Experienced MMO Player's "No Bullshit" Review of Aion

garbonzo · October 2009

Originally posted by Zeppelin4

Your review was awful. I know this because I have been gaming since Pong.

LOL

Actually I wasn't offended at the list of games - nice review. Of course it helps that I largely agree with the points made.

Elwalpo · October 2009

Originally posted by //\//\oo

Originally posted by Sovrath

The resume doesn't really convince me. Just because you have played all those games doesn't mean that your opinion is going to be better than someone else's?

What matters most is if you can assess what Aion is suposed to be doing and is it doing it well? Can it be compared to other games of similar type and if so how does it compare?

I've played far more games than that and would never think to put my game resume down so that others can feel that I have more to say on the subject.

Your review is ok in my opinion. Some of the things are non-issues and shouldn't have been mentioned. I mean, swimming? Really? There really is no reason to swim. As the head dev said, they aren't going to put swimming in until it actually matters. Heck, LOTRO has far more areas where one could swim and it doesn't have that.

What, you want my education too? If that's the case, then let's compare and go right to dick size while we're at it!

Xfire, aionarmory.

I don't give a shit.

Some people like to swim and almost every game on the market has swimming in one form or another. Maybe there's a reason for that?

first off, wish people would just grow up and get to the dam point. Second i dont give a rats A$$ about who has the bigger dick size but after reading these arguments both was acting like dicks lol. But to get to the point, the games played review doesnt really bother me and after reading the review and actually seeing a couple of videos my point is clear i will not give this game a try. Thanks for the review it helped out alot for me saving my money. thanks again. /thumbsup

//\//\oo · October 2009

Originally posted by Sovrath

p.
I would go so far as to say better than AoC's because one can actually change the look of the character as opposed to AoC where I still look like the cousin of the original face I was altering. However, in some ways it is not as powerful as something like Oblivion's, even with some of the wonky things that the Oblvion tool does. Otherwise I agree.
Not true: In AoC you can modify the facial dimensions as you can in Aion; I've created my own array of freaks (in both games) . If you want the best creation possible for an MMO, then try City of Heroes/Champions Online.

<Text wall>

The other complaint players have is that there aren't enough quests. My own experience shows that there are quests but that people aren't finding them because they aren't revisiting older areas. Personally I like this because I hate the idea of areas being for one level range and moving on. having a broader range for players allows an area to be a little less throw away. However, having said that I will iterate that some of these quests are just excuses to grind. If one hates that then there are issues.
Way too subjective to comment properly: I think that the quality of Aion quests vs. WoW quests (vanilla) is generally a bit lower, but I didn't factor that in; the number of quests you might do in WoW might be around the same, but you have MANY choices and that counts as content in at least the form of replay value.
Aion has roughly half of the quests available to a player that WoW did at release, so I think that poor is a rather generous rating.

choices actually do influence class play style
Skills => Stigmas. Gear might influence play style, but that has nothing to do with skills that define your character; you could carry an offset of gear on your main just for that case. The stigma choices are generally relegated to the advanced stigmas, which only permit a couple paths at most.

toddze · October 2009

I have never played Aion nor do I intend to because this review and other reviews confirms what I researched of the game to begin with pre-launch.

One thing that kinda strikes a nerve with me is, and its not just the OP, to many people do it, it is listing the games they played. IMO there is a differnce in playing a game and just trying a game. Some people have a god awfull list of games they "played" There is no way in hell they could actually play through and see all the game. Just a pet peve of mine.

//\//\oo · October 2009

Originally posted by toddze

I have never played Aion nor do I intend to because this review and other reviews confirms what I researched of the game to begin with pre-launch.
One thing that kinda strikes a nerve with me is, and its not just the OP, to many people do it, it is listing the games they played. IMO there is a differnce in playing a game and just trying a game. Some people have a god awfull list of games they "played" There is no way in hell they could actually play through and see all the game. Just a pet peve of mine.

Those are games I actually played for a month, or more, or at least got high enough to see a fair bit of the content and what the game was about.

I'm a casual player, so I rarely "play a game through".

junzo316 · October 2009

I thought it was a very good review. I think you stated things that a lot of gamers look for in their MMO experience....like swimming. Kudos on a job well done and a good read.

