english speaking) people are playing diffrent servers
Btw didn't know you were fleiva 
What level are you now?
I was kinda excited...until i heard it was quest based
Its not all quest based, geesh I wish people wouldnt base their whole opinion on a game off of a simple 1 line forum post that may or may not have validity. That is the reason we arent getting a full beta for Aion, because people are stupid when it comes to stuff like that.
You can quest or grind, after lvl 20 there isnt much questing at all, its heavily group oriented on "elite" mobs..the fastest way to get up past 20 is grinding full parties.
And the quest system isnt like WoW in the first place, you dont goto a town or w/e and get like 10-20 quests, then have to run around from point A to B and back again spending 3/4 of your time just running around...the mobs you kill are always in the immediate area of the quest giver...picture it like L2 (if you've played), you finish EG, you move on to cruma and then there will be quests for you inside cruma. Its set up so that wherever you are hunting (a camp, cave, field of mobs, etc...) you will have sufficient quests to hunt there until you are too high level for that area..then you move on to the next area, kind of like grinding in a spot with some objectives that will give you money, exp and items...its not running from point A to B all the time and then leaving once you have killed the 10 mobs or whatever.
And lol at autofollow being "easy mode" while you're used to WoW....WoW is the definition of an easy mode MMO. And its not like auto-follow would be an advantage, even in click based games like L2 you dont run around trying to attack someone by using the autofollow/attack...you would just follow their trail and never gain any ground on them, you only use the autofollow/attack when you are right at the target.