Home › Game Forums › Aion
Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Experienced MMO Player's "No Bullshit" Review of Aion
This discussion has been closed.
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Comments
best aion review ever
I think this is a good review and pretty much sums up the reasons that many players are becoming "disenchanted" with Aion. Good post, OP.
(btw, as you've already discovered, listing your "credentials" is an invitation to be flamed; your review would have held up just as well if you had left it out)
My answers in blue.
I also won't be subscribing to this game because I simply do not have the time to put in it would require to reach level 50 and participate in the end-game PvP that I wanted to. It is unfortunate, but I am did get about month worth of entertainment out of the box, so I am content.
Not a great game or a bad game. It is not something I would recommend to people, especially if they are already bored with games like WoW. Aion offers very little new and getting to the fun bits takes too long (at least for me at the moment).
"The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in."
Excellent review OP, on par with exactly what I've experienced. One thing I would add is the seamless integration with the website so you can check your character's stats view quests is pretty neat.
If you want a polished cookie cutter MMO Aion is for you.
But almost everything you said was subjective. There are few, if any, "facts" in your review.
It is, at most, a set of opinions "unclouded" by evidence, explanation, or valid comparisons.
Hell hath no fury like an MMORPG player scorned.
But almost everything you said was subjective. There are few, if any, "facts" in your review.
It is, at most, a set of opinions "unclouded" by evidence, explanation, or valid comparisons.
There isn't THAT much subjectivity in my post.
Few races => Fact
Little quest content => Fact
Little variation in armor/weapon design => Fact
Performance with specs listed => Fact
Swimming not possible and few RP items => Fact
Smaller landmass compared to other games => Fact
Crafting one click with added quests and more randomness => Fact
PvP description in my review => Fact
Few instances => Fact
Combat description => Fact
Etc.
There are definitely some subjective parts in my review, but they don't encompass the entire review. The colored ratings were definitely subjective.
This is a sequence of characters intended to produce some profound mental effect, but it has failed.
A "No Bullshit" review means choke full of bullshit.
Your opinion isn't more "qualified" than any other opinion.
I've played those games and few others, but hell, that doesn't make me Super MMO Guy, with leet reviewing skills that all should harken to!!
Get over yourself.
If some one likes Aion they'll play and give about as much interest in your review as five year old has in Income Tax.
D&D Home Page - What Class Are You? - Build A Character - D&D Compendium
They comprise my basis of comparison.
Maybe you should get over yourself, since you're the tough guy talking shit over the internet.
This is a sequence of characters intended to produce some profound mental effect, but it has failed.
But almost everything you said was subjective. There are few, if any, "facts" in your review.
It is, at most, a set of opinions "unclouded" by evidence, explanation, or valid comparisons.
There isn't THAT much subjectivity in my post.
Few races => Fact Great but it doesn't have to have a lot of races. A game based on the ww II would have humans. Not every game has to throw in tons of races.
Little quest content => Fact I still refute this to a point. I have tons of quests in my journal that I don't get around to. I can't speak beyond 32 though as I haven't gotten that far. Yet I did get to 32 in about a week and a half. That is more than halfway to level cap. My thought is that players want a more even leveling curve that they find in other games. Personally I don't think it's needed as the game has been extremely easy to level in up to this point. But there was a lvl 14 who was asking around for quests which we had to point him the way. Last night I grouped with a lvl 21 who said he had done all the quests and I was sitting with this alternate character at lvl 26 with tons of quests in my book. Yet he wouldn't listen to me when I was giving him places to go. He just wanted to quest in an area many levels beyond his level.
Little variation in armor/weapon design => Fact as much as any other game that I've seen. Evequest 2 at launch didn't have tons of variation, as a matter of fact I still to this day see very little variation at lvls low up to mid. LOTRO has very little as well and what they do have is a joke. so you will have to list the game or games that you think has more and I will be happy to look into them.
Performance with specs listed => Fact
Swimming not possible and few RP items => Fact Swimming is not needed as there are no places to swim that even matter fact. And you didn't answer the first time when I asked, what rp items are you actually looking for that other games have and Aion doesn't? There are formal wear outfits of different sorts and some holiday outfits. You can fight with a ladle or a fish or a giant piece of corn if you want. You can also transform yourself into an evil Corn thing or a dragon. I see goggles, glasses and all sorts of hats.