Frostbite05 · October 2009

Originally posted by //\//\oo

Credentials

Games Played: WoW, EQ2, EQ, AO, VG, AoC, WAR, RO, FFXI, CoH/CoV, Ryzom,

CoS, LoTRO and many free to play games.

Maximum Level Attained in Aion: 30

Visual/Aural Appeal

Graphics (Awesome):
Some of the best character models of any MMO to date. Textures

can be bland, however.

Visual Character Customization (Awesome):
One of the best to date; on par with AoC’s.

Performance (Good):
2 gb ram, 2 ghz processor, 256 MB card, 15-60 fps depending on player density.

Audio (Good):
Ambient music is good quality; some combat music might be too anime-like.

Visual Content (Average):
There is not much visual diversity in the world of Aion; the variation among armor and even weapons is mostly based off of their quality (white, green, blue, orange).

Game Play

Content (Poor): I'll give you the quest thing but there are a ton of dungeons for people to crawl through in both Elyos and Asmo areas as well as the abyss to those whose faction captured forts

About half of WoW’s vanilla quest content as can be verified through aionarmory.com and wowhead.com. Few instances, few races, nothing but the usual, but with less of it.

Exploration (Horrible): Average: The zones are pretty damn cool though i do agree there aren't many

Although there are three degrees of freedom, the zones are generally very confined and linear. Swimming is not possible and landmass is much smaller than that of other popular games.

Immersion (Awful): Your joking right the story is pretty damn good compared to most today. It is far from tacked on and if you actually read the quests as well as listen to the cut scenes you really get an understanding on whats happening in the world.

The story is not well written and seems tacked on. There is not much attention to detail when compared to other games and there is little to accommodate RP (i.e. lack of RP items).

Combat (Good):Same but i have to argue one point. They aren't using Wow's template for mage and warlock like classes. They are using the standard mmo template that can be found in just about every game prior to WoW.
Additional cool down in the form of animation, but generally fluid. Some classes are trivial to play, while others are more complex; those that are more complex (sorcerer, spiritmaster) are nearly WoW templates (mage, warlock). CC is present and plays a major role; twitch is not much of a factor for most classes, except for a couple. Generally there are a lot of buttons to push.

Character Skill Customization (Awful):Totally agree but to be honest every game has a cookie cutter spec so no matter how much you customize your skills if you aren't that one spec your still subpar.
Can only select from a small pool of skills and requirements usually constrain to a couple choices. Choices do not influence class play style.

Crafting (Average):Same
Take basic crafting, add more randomness, add quests and you have Aion crafting.

Player vs. Player (Subjective):
Good rewards and significant disparity between PvE/PvP items in the form of PvP damage bonuses. Rifts are few and randomly allow access to SOME PvE areas of the opposing faction. Most PvP confined to Abyss, which is a large area with different tiers that has PvE advancement and fortress sieges. Consumables play a MAJOR role.

Character Advancement Pace (Poor):Average. I do agree on the fact that there are dry spells. Theres really no way to get around that. NCSOFTS already looking into adding more quests as well as increasing the xp rewarded.
There will be gaps while leveling where the quests run dry (only repeatable ones remain). New skills are gained every 3 levels or so.

You make many valid points but severely over exaggerate some of them. Once again like every other post on these forums about this game its all very biased. If you wanna know how good a game is or if you will like it your gonna have to try it out for yourself. There is no magically answer that will make you love a game.

TheCalamity · October 2009

I play aion, and i agree................with pretty much everything. Good review, to bad theres always those fanboys out there that have to say something when someone states their opinion and it shatters their little worlds and lack of a life (honestly, not pointing any fingers here).

supbro · October 2009

Typical WoW fangirl review, couldn't handle a more complex and challenging game. Aion wont spoonfeed you levels and hand you free epics, i guess you will have return to your easymode 5 year old game now.

Also just a reminder this very distiguished site reviewed Aion and the best released game EVER. So take OPs biased review flush it down the toilet where it belongs...

GetViolated · October 2009

i thought the review was pretty good except the graphics part

the graphics in this game are piss poor

Database82 · October 2009

Review was pretty much right on target, but I also disagree with the graphics rating. I would probably give it a good over the awesome. The graphics are nice, but there are better looking MMO's out or coming out (AoC, Global Agenda, APB).

