Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Aion impressions: a strangely mixed bag
This is NOT a review. It's an impression based on the early experience.
That much being said, I am quite astonished this game was ever cited as WOW killer. Don't get me wrong, Aion is decend fun and solid entertainment, but truth be told, it is more a retro game than anything. The first thing I noticed was it is an odd step back in graphics. The textures and landscape have indeed some WOW or WAR like simplicity. The WAR feeling of landscapes which don't transport emotion is the inevitable comparision for me. WAR wasn't a bad world design, but it kinda never transported the feeling I could relate to, maybe lacking soul if you want, and Aion's world has the same again. Technically not bad but at no point I felt at home in the this world, even tho some vistas are sure spectacular. Part of it sure are the low textures. Some rocky ground is absurdly low, grass is an oddly flat painting and even at max setting I never have this feeling of walking on a meadow. I won't take such graphic hogs like AoC, but just compare it to the rich mood the world breathes in LOTRO. Walking on a meadow here with all the flowers, the grass in the wind... LOTRO had so rich atmosphere and soul, and not having more in terms of polygons. By and large the world detail and soul of Aion isnt much better than say Perfect World.
Granted the big bonus is the detailled character design. Tho I might wonder why you can't change your appearance later, which is a common feature in games which such detailled chars, and generally becoming standard in todays MMOs. But given that you have merely 2 totally linear placed races it sorta makes the replay value limited. You actually see the same over and over again. Even playing Elyos after playing Asmodians, the zones had an odd deja-vu, like every zone and even many quests were like copy cats from the other realm, just that the quest for Elyos is hunt Wolves and for Asmodians it was cats or panthers. Compare Altgard the Asmodian lv 10 -12 zone with the same level for Elyos (forgot the name), its like a copy with different textures.
So far I have tried out about half of the classes to late 10s. Now sure you may jump on me, saying but wait with 25 it totally changes! Sorry, for me a game has to be fun right away. Especially since levelling in Aion is somewhat slower that you are used to. Which also makes replay just for trying out another class odd.
Aion is filled with 1st gen MMOs remnants, stuff which I had thought to be left behind long ago, and mostly for good. I find it strange Aion has so many stuff every other MMO has by now left behind. Like, you start as generic class and get your real class later. Like you start as warrior and get Gladiator or Templar with level 10. And that takes longer than it sounds. Given that fact the game is totally linear, it makes trying out new classes a hassle. EQ2 used to have this branching, but it never was liked and today you start with your class right away, which I regard as the superior development into modern MMOs. I feel this starting as generic warrior or priest as a step back.
The mos odd step back however is IMVPO the return of the downtime. Fighting the downtime was one of the mayor progress of 2nd and 3rd gen MMOs, because essentially sitting around and waiting for health and mana to regen is never fun. It is a bad idea and a bad concept from the EQ1 and UO days. Sure you don't rest very long, but I always felt it was a bad disruption of my combat pacing. Especially in grouping this is a hassle, since Priest and Warrior classes need much less rest than scout and esp. mage classes. As mage and scout you will rest often, because mana for the mage and health for the scout will go down quickly. As scout you can compensate that with cheap bandages, with a healer, but as mage you are stuck, since mana potions are way more expensive and crafting them for hours in preparation of combat isn't to everyone's liking.
The greatest hindrance for Aion to become a hit in the western market IMO is that Aion is the most solo-unfriendly game of our days. Which is a result of the downtime. Sure you CAN solo with every class. But later on mobs are so crowded, that if you get additional mobs it can easily be your death, so its one at a time and you will have LOTS of time sitting and resting. The only class which can play with minimal to no downtime is priest, also warrior with bandages is ok. Still, the soloability is quite lacking compared to how well catered the solo experience in other 2nd and 3rd gen MMOs is. Its another of this odd step backs to 1st gen EQ era gaming. Some EQ vets may like it, but I doubt it will attract and keep the masses.
