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AION REVIEW by a chinese canadian. (chinese server)
Well, i just noticed the NA version of Aion will release in Q4 2009, this is too SLOW.
I duno why, but things are going very fast in china while in north america, we have to wait for the longest possible times to do things.
My english might not be as precise as native speakers, but hey, At lesat i have been in this continent for 8 years? My first language is still chinese , but as long as you guys could understand , hahaha, anywayz..here comes my review...
GERNERAL REVIEW.
Graphic/Music/Animations:
ok so basically , if u play wow, or lineage2, the graphic of aion will not surprise u much.At least it didn't bring me any ANY totally none surprise. Which is kinda sad , cuz lineg2 and wow were realli old games while aion is the newest mmorpg where most ppl expect and hope to be their new no.1 mmorpgs~~~3/5
Animation is the weak side, its extremely wierd when u look at char's moves.Well, there is another case, if u haven't played wow or lineage2, or even silkroad, u woudlnt' feel much difference haha.But if you have, u will feel this game's animation is disappointing. Also this games lacks details in animations, for example, in a pvp, if u are a mage, u cast a fireball for example, and i am a rogue, when u are casting it, i am in front of u, but while during the casting time, i jump behind u, in wow, u can't hit me with fireball anymore, but in this game, no matter which direction i go, behind u above u under u, u can still hit me..
The strongest side of this game is the musci, bg music is very touching and lovely, you will get to exp it once u play, i dont' need to talk much about this, i def will give this game 5/5 for music.
Gameplay
Ok, bascially u have professions and classes to choose from, and professions are useful, this is the improvement of korean games, it might not be as powerful as in wow, but it's still very important part of the game.
Classes are balanced, when i say balance, there always come up and say WTF NO, FUKIGN HEALER IS IMBA or bla bla bla, this is the case for all mmorpgs, but it is still one of the best balanced games that we have on the market, i think this way it's fair enough hehe.All classes are fun and if u control well, u can own both in pve and pvp easily.
You can level pretty fast in this game too, i am a lvl 35 bower, 2 weeks from nothing to 35 for me. and i dont play all day long, i got life, and currenlty chiense server is capped at lvl 45, so u know how much time u need to play this game now.
Most important of all, this game is focused on PVP. Its a PVP game, so if u love pvp, this is the game for u, i mean w.e u do, pve , farm, instance, quests, but all of them come to the end for pvp.u get pvp gears for killing opponent side and u farm up for good gears in instances and bosses or quests, things like these are common. i am not giving a actual mark for this section, cuz i have no right to do so, it differs.
Society/Communications
When u trade, there are two ways, one is auction house one is personal store, this is pretty good, cuz some ppl like to have one or both , either way, this satisfy everyone.
The guild and fred list system are complete and pretty well done.
WHile the chat system is also complete even though the trade channel is still not working in chiense server, i duno what is wrogn with it, but i think its no biggie.
Quests
Generally they are ok, not very creative not very boring, so i give it 2.5/5.
frequantly ask Questions:
1.WHICH CLASS IS BEST SOLO/PVP/ALL AROUND.
IN my point of view. best pvp classes are Healer and mage. well u think the names i am using now are kinda wierd, yes, cuz i didnt chk what the english names are for these char, i just played the chiense version, but u sure know what i mean. for the mage, its glass cannon, easy to kill and easy to get killed lots of control. for the healer, he wears hearvy amror and he heals,and also does dmg, its kinda like paladin in wow. all other classes are still good at pvp if u have good gears and control, i am just saying the most popular. Also the best solo is prolly um, the class the summons pets, there is only one class who can do it, and yea, its surely the best pve class. FOr all around, i would still say its stil the pet class , but well, people aruge about this topic, i am just giving my own view.hehe.
2.ITEM GRADEs?
orange>blue>green>white
3.ARMOR SETS?
Yes,there are, but only sets that are relal late games and also are orange gives set bonus, all others dont give set bonus.
4. WEAPONS that glow.
THere are many weapons and even armors that glow in nature and u can make them glow, if u attach a stone, i duno what it is called in english, but its rare and only drops from above 40 creatures , they gives very solid bonus dmg or bonus skill on the weapon. good luck on that.
ok, i am tired now, when u guys ask me questions or i think about more things that are importat i iwll answer.
THANKs.