JeroKane · October 2009

Originally posted by supbro

Typical WoW fangirl review, couldn't handle a more complex and challenging game. Aion wont spoonfeed you levels and hand you free epics, i guess you will have return to your easymode 5 year old game now.
Also just a reminder this very distiguished site reviewed Aion and the best released game EVER. So take OPs biased review flush it down the toilet where it belongs...

HA HA HA HA! You made my day man! What a joke.

Sorry tho. I played WoW back then for almost 2 years till shortly after TBC and WoW surely has more complexity than AION will ever have.

The only complexity AION has over WoW, is that the controls are buggy / non-fluid most of the time (don't start me on the TAB targetting joke mess).

And no spoonfeeding in AION? How about the auto follow huh? Can't get any easier than that.

And having large content gaps, wich forces you to mindlessly grind thousands of mobs to level up isn't what I would call more complexity. It rather asks you to shut down all your brainfunctions to be able to do it.

So please. But good laugh anyway tho.

luciusETRUR · October 2009

Originally posted by supbro

Typical WoW fangirl review, couldn't handle a more complex and challenging game. Aion wont spoonfeed you levels and hand you free epics, i guess you will have return to your easymode 5 year old game now.
Also just a reminder this very distiguished site reviewed Aion and the best released game EVER. So take OPs biased review flush it down the toilet where it belongs...

Aion is somehow hard and complex...?

supbro · October 2009

Originally posted by Guillermo197

Originally posted by supbro

Typical WoW fangirl review, couldn't handle a more complex and challenging game. Aion wont spoonfeed you levels and hand you free epics, i guess you will have return to your easymode 5 year old game now.
Also just a reminder this very distiguished site reviewed Aion and the best released game EVER. So take OPs biased review flush it down the toilet where it belongs...

HA HA HA HA! You made my day man! What a joke.

Sorry tho. I played WoW back then for almost 2 years till shortly after TBC and WoW surely has more complexity than AION will ever have.

The only complexity AION has over WoW, is that the controls are buggy / non-fluid most of the time (don't start me on the TAB targetting joke mess).

And no spoonfeeding in AION? How about the auto follow huh? Can't get any easier than that.

And having large content gaps, wich forces you to mindlessly grind thousands of mobs to level up isn't what I would call more complexity. It rather asks you to shut down all your brainfunctions to be able to do it.

So please. But good laugh anyway tho.

Sorry we must be playing different games. Every level up until 36 my quest log has been full and have to constantly keep deleting quests to add more important ones. Like i said you wont be spoonfed levels and epic gear here.

Also combat is very smooth for me, so the problem seems to be on your end.

Everything you listed i disagree with, so the joke is on you.

Predator160 · October 2009

Originally posted by Guillermo197

Originally posted by supbro

Typical WoW fangirl review, couldn't handle a more complex and challenging game. Aion wont spoonfeed you levels and hand you free epics, i guess you will have return to your easymode 5 year old game now.
Also just a reminder this very distiguished site reviewed Aion and the best released game EVER. So take OPs biased review flush it down the toilet where it belongs...

HA HA HA HA! You made my day man! What a joke.

Sorry tho. I played WoW back then for almost 2 years till shortly after TBC and WoW surely has more complexity than AION will ever have.

The only complexity AION has over WoW, is that the controls are buggy / non-fluid most of the time (don't start me on the TAB targetting joke mess).

And no spoonfeeding in AION? How about the auto follow huh? Can't get any easier than that.

And having large content gaps, wich forces you to mindlessly grind thousands of mobs to level up isn't what I would call more complexity. It rather asks you to shut down all your brainfunctions to be able to do it.

So please. But good laugh anyway tho.

you said u havent played since shortly after TBC...

...uh a lot has happened since TBC ...blizzard has really noobified WOW since then ...and probably even more since i quit 4 months ago...i quit when i realized they were handing out free epics in VoA and Sarth...but yea if u played WoW again u would realize that's its no more complex then mario on the super nintendo

JeroKane · October 2009

Originally posted by supbro

Originally posted by Guillermo197

HA HA HA HA! You made my day man! What a joke.
Sorry tho. I played WoW back then for almost 2 years till shortly after TBC and WoW surely has more complexity than AION will ever have.
The only complexity AION has over WoW, is that the controls are buggy / non-fluid most of the time (don't start me on the TAB targetting joke mess).
And no spoonfeeding in AION? How about the auto follow huh? Can't get any easier than that.
And having large content gaps, wich forces you to mindlessly grind thousands of mobs to level up isn't what I would call more complexity. It rather asks you to shut down all your brainfunctions to be able to do it.
So please. But good laugh anyway tho.