Smaller landmass compared to other games => Fact the starter areas and even the second area you go to is smaller that is true. The next areas are much more open. but the land areas do seem more linear, this was a dissapointment for me as well.
Crafting one click with added quests and more randomness => Fact that is true the crafting does have randomness but this is held over from the idea that koreans like to gamble and think there is a fun in randomness. I find this a bit odd as they stated they designed the game with a global community in mind. However, if you fill your self with divine power you will find that the randomness gets stacked in your favor.
PvP description in my review => Fact
Few instances => Fact I posted a list of instances, there are quite a few. Also training grounds is missing from the list so it is possible that there are a few more as well not listed. http://www.aionarmory.com/search.aspx?browse=3.4
Combat description => Fact
Etc.
There are definitely some subjective parts in my review, but they don't encompass the entire review. The colored ratings were definitely subjective.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
This is a sequence of characters intended to produce some profound mental effect, but it has failed.
We'll just call those group areas. They seem to be mostly 30 up except for training grounds.
And there is a difference between a campaing quest and the regular quests? If you are going to list quests then list all of them. There are more than 74 quests on each side in the game.
This link indicates 2,353 were found.
http://www.aionarmory.com/search.aspx?browse=4.2
There are 1,202 Asmodian quests and 1,178 Elyos normal quests. Not campagin quests. And my sense is that there must be more than 100 quests added to wow over the span of 5 years with expansions as well as updates. Is there an actual llist of content that vanilla wow included?
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
We'll just call those group areas. They seem to be mostly 30 up except for training grounds.
And there is a difference between a campaing quest and the regular quests? If you are going to list quests then list all of them. There are more than 74 quests on each side in the game.
This link indicates 2,353 were found.
http://www.aionarmory.com/search.aspx?browse=4.2
There are 1,202 Asmodian quests and 1,178 Elyos normal quests. Not campagin quests. And my sense is that there must be more than 100 quests added to wow over the span of 5 years with expansions as well as updates. Is there an actual llist of content that vanilla wow included?
.... Are you serious? I just listed all of the normal quests AND campaign quests. Did I have to add them together explicitly as well, or what's the problem?
Basically what I had just posted, reiterated for some unknown reason. Those quests I had listed were 1-60 quests; the expansion added less than 100 quests for 58-60 (as evinced by the hellfire achievement). There are literally over 8000 quests if you were to include ALL OF THE EXPANSIONS (so more than 4000 quests that can be done by each faction).
This is a sequence of characters intended to produce some profound mental effect, but it has failed.
I am not certain why you think Aion is a hard game to play, I thought it pretty simple mouse and keyboard cruncher, just go search for mobs and kill away for as long as you can. The amounts of xp you get from quests relative to the amount you need to level tails off the higher you progress through the level system, so you end up spending most time grinding. Where's the skill in that?
We'll just call those group areas. They seem to be mostly 30 up except for training grounds.
And there is a difference between a campaing quest and the regular quests? If you are going to list quests then list all of them. There are more than 74 quests on each side in the game.
This link indicates 2,353 were found.
http://www.aionarmory.com/search.aspx?browse=4.2
There are 1,202 Asmodian quests and 1,178 Elyos normal quests. Not campagin quests. And my sense is that there must be more than 100 quests added to wow over the span of 5 years with expansions as well as updates. Is there an actual llist of content that vanilla wow included?
.... Are you serious? I just listed all of the normal quests AND campaign quests. Did I have to add them together explicitly as well, or what's the problem?
Basically what I had just posted, reiterated for some unknown reason. Those quests I had listed were 1-60 quests; the expansion added less than 100 quests for 58-60 (as evinced by the hellfire achievement). There are literally over 8000 quests if you were to include ALL OF THE EXPANSIONS (so more than 4000 quests that can be done by each faction).