Comments
Well I have to disagree with some of your points. Yeah quest objectives are'nt anything new, but so far I think the ideas and story behinds a lot of quests are really good and better than most other MMORPGS. I think they made a really good story that really makes a lot of the things in this game make more sense. Like your inventory for example, in most other MMORPGS, you carry an unbelievable amount of loot all in bags but in this game everything gets materialized into cubes. I thought that interesting and they they story between the two factions is good too. Also I disagree with your graphics ratings. I have a very good gaming computer and I've played many MMORPGS including Age of Conan, which is supposed to have some of the best graphics. I've played the two you mentioned WoW and Lineage and I found these graphics to be the best I've seen. You really have to look at it from a different persective or even comapre WoW or Lineage 2 to Aion side by side. Just look at the attention to detail, character models, structures, and environments (including lakes and vegetation). This game is eye candy. I don't remember the name of the faction thats on the no-sunlight side of the planet, but if you play on that side for example and go to the first lake you see, it looks like the damn lake from Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess. I mean theres tons of lakes too, and they way they designed them is amazing, you see plants, coral colors, and fish. The waters have nice ripple effects at the rims too. Plus, the game runs amazing, I've also tried it on a 5 yr old HP desktop and it can run at the same highest settings as my gaming machine and it runs very smoothly too. I just found that they put a lot of attention into detail and they created many lush and creative environments, which are something you usually just get in a good single player game. I think that a lot of players that just like to explore in MMORPGS will be more pleased with this game than any other MMORPG. Besides some cool looking sights in other MMORPGS's endgame, this game has cool looking sights and places from start to finish. Wait till you get to the Abyss, its amazing eye candy. I'd have to say that this game looks better than Age of Conan too.
I also have to dissagree with the original poster on the graphics in comparrison to WoW. I played (Past tense) WoW for 3.5 years and WoW's graphics are not even in the same league as Aion. The animations and graphics in Aion are considerably better. The rest of the OP revue though seems sound.
Fan sites:
AION-On-Line.com
aionicthoughts.wordpress.com/
www.aionarmory.com/
www.aionglobal.com/
www.aionsource.com/
www.areyouhellbound.com/forum/
www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/253
www.onrpg.com/
Official sites:
www.ncsoft.com/global/
www.aiononline.com/us/
eu.aiononline.com/en/
The graphics and animation comparison/assessment sems way off. The graphics are not only state of the art, but the engine runs extremely smooth on a decent range of systems. The animations are very fluid and human like.
The game also has animations based on region and weather:
Almost every action has an associated animation and sound effect. Each type of crafting table is animated, most with a humorous style to them. Certain mobs will turn to look at you when they pass you.
All in all, there's a lot of little extras to the graphics/animation in AION that really stand it apart from most MMOs.
- RPG Quiz - can you get all 25 right?
- FPS Quiz - how well do you know your shooters?
Yeah....
I'd say the graphics/animations in Aion are pretty well done actually.
Same here, Aion Graphics might not be top Shader wise, but geometry/Art they are top of the line.
In the end in pvp game performace is very important and Aion delivers exacly that. Details for your character are impresive and game scales like no other mmo to this day.
Wish some other mmo producers would take example from aion in this mater...
(Retired)- Anarchy Online/Ultima Online/DAoC/Horizonsz/EQ2/SWG/AC1&2/L2/SoR/WoW/TMO/Requiem/Atlantica Online/Manibogi/Rift+(SL)/Lol/Hon/SWTOR/Wakfu/Champions Online/GW/Lotr/CO/TcoS/Tabula Rasa/Meridian 59/Vanguard/Shadowbane/Fury/SotW/Dreamlords/HGL/RoM/DDO/FFXI/Aoc/Eve/Warhammer Online/Gw2/TSW/Tera/Defiance/STO/AoW/DE/Firefall/Darkfall/Neverwinter/PS2/ESO/FF14/Archeage/Gw2
well, like i said, this is my personal review.
I played wow since beta, and i played L2 since beta also.
In my own view, the very first feel of the game when i played aion, when i hit creatures, cast spell, walk, run, all seem to be not as smooth or realistic as wow. I duno what it is, but it is just not comfortable , also the combos, when u attack after attacks, there are thigns that aren't that great to be felt, and my friend felt the same as me, but it def differs from ppl. And we all have very good gaming machines, and the highest setting.
Also the graphyic, for the humans, maybe you can surely do a lot of detail for u chars, on ur face etc, but all in all, if u look at ppl, u wouldnt' notice too much difference on their faces, its not CLEAR enough, i can't find proper words maybe, but I guess 10 ppl try out will end up with 5 or 6 different comments on this.
So anywayz, i hope ppl who haven't tried this game who have read this, this is gona give u some feel of the game, even from the comments other ppl left in this post.