The lore and quests are alright. Nothing to rock me out of my boots but solid standard fare. Which isn't good enough in our competitive days, truth be told. When I think of the fascinating quests of LOTRO, where I virtually read every single quest, I find myself skipping the quest text in Aion all too soon, because it lacks the soul. Some quests are fun and nicely written, but most are quite boring. When you come to NPC-quest giving point X you don't really care why you have to kill 10 more wolves. I often had this feeling the quest hubs where quite artificially in their placement, not naturally and "right" like the LOTRO quest hubs. Its an emotional thing I can't exactly say why, but Aion always was much less a world than LOTRO, EQ2 or WOW (tho I have seen WOW only fleeting). It has this strong remniscence of the WAR world design: a linear quest tunnel, a theme park with NPCs standing, waiting for nothing but handing out quests to you in a very old fashioned and soulless manner. A good quest giver never feels like doing nothing else and again LOTRO did this the best. In Aion I often got this feeling that NPCs are here merely to hand me quests, cramped in some camp in a linear quest-tunnel.
I won't say Aion is all bad. Its a decend game, and in another, passed era, Aion would have rocked. But somehow the wheel of progress turned and today Aion is just a sort of MMO dinosaur, a remainder of the a passed MMO era in too many ways and not really fitting the refined and more demanding appetite of today. I am quite surprise that after so much effort to westernize Aion this is the result. In just too many places the "simple, old Asia grinder" as you have seen legions, shines still through. So far I am still hooked and it is ok entertainment for a short time, but I am quite underwhelmed and at odds with many of the design decisions.
Comments
I dont agree with your review, there are undeniable points like low res textures, but then again, its that way for a greater good, massive ammounts of people with minor FPS drops.
Then you talk about getting to 10 as a hard task, I've done that under 1:30 in 1.5, I don't think you're doing it right, specially since you speak about downtime, something I had only the first time I played this game, with my second character I knew better, bandages and potions are there to help.
Adds should be dangerous imo, if you position yourself in a bad place to kill a mob and if you don't look out for wandering mobs, then it's your fault, then again, with gliding, scaping is pretty easy even if you get adds, as long as you consider getting in a possible gliding place before going into what could turn as a hard encounter.
All in all, I think you're looking at this game with other games in mind, or you expect this to play like what you've already mastered, but learning how a new game plays is one of the most exciting points for me.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEEEEEEEEVVVVVVVVVVVER Said it would kill WoW... even the company never assumed it would match WoW.... stfu
"Sometimes people say stuff they don''t mean, but more often then that they don''t say things they do mean"
I stopped there.
You were hardly out of the newbie area by then. I played LOTRO for over a year and your comparisons between the two are completely out of whack.
Half of your post is assumptions on your part. Who told you that you can't change your appearance after character creation? There are NPC's where you can even change gender.
It sounds like you really didn't even want to like the game.
_________________________________
JonMichael
Currently: AION, an MMO Beta under NDA
Played: WAR, LOTRO, Hellgate: London, CoX, GW, SotNW, DAOC, EQ2, SWG, WoW, AO, Horizons, Second Life, There, TSO
Beta'd: There, Second Life, EQ2, DAOC:LotM, LOTRO, Tabula Rasa, Gods and Heroes, Hellgate: London, Requiem:Bloodymare, AoC, WAR, DDO, Fallen Earth
I for one am glad that Aion brought back some of the oldschool elements of MMORPGs that made them MMORPGs. What Aion did is bring an EQ / UO / DAOC experience and Polish the hell out of them. We have the updated UI, Mouse look, and other small "updates" to the game that do not change how an MMORPG is played but merely enhance it. World of Warcraft is very successful, but I don't believe that is where Aion want's to draw its crowd from.
The people who play and enjoy Aion will be the people who played and enjoyed oldschool games like EQ, DAOC, and UO and are looking for a more polished and up-to-date experience in an MMO, and believe me there are a lot more of us out there than you may think. Plenty enough of us to make Aion the number 2 MMORPG in the West which is what NCSoft is shooting for.
I agree with is and everyone else who has disagreed with the rambling of the OP.
They can adjust a game all day, but they can't help the issue between the keyboard and the chair.
Played: UO, DAoC, AC, WoW, EVE, TR, WAR, Aion, Rift, SWTOR, GW2, TSW, ESO, Elite:D
Play EVE for free for 21 days
WTF are you saying Aion is a nice game but it's nothing like EQ was.... FFS Aion is even more Theme Park than WoW.