What's the issue? I am listing the quests that Elyos and Asmo have in the game at launch. You listed the quests that wow has but I see no differentiation as to what was actually there at launch. You didn't have to add them together so I don't understand what your issue is.
The list you give is fine but it only lists quests 1-60, not quests 1-60 that were there at launch and then differentiate quests that were added later for the 1-60 range.
Ah I see where the issue is. You had listed the addtional quests in other "boxes" but I initially saw the one box and was confused as it seemed that you were just saying there were "74 quests etc" I then later realized that the additional boxes below it was your same post. Sometimes all the boxes withing boxes is bothersome.
In any case my point still stands and I am looking for the info of how many quests did wiow have at launch. Since this is the point you are using.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
What's the issue? I am listing the quests that Elyos and Asmo have in the game at launch. You listed the quests that wow has but I see no differentiation as to what was actually there at launch. You didn't have to add them together so I don't understand what your issue is.
The list you give is fine but it only lists quests 1-60, not quests 1-60 that were there at launch and then differentiate quests that were added later for the 1-60 range.
Ah I see where the issue is. You had listed the addtional quests in other "boxes" but I initially saw the one box and was confused as it seemed that you were just saying there were "74 quests etc" I then later realized that the additional boxes below it was your same post. Sometimes all the boxes withing boxes is bothersome.
In any case my point still stands and I am looking for the info of how many quests did wiow have at launch. Since this is the point you are using.
.... There were far less than 100 quests added in the 1-60 range, yet I subtracted 100 to give you the benefit of the doubt. The lvl 60 quests actually end early on in hellfire peninsula, so I'm really being generous by removing 100 instead of just 60. The level of quest is generally the maximum mob level, so consider that mobs in the Hellfire go up to 64 and that you're only required to do 80 quests to get the achievement. In fact, you can't even get quests in Hellfire until level 58, which pits you up against 59-61 mobs. The rest of the quest content that was later added was mostly in dustwallow marsh and it's certainly less than 20 quests.
Most of the quest content is actually in WoTLK, which makes sense, since the best way to level is through quests at that point.
Most of the content that players experience 1-60, regardless of faction, was there at release. Spin it all you'd like, but WoW had way more quest content than Aion does currently: Even if I were to go all out and subtract 200 quests, the quest content in WoW would still nearly be twice as much as that in Aion.
This is a sequence of characters intended to produce some profound mental effect, but it has failed.
What's the issue? I am listing the quests that Elyos and Asmo have in the game at launch. You listed the quests that wow has but I see no differentiation as to what was actually there at launch. You didn't have to add them together so I don't understand what your issue is.
The list you give is fine but it only lists quests 1-60, not quests 1-60 that were there at launch and then differentiate quests that were added later for the 1-60 range.
Ah I see where the issue is. You had listed the addtional quests in other "boxes" but I initially saw the one box and was confused as it seemed that you were just saying there were "74 quests etc" I then later realized that the additional boxes below it was your same post. Sometimes all the boxes withing boxes is bothersome.
In any case my point still stands and I am looking for the info of how many quests did wiow have at launch. Since this is the point you are using.
.... There were far less than 100 quests added in the 1-60 range, yet I subtracted 100 to give you the benefit of the doubt. The lvl 60 quests actually end early on in hellfire peninsula, so I'm really being generous by removing 100 instead of just 60. The level of quest is generally the maximum mob level, so consider that mobs in the Hellfire go up to 64 and that you're only required to do 80 quests to get the achievement. In fact, you can't even get quests in Hellfire until level 58, which pits you up against 59-61 mobs. The rest of the quest content that was later added was mostly in dustwallow marsh and it's certainly less than 20 quests.
Most of the quest content is actually in WoTLK, which makes sense, since the best way to level is through quests at that point.
Most of the content that players experience 1-60, regardless of faction, was there at release. Spin it all you'd like, but WoW had way more quest content than Aion does currently: Even if I were to go all out and subtract 200 quests, the quest content in WoW would still nearly be twice as much as that in Aion.
ok so let's say for argument sake that there were only 200 or so quests added since launch for 1-60 range. Do other games also release with the same 2000+ quests on either side or is your argument that Aion doesn't compare to wow? also keep in mind that some of the wow quests are race specific. So most games will have 2000+ quests per faction, side whatever your choice over the 1000+ of Aion? If that is the case then yes, it would seem that Aion fell down quite short. Or is this just a comparison of WoW? Can I then look at LOTRO and see that LOTRO had about the same amount of quests as Aion at Launch? Or EQ 2?