One more thing, this game however is worth trying, i hope there is a beta and so pll can try them for free first.
I bought aoc, warhammer online too, but both of them aint' the game for me.
I even duno where they are now, hehe.
the animation feel disconnected.
it might be hard for someone who dosent work with 3dmax or other animation and 3d Graphiks programs to differentiate between models, sprite effects and animations though.
The charakter graphics are the best cartoon style if seen so far, you cant really compare them to for example aoc beacause its a whole diffrent ball game trying to create a realistic looking face and body then a stylized.
But for the world gfx, trees, ground, houses etc its not as high deff as aoc. but no doubt much better then wow or l2.
Mm I agree with the few posters before me. I mean it's your opinion but IMO Aion is the most beautiful game out there hands down, and it scales perfectly. Ofc if you want to be nitpicky then you can zoom on the terrain and complain about the shaders etc, however the game looks breathtaking. No, not comparable to WoW..
Animations are the weak side? Lol. again the game is famed for it's wonderful animations and I can't see how any person can dislike them, they flow extremely well, are fluid, and the animations when you stand still are amazing as well.
It's hard to take your review seriously after bashing two of the most important pros of the game, but ah well to each his own!
I am sorry to disagree,but honestly MOST posters have no idea what makes good graphics.All AION did was use unrealistic colours and the USUAL bright colours that make a game look cutesy but does NOT mean good graphics.I will tell you right up front you cannot,will not have better graphics than AOC/VG w/o extreme lag ,it is impossible unless the game was totally written for DX10 and you ihave a dx10 system.Aion uses just as L2 did ,low end meshes,low end textures,like i said all they did was make the world look cutesy[in some areas].Some of the outdoor areas are your normal looking GWs type scenes.I found it weird the OP said they have a "Healer" and a "Mage"so what will be the NA adaptation of the class? I can't honestly see where they are doing all this so called NA transformation.I think what they are really doing is just using the English language and not the Korean/Chinese language.I will bet anything the sentences will be in that USUAL broken English as witnessed on all Korean games.
I would not say AION looks bad,i am not suggesting that,but it in no way is top notch graphics,many people are fooled by use of colours,witch MOST Asian type games use.Realistic or NA type graphics tend to be more greenish,brown dark,dank,Asians tend to use more yellow,pink,bright red,and of course the usual glowing weapons and armor.Glowing is not high end textures either,it is just an animated texture,Aion is what i would call your average,normal graphic game.
IMO it is a step up from WOW,no question about it,actually several steps up.Wow is only a step up from EQ1 and far below EQ2.
This is what Aion actually looks like in game,As you can see it looks a lot like Guild Wars.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Concerning the graphics and gameplay, the main thing to remember here is that like WOW, you don't need some godly computer to run this game with the graphics cranked up a decent amount and still get a decent FPS.
The animations to me, are some of the better on the market. No, they didn't use motion capture, which I'm thankful for. The individual animations in AOC weren't bad, tho, I wasn't really a fan of the overall look and feel of the game much, but they didn't flow together well. You could easily point out where one animation ended and another started from the sketchy and jerky motions your character would make while between the two -- this I did not care for.
Then when I compare the animations to games like LoTRO, EQ2, Vanguard, other games that score higher in the graphics department, Aion animations in my honest opinion, blow them away.
This topic is subject to personal opinion and preference, but to deny overall quality when it's obviously there isn't right. If there's no immersion for you, or you just can't get into it, that's fine, but it's still a quality title in looks and gameplay. And it looks good without me having to upgrade my system to play it with the graphics on high while maintaining superb performance.
Also, another thing I'd like to point out, useless bit of info. I've always been an ATI guy, only had one nVidia card so far, so I run into some issues with performance in certain games. I run AOC maxed, my card could use an upgrade, but overall, my system isn't too shabby. But in War (which has a large focus on RVR) depending on which keep I was at, my frames would goto complete shit. Why? The engine is horrible, especially for my poor ATI drivers. Keep in mind this was with AAX8 and AF on, as well. However, in Aion, fully cranked up, AAX8 and AF on, I stay easily over 35fps in an RVR scenario on Aion while getting extreme spikes of 10 and below on War.