Sir, he said it was NOT a review......
Lol, geez Tail, tells us how you REALLY feel. Quit bottling things up.
Lol, geez Tail, tells us how you REALLY feel. Quit bottling things up.
sorry... he obviously wasn't trolling and honestly believed or felt this way so he displayed stupidity with the "said" comment and failure to fluently read and that upsets me sometimes...
"Sometimes people say stuff they don''t mean, but more often then that they don''t say things they do mean"
I stopped there.
You were hardly out of the newbie area by then. I played LOTRO for over a year and your comparisons between the two are completely out of whack.
Half of your post is assumptions on your part. Who told you that you can't change your appearance after character creation? There are NPC's where you can even change gender.
It sounds like you really didn't even want to like the game.
Not everything he said is out of whack. Maybe you are in denial. So far I am extremely disappointed in the visuals after playing AOC and Lord of the Rings Online when playing either of those games with DX10. The weather effects, water, landscape, shadows, atmospherics, just about everything is more detailed in the former games I just mentioned.. i see no real difference in the visuals from either Warhammer or WOW . However, I am not in beta to focus only on visuals. If a game doesn't have good gameplay and isn't fun then it doesn't matter how good the visuals are. That is why I left AOC and why I am still playing LOTRO. I want this game to succeed as an alternative to LOTRO so I have one game more for PVE and one more for PVP. Looking forward to see how the PVP is when I get that level because so far the PVE is extremely boring when compared to the more breathing world and story/ lore of LOTRO. One thing I do like about this game visually is the animations. I wish LOTRO would borrow these animations to improve that game. I also liked the character creation. Another thing that LOTRO needs. I'm not ready to give up on this game because even though I think its disturbing to have to get to level 20+ to enjoy what the game was made for, I need to experience that before I pass judgement. I had a blast when War came out at the early levels when the populations were high which faded over time when people left the game over empty areas, class imbalances, and monotonous game play.
There Is Always Hope!
My friend, if it walks like a duck, etc, etc. From where I'm sitting you posted a review. I see two common refrains from people like yourself who arn'e bashers, but have valid points that are negative by the nature of your conclusions. One is "Don't get me wrong" anticipating the onslaught to come in replies, and "I won't say" and then you did. Almost like pulling punches.
In any case, like most of the unfavorable reviews, opinions, or impressions people for the most part don't want to hear the emperor has no clothes on. I agree with many of the posters who say "wait til xyz" or "try 30+ first". They seem to be sincere, and probably right. But people have to make judgements from the start and come to their own conclusions.
I personally am beginning to sense more problems than I anticipated, based on the number of negatives being posted based not just on opinion, but out of experience. We may not like to hear or read yet another negative post, but surely the volume says something too.
OP has good points. Another thing that was overlooked and something that bothers the hell out of me is the fact that it resembles L2.
I played L2 way too much and I'll be damned if I have to spam soul shards everytime to enpower my skills >_<
You can try to deny it, but this game IS another Korean game. They are just lucky in the fact that they are releasing it at an utterly perfect time. WoW remains popular, but I sense a feeling that people are trying to escape from it. Also, games such as SW:ToR are yet to be completed. Solid Western replacements just don't exist, so people say. WTH I'll try AION.
What pisses me off is that while still in BETA, people will defend it with such tenacity and overlook imperfections that will eventually lead to its downfall.
When it becomes P2P and people have to fork over 15$ to play it, then we'll see where your loyalty lies LOL
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
I got bored of Aion at about level 20ish. Going back to EQ.
From what I have seen it is a fair commentary on the game, certainly personnel preference will vary but what the OP says is largely accurate. That being said, it does have some good elements and I am curious to play some more.
And what is the deal with the cheesy textures? Is that just for OB or is that for live, it really is butt ugly and I tried on my pals good system with all settings up on highest?