So let's bring it back to the point. There are well over 1000+ quests for either side in Aion. that's still quite a bit for people to be complaining that there are no quests.
edit: It would appear, according to the LOTRO database under stats on the left, that LOTRO at this time has 2874 quests after all the updates and books. So say 1,696 quests were added over the 2 or so years that it has been out over say the Elyos side in Aion at launch. That's not really huge considering there were many books added and an expansion.
http://lotro.mmodb.com/quests/
I wonder how other games compare, even after all these years.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
I have not played Aion and do not intend to pay for it until I see the free trial. But... there are for me alot of positives about the game, considering some of the disasters I have been playing for the last year.
First off - Quantity does not mean Quality. IF you dont belive me - then go play WAR. IT has plenty of alot of things but alot of it is buggy - broken - or simply just crap. And you think patches are improving that game ? Last patch actually broke so many parts of the game with small - annoying bug that I for one can't belive that ppl are beeing charged for this madness.
I personally think Aion is building a strong foundation for the future with stable core systems and good performance. They also have very nailed down classes so balancing is easier than in many of the other PVP/RVR oriented games that have 10-20 classes and endless issues to balance them for PVP and PVE.
But about the swiming part. I think thats poor developing choise to not allow ppl to swim. I think this will be changed cause it is gamebreaking feature for many ppl. There are methods to create water bounderies in other ways than to prevent ppl to swim and let them drown.
You are absolutely correct Frobner. Except that are no places to swim in Aion that I know of. The largest body of water that I have seen is on the Elyos side around Vertiron fortess. And it's essentially part of a river that is about up to your thighs. There are no huge lakes and the only place that I know of off hand that has the no swimming issue is a part in the new player zone that has an invisible wall just as the water gets deep so that you start going deeper and then hit the wall.
Of course this is one of my complaints and why I wonder if NC actually has the ability to Make Aion into the finely tuned detail oriented game that people want. Which of course then brings in the WoW eqation. The one thing that Blizzard does extremely well, like their games or not, is that they are very detail oriented. I would go so far as to say that no game that I know of is as detail oriented as WoW.
NC has never been great with details. Heck, for quite some time in Lineage 2, at launch, there were issues with certain debuffs not showing up correctly when applied or when they would vanish. So you would get a message "the effect of none has been removed".
"None" was the place holder for a vareity of things. But they dealt with it after a few updates.
Even worse, and this is a sin in my eyes, currently there are giant open seems in the L2 world. If anyone has fooled around with the Oblivion toolset and you accidentally were messing with a dungeon and you moved a dungeon section to see the grey of the game engine (or whatever it really is) then you would know what I mean.
And it's been like this for quite some time and they still haven't fixed it (at least as of my last login which was about 2 or so months ago).
Blizzard would never allow that to remain. This is why I do question whether NC really has what it takes. Oh sure, in my opinion Aion is a pretty good showing at a decently polished game. But can NC bring up all their standards? Such as not being able to add an ingame customer service report. I mean, what's up with that?
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Of course his review was subjective, all reviews are. I found this one less subjective and more objective than almost any other review I have read. I do play Aion. (at least until the 29th)
Listing prior games just gives the reader a sense of where the author is coming from. The fact that so many people were horrified that he would list the games he played is just weird. Why does that upset you? You are assuming arrogance, but that's entirely subjective...
Excellent review, i wish I had been able to read it a month ago. I would have saved myself some money and a whole lot of aggravation.
ok so let's say for argument sake that there were only 200 or so quests added since launch for 1-60 range. Do other games also release with the same 2000+ quests on either side or is your argument that Aion doesn't compare to wow? also keep in mind that some of the wow quests are race specific. So most games will have 2000+ quests per faction, side whatever your choice over the 1000+ of Aion? If that is the case then yes, it would seem that Aion fell down quite short. Or is this just a comparison of WoW? Can I then look at LOTRO and see that LOTRO had about the same amount of quests as Aion at Launch? Or EQ 2?