Game looks great, and runs great.
besides AoC's flora, the rest of the vegetation sucks, they took the cheap way out and they did that weird camera trick for vegetation that makes them look more 3d like you turn your camera and the leaves on the tree turn with you and on bushes too, they didn't use this in aion at all. I even see the same cheap effect in a lot of free to play mmos too
Nice review, but is it really that good. And do u have to grind?
yeah i forgot about some of this when i wrote my post earlier, yeah its got a great weather system that seems to be working very well. Lol i was it suprised me when my character got all pissed that it started to rain and he pulled out this big ass leave over his head. Yeah when I was in some desert area I saw some sand particles fly around from the wind I thought that was neat too. I know that NPCs will look at you in WAR but NPCs and monsters will turn there heads to look at you in this game too, but for some reason it seems more fluid in this game. There are just so many little effects that really make this game more lively and enjoyable. But the OP needs to look at the graphics in a different perspective. Its kinda like when Legend of Zelda Wind Waker came out. Expert reviewers were able to tell how amazing those cel shaded graphics were, but just a lot of regular games took one look at the screenshots and were like bleh thats lame, when the graphics were really much better than most other games during the time.
Biased poster is biased ... gb2wow.
The main problem with AION's animations is frame skipping. For example, you are in the middle of doing something, swing your sword, or moving somewhat, and you fire off your special skill, your entire special skill animation may be skipped. You will only see the flashing of special effect and no animation at all.
It is funny that both WAR and AION are suffered from this problem. In WAR you have the cast lag, in AION, the game skips the animation entirely. You can bash WoW all you want but it's animation engine is top notch. It is THE best animation engine in the market period. Transitions from frame to frame are incredibly smooth. Animation timing was calculated almost perfect with skill cast time. The control responsiveness is un-matched by any game in the market.
Also, unrelated to animation, the range and line of sight check of AION skills done at cast time. This means the melee only need to run close to you and fire off his special and no matter how long the special animation goes, you will still get hit. The mage could release a fireball at you and it become an auto-homming missle, you could run for miles, hide under a nuclear bunker and it will still hit you. AoC did this at first and in PvP it sucks so bad, they have to change their code, I wonder if NCSoft has to do the same.
LoS and range checks are done at both beginning and end of cast. When I was playing my sorc, people can run out of my range and that's the end of it. Just because you're bad and can't run out of 20-25m range, doesn't mean the check isn't there.
I am sorry to disagree,but honestly MOST posters have no idea what makes good graphics.All AION did was use unrealistic colours and the USUAL bright colours that make a game look cutesy but does NOT mean good graphics.I will tell you right up front you cannot,will not have better graphics than AOC/VG w/o extreme lag ,it is impossible unless the game was totally written for DX10 and you ihave a dx10 system.Aion uses just as L2 did ,low end meshes,low end textures,like i said all they did was make the world look cutesy[in some areas].Some of the outdoor areas are your normal looking GWs type scenes.I found it weird the OP said they have a "Healer" and a "Mage"so what will be the NA adaptation of the class? I can't honestly see where they are doing all this so called NA transformation.I think what they are really doing is just using the English language and not the Korean/Chinese language.I will bet anything the sentences will be in that USUAL broken English as witnessed on all Korean games.
I would not say AION looks bad,i am not suggesting that,but it in no way is top notch graphics,many people are fooled by use of colours,witch MOST Asian type games use.Realistic or NA type graphics tend to be more greenish,brown dark,dank,Asians tend to use more yellow,pink,bright red,and of course the usual glowing weapons and armor.Glowing is not high end textures either,it is just an animated texture,Aion is what i would call your average,normal graphic game.
IMO it is a step up from WOW,no question about it,actually several steps up.Wow is only a step up from EQ1 and far below EQ2.
This is what Aion actually looks like in game,As you can see it looks a lot like Guild Wars.
Mm I never once in my post mentioned that the game had great graphics. I simply said it looks beautiful, and IMO it's the most beautiful game on the market. Who cares if there isn't enough pixels on the left eyebrow of my char. The game looks stunning without having top notch graphics, and it scales perfectly on most crap PCs. Aion looks MUCH better than AoC or Vanguard as far as I'm concerned, and that doesn't mean that it has 'better' graphics, but that the graphics look nicer, smoother, the art looks good etc. there's a difference. They knew how to balance out the graphics vs playability, and that is the key.
"I think what they are really doing is just using the English language and not the Korean/Chinese language.I will bet anything the sentences will be in that USUAL broken English as witnessed on all Korean games."
Of course you can think whatever you want, it's a free world after all!
We'll just see when it releases.