--------------------------------
Achiever 60.00%, Socializer 53.00%, Killer 47.00%, Explorer 40.00%
Intel Core i7 Quad, Intel X58 SLi, 6G Corsair XMS DDR3, Intel X-25 SSD, 3 WD Velociraptor SATA SuperTrak SAS EX8650 Array, OCZ 1250W PS, GTX 295, xFi, 32" 1080p LCD
Aion is okay. I haven't leveled very high in the open beta myself, but I can tell the gameplay is fairly polished. Crafting seems to be expensive, which may cause crafted good to be to expensive to sell. However, I am curious to see what can be made by the crafting skills. All in all this is a good game. I believe the developers porting the game to the western world are adding 12 instances for play. I have 2 8600 GTs, which doesn't suck but at 512M are "middle of the road" cards and the game plays fine. Character customization is far superior to any mmo with the exception of AoC. The Aion fanboys will swear that this is not a WoW clone, but the developers have added many WoW-like features and this is undeniable. However, this game is still a good game and it is a breath of fresh air for people who have been playing the same game for 4 or 5 years now.
People also complain the the story is linear. The problem here is once you've leveled a character, many people want to power-level the next one to get them into the end game content. Because of this they end up taking these characters on the same path time and time again. People have to remember that while there may be different starting zones for different races in other MMO's, that everyone ends up on the same quests in the end. I do not think the linear story will affect much for most people.
The open beta has been good. The real game should be nicely done. NCSoft is a good company and tends to bring out quality games.
True Neutral Half-Elf Ranger Mage
Follower Of Silvanus
Kings of Chaos! Free to play! Great PvP!
I enjoyed your review, it was very well written.
I have played Aion from the first CB and I do not see where getting to 10th level "takes too long." I average 3 hours to do it and that is because I stop to pick plants, mine ore, do all the quests and generally goof around. I have tried all the classes, and they all level up at the same rate. If anything, one can critique Aion by saying that the 10 levels happens too fast.
Downtime. What downtime? If 10 to 30 secs of resting after fighting multiple opponents is too much downtime, then yes, Aion is not for you. My priest and warriors both killed foes for upto a half hour before i finally thought, "Wow, my mana is getting low, better rest," or, in case of the warrior who never lost more than 1/8 of his mp bar, it was, "Hmmm... hit points down to 20% I might need to rest", and exactly 8 seconds after hitting the comma (rest toggle) he was fully healthy. All this without, food, bandages or pots.
My mage toons did run out of mana much quicker and more often than the other classes. It seemed after fighting 3 to 8 mobs, a rest was needed. Mana regens far slower than hit points, and thus it was an average of a 30 second sit. However, if I picked a plant, I would find I would regen mana enough for another couple of battles. In short, if you learn to pace yourself, you can go quite a while before having to sit. Compared to Everquest, or even the kill, drink, kill, drink routine of WoW, Aoin is has virtually no downtime.
The Op is right on the sameness of the quests and zones, however. Asmodae, or Elyos, it is all the same. I see this as a major weakness for Aion's longevity in the MMO market, for the making of new toons gets tedious fast. At least in WoW, one can experience a new newb zone for each race; with 3 different 10 lv to 30 lv zones (Per faction) to explore. Of course, once at about 25 to 30, all in the faction experience the same content.
I did not find Aion's graphics all that dated. The Elyos land is so bloom lighted that it has the quality of a matte painting, which gives the impression of stylized graphics, but the asmodae side is very stark and lacks the "lollipop land" graphics and design of the Elyos.
I like Aion, but I do have to wonder how long it will hold my interest. The lands are very linear, though they appear to open up at later levels. The lore is intriguing, but is woefully under developed. The classes are pretty much standard MMO faire, and the quests are not at all very innovative. The major cities are pretty, huge and impressive, yet serve no purpose but to have NPC's scattered over a huge distance so that you spend tons of time just running back and forth. This is the where you get the downtime the OP is concerned about...lol.
Don't get me wrong, Aion is entertaining, and I am having fun with it, but it is far from being "revolutionary." I suppose, it will all come down to how much I like the Abyss, something I have yet to experience.
I stopped reading you review halfway through as it seems you have lost what it means to play an mmorpg.
The statements that "it takes too long to regen" and most of the top half of your review makes me realise you are an immigrant to the mmo generation.