Sorry we must be playing different games. Every level up until 36 my quest log has been full and have to constantly keep deleting quests to add more important ones. Like i said you wont be spoonfed levels and epic gear here. Everything you listed i disagree with, so the joke is on you.

LOL! In the two years I have been playing WoW back then, I can't remember ever been spoonfed in any way. Sertainly no more then in AION.

And handing out Epixx for free? Yeah right. I had to bust my ass off to get one single piece of Epic gear. So please. It's one of the single most reasons (next to the horrible kiddie community) I quit WoW back then. Was just way too time consuming.

And ALT-tabbing isn't bugged? Auto Following target was just my imagination and doesn't exist? I hardly believe you even played AION at all and you are just plain stupid trolling!

As even the diehard AION fans, who continue to sub, admit there are large content gaps after level30. And sertainly after level40.

Some misserable repeatable quests that give you less XP then a single epic mob of that level doesn't count. So please.

I am not here to defend WoW, as I haven't played it in a long long time. But that game had a lot more depth, options, content and diversity (not appearance customisation...that still sucks BIG TIME in WoW) then AION will ever have. Even before TBC already.

If this game was so much better then WoW or any other game out there. Had no grind, bla bla. Yada Yada. Then so many people wouldn't be botting and buying Kinah already. They would actually play the game.

superslaya · October 2009

Originally posted by Goob

I assure you I read the review (lol). I was just saying that upon a glance, thats how I saw it. I still read the whole thing, it still felt arrogant. I was just speaking like that for dramatic effect, I apologize for not being clear.
My beef, besides the first section which is just laughable, was that he can so easily say aspects of the game are AWFUL.
The fact that I disagree with him on some of his points is irrelevant. It's just frustrating to see so many decent works of game development get thrashed to nothing by people with who don't like them. This and the painfully rude 6.9 that FE got today..... Cman guys, think of the devs working their asses off to get make these games as best as they can. We need be more respectful. I noticed he used the word "Poor" elsewhere, which in my opinion would've sufficed in these other sections that he found to be rather abysmal.
You want to see some AWFUL immersion in a game? Go play minesweeper.

Yeah, guys, let's start using a politically correct rating system. From hence forth any quality you might rate as "Awful" must be referred to as "Beta Features."

Pelaaja · October 2009

Originally posted by //\//\oo

Originally posted by toddze

I have never played Aion nor do I intend to because this review and other reviews confirms what I researched of the game to begin with pre-launch.
One thing that kinda strikes a nerve with me is, and its not just the OP, to many people do it, it is listing the games they played. IMO there is a differnce in playing a game and just trying a game. Some people have a god awfull list of games they "played" There is no way in hell they could actually play through and see all the game. Just a pet peve of mine.

Those are games I actually played for a month, or more, or at least got high enough to see a fair bit of the content and what the game was about.

I'm a casual player, so I rarely "play a game through".

In other words, you are just skimming through games so you can write them down into your resume. And just IMO Aion isn't for the casual. It started from the east, where you pay per hour. That's why games that origin from there are huge time sinks. If you don't like it, then you don't like it.

The following isn't pointed only towards you, but quite a few other MMORPG.com wisemen (wiseguys, I say) too.

How about if you someday really started playing a modern MMO instead of just longing for UO or some other long forgotten title and listing things that aren't in newer games.

If you're still looking for the MMO Messiah, you need to keep looking for. Aion isn't that, neither will any of the games announced to release in the near be. It might even be, there will never be such Messiah.

supbro · October 2009

Originally posted by Guillermo197

Originally posted by supbro

Originally posted by Guillermo197

HA HA HA HA! You made my day man! What a joke.
Sorry tho. I played WoW back then for almost 2 years till shortly after TBC and WoW surely has more complexity than AION will ever have.
The only complexity AION has over WoW, is that the controls are buggy / non-fluid most of the time (don't start me on the TAB targetting joke mess).
And no spoonfeeding in AION? How about the auto follow huh? Can't get any easier than that.
And having large content gaps, wich forces you to mindlessly grind thousands of mobs to level up isn't what I would call more complexity. It rather asks you to shut down all your brainfunctions to be able to do it.
So please. But good laugh anyway tho.