I am sorry to disagree,but honestly MOST posters have no idea what makes good graphics.All AION did was use unrealistic colours and the USUAL bright colours that make a game look cutesy but does NOT mean good graphics.I will tell you right up front you cannot,will not have better graphics than AOC/VG w/o extreme lag ,it is impossible unless the game was totally written for DX10 and you ihave a dx10 system.Aion uses just as L2 did ,low end meshes,low end textures,like i said all they did was make the world look cutesy[in some areas].Some of the outdoor areas are your normal looking GWs type scenes.I found it weird the OP said they have a "Healer" and a "Mage"so what will be the NA adaptation of the class? I can't honestly see where they are doing all this so called NA transformation.I think what they are really doing is just using the English language and not the Korean/Chinese language.I will bet anything the sentences will be in that USUAL broken English as witnessed on all Korean games.
I would not say AION looks bad,i am not suggesting that,but it in no way is top notch graphics,many people are fooled by use of colours,witch MOST Asian type games use.Realistic or NA type graphics tend to be more greenish,brown dark,dank,Asians tend to use more yellow,pink,bright red,and of course the usual glowing weapons and armor.Glowing is not high end textures either,it is just an animated texture,Aion is what i would call your average,normal graphic game.
IMO it is a step up from WOW,no question about it,actually several steps up.Wow is only a step up from EQ1 and far below EQ2.
This is what Aion actually looks like in game,As you can see it looks a lot like Guild Wars.
Mm I never once in my post mentioned that the game had great graphics. I simply said it looks beautiful, and IMO it's the most beautiful game on the market. Who cares if there isn't enough pixels on the left eyebrow of my char. The game looks stunning without having top notch graphics, and it scales perfectly on most crap PCs. Aion looks MUCH better than AoC or Vanguard as far as I'm concerned, and that doesn't mean that it has 'better' graphics, but that the graphics look nicer, smoother, the art looks good etc. there's a difference. They knew how to balance out the graphics vs playability, and that is the key.
"I think what they are really doing is just using the English language and not the Korean/Chinese language.I will bet anything the sentences will be in that USUAL broken English as witnessed on all Korean games."
Of course you can think whatever you want, it's a free world after all!
We'll just see when it releases.
and of course most of the people playing KNOW that won't be the case!
Holy hatred, batman.
You are actually telling someone that their idea of beautiful and breathtaking is WRONG?
On localization: There have been several dev interviews and articles where it has been made clear that the localization is not just a literal translation and it is being done based on the contextof the text.
So, I will gladly take you up on that bet. Let me know what you're willing to wager. Whatever you can afford, I can easily cover - I already know I won.
- RPG Quiz - can you get all 25 right?
- FPS Quiz - how well do you know your shooters?
Can you elaborate on this a little more. A 5 year old PC can run this on high detail??? I mean i haven't watched any videos but those screenshots looks amazing. Can you spec out your old machine for me? Also what resolution did you run this on on your old PC?
This game looks really good and I figured they would design this for a high end PC. If they designed it for a mid range then it would be more accessible Worldwide.
Can you elaborate on this a little more. A 5 year old PC can run this on high detail??? I mean i haven't watched any videos but those screenshots looks amazing. Can you spec out your old machine for me? Also what resolution did you run this on on your old PC?
This game looks really good and I figured they would design this for a high end PC. If they designed it for a mid range then it would be more accessible Worldwide.
I the HP has 2GB of RAM, a 4200 AMD Dual Core Processor, and it had a onboard video card at start but I upgraded it to a NVIDIA 7500 GS graphics card. I also upgraded the NIC as well. The computer is running XP and I optmized the computer for games as well and sold the computer to my neighbor who plays games as well. I installed the same chinese CB client I had and he was able to have the settings all the way up just as I did. I exagerated though, I believe the computer is about 4 years old not 5 if I remember correctly, nevertheless it still runs great with those specs. The games runs on the first cryengine, so basically if your computer can play far cry 1, it can play AION.
what you mean was a performance check box for lower end systems. on highest setteings of course the trees and bushes do not turn.
When I used to play WoW my system would have to have the video settings to the middle range. With Aion I use the same computer and have them all set to max.
Hope that helps.
Fan sites:
AION-On-Line.com
aionicthoughts.wordpress.com/
www.aionarmory.com/
www.aionglobal.com/
www.aionsource.com/
www.areyouhellbound.com/forum/
www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/253
www.onrpg.com/
Official sites:
www.ncsoft.com/global/
www.aiononline.com/us/
eu.aiononline.com/en/
holy cow! So there would be no need to upgrade a system just to play this game. Because the screen shots look deceiving. I wonder if Guild Wars 2 will be built off of this same engine.