IMO you are from the WoW drivel.
You want everything right now, graphics , gameplay, ease of use etc etc.
Best advice i can give to you is to not play Aion and go and fak off back to warcraft.
Finally.
Yes, yes, yes, and yes. Exactly!
(DISCLAIMER - The use of the word YOU in the above post is not directed at any one person in particular, but towards those who fall into the category itself - there is no personal attack here, neither intentional nor implied.)
Thanks to the OP for a well-articulated opinion (a rare thing on MMORPG.com for sure...).
I also agree with his statement that the mechanics he described are a step back. And btw, why do people think that features from EQ/UO/DAoC are what defines MMORPGs?! As I see it they were a first step into what should become a much better product - with improving technology and a better understanding of what makes such a game fun and immersive. The original idea, imho, was to transport the player into a virtual , story-rich (fantasy) world - and to me that is not about being squeezed through a quest tunnel (well put, OP) and massacre the same mobs over and over for no apparent reason whatsoever.
I like the game very much and I do recommend it as an MMO.
But as most MMOs go, repeatable content. No change here with Aion. I played til 10 and ascension on both sides and the same creatures with different shades and colors seen over and over again for the grind.
And the only other thing I can mention without typing out as much as you did is I found Pandemonium to be shabby and drab, even though there are alot of flowers everywhere. I was sort of disappointed. I loved Elysium.
Having an ATI Radeon some of the effects stick out and are really beautiful for me. That was nice.
And if you look at other asian games, I have tried Perfect World and Lineage 2, graphics are on the average the same, a tad better. That style is not for everyone.
I find it very similar to the Blizzard game World Of Warcraft with a few added NCSoft additions.
I believe it is worth the hype score that it gets here on mmorpg.com.
Only thing I think is that it is going to be hard for PlayNC to hold onto players once they hit 50. And I think alot of people are going to try the game. As I said above in my opinion it is well worth its hype score.
I think it is just an average MMO. But I also think it is very good and I will be playing it for some time. I like the artwork. Don't be surprised if doesn't finish with a 9.0 rating.
GlassEye
I agree with the OP pretty much. Apart from the downtime - I think that tuning the way one fights to minimise downtime adds a little bit of strategy to gameplay. And I played a nuker, mostly solo.
I say played, as I've decided to not go any further than open beta, after experiencing the game up to this point. I see nothing that makes this game stand out, and a number of design decisions which I really didnt like. I think this is one of the most over-hyped games I've come across in a long time. I think the anticipation alot of people have for this game just reflects the stagnant unimaginative state of the MMO industry at this time.
Exhuming old MMO concepts from the like of EQ and UO believe it or not is NOT a bad thing. Just because time passes and technology advances in a "better" way, you should not be foolish enough to think the same of game concepts and design.
As history prooves in various forms, concepts and design are often changed with good intentions but result in a detrimental outcome and MMO's are no exception to this. This is why UO still has more features and ground-breaking concepts then the average popular MMO's today and why developers are furiously trying to remake a modern sandbox UO (Mortal Online, Darkfall etc).
Just accept, sometimes people get it right first time, it gets "improved" and then gets fucked up. That's life. Going back to old EQ UO concepts just MIGHT not be bad thing.
Aion will sell game boxes and have a tough time keeping subs it is an average game for todays standards and if some changes come down the road it might keep some subs if not there will be a new mmo just down the road.
Jihad works both ways
MAGA
I more or less agree with the OP, and appreciate he took the time to share his impressions.
For me, it was not another WoW or even EQ2, either would have been fine. I found the simplified background graphics disappointing, the very detailed character graphics twee to the point of nausia - I know cute is a big thing in Asia, but my Western sensibilities found it distracting to say the least. Most of all, I found game play to be awkward and lacking in the natural flow I've become used to in AAA MMORPGs since even before WoW. Especially the way the scene turns when you hold the right mouse button down, instead of the whole character, so character movement with the mouse-only (which I prefer over using the keys) is awkward.
No one thing really killed it for me, it was the overall feel of the game. It wasn't at all the game I hoped it would be. Obviously some love it. But it's not for me, not even close.