So let's bring it back to the point. There are well over 1000+ quests for either side in Aion. that's still quite a bit for people to be complaining that there are no quests.
edit: It would appear, according to the LOTRO database under stats on the left, that LOTRO at this time has 2874 quests after all the updates and books. So say 1,696 quests were added over the 2 or so years that it has been out over say the Elyos side in Aion at launch. That's not really huge considering there were many books added and an expansion.
http://lotro.mmodb.com/quests/
I wonder how other games compare, even after all these years.
WoW is the most played MMO in the west in all of MMO history, so to me it is the bronze standard.
This is a sequence of characters intended to produce some profound mental effect, but it has failed.
About WoW quests:
World of Warcraft Quests: By The (Insane) Numbers
by Nick Breckon and Chris Faylor Mar 26, 2009 7:26pm CST tags: World of Warcraft, Blizzard, GDC 09, MMO
It wasn't all mistakes and regrets for former World of Warcraft director Jeffery Kaplan during today's "The Cruise Director of Azeroth" panel at GDC.
The jam-packed presentation also saw the release of many World of Warcraft statistics, including the average number of quests completed daily, and the circumstances that led to the extremely popular MMO sporting, at last count, some 7650 different quests.
* Between 6/30/2007 and 3/5/2009, some 8,570,222,436 quests were completed in the World of Warcraft.
* Daily average of quests completed: 16,641,209
Kaplan, now working on Blizzard's next MMO, talked about designing the original release of World of Warcraft, saying that the first total quest target was 600. This number was a result of needing to compete with EverQuest's estimated 1200 quests--a total that he and others estimated by looking at EverQuest "spoiler sites."
The team designed a game with enough quests to keep players busy, but not so many that they didn't run out occasionally--which turned out to be a contentious issue within the studio.
Said Kaplan: "And then we went into alpha, [and testers were] going, 'What the fuck?' Because we focused so hard on the newbie experience, you're going to have a totally quest-driven game... and we did that, and we had the internal alpha, I think it ended around level 10."
While players of other MMOs might be used to running out of quests, the other Blizzard designers "wouldn't stand for it."
"All of the other teams were coming to the WoW team and saying, 'This is BS, my quest log is broken.'"
"We were comparing ourselves to other games, and we found that WoW had evolved into its own thing that felt really broken any time you had an empty quest log."
As a result, the following statistics were presented:
* Target total quests for original WoW release: 600
* Original WoW total quests: 2600
* Burning Crusade: 5300
* Wrath of the Lich King: 7650
Source: http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/57891
"The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in."
Thanks, it's a good review, I agree. Very linear game, but overall pretty bland and bad, but the graphics are ok if you like that kinda stuff. For a F2P game it would be an ok game, for P2P not so much.
Meh, another one to scrap off my list, can't trust the reviews from all the sites anymore.
ok so let's say for argument sake that there were only 200 or so quests added since launch for 1-60 range. Do other games also release with the same 2000+ quests on either side or is your argument that Aion doesn't compare to wow? also keep in mind that some of the wow quests are race specific. So most games will have 2000+ quests per faction, side whatever your choice over the 1000+ of Aion? If that is the case then yes, it would seem that Aion fell down quite short. Or is this just a comparison of WoW? Can I then look at LOTRO and see that LOTRO had about the same amount of quests as Aion at Launch? Or EQ 2?
So let's bring it back to the point. There are well over 1000+ quests for either side in Aion. that's still quite a bit for people to be complaining that there are no quests.
edit: It would appear, according to the LOTRO database under stats on the left, that LOTRO at this time has 2874 quests after all the updates and books. So say 1,696 quests were added over the 2 or so years that it has been out over say the Elyos side in Aion at launch. That's not really huge considering there were many books added and an expansion.
http://lotro.mmodb.com/quests/
I wonder how other games compare, even after all these years.
WoW is the most played MMO in the west in all of MMO history, so to me it is the bronze standard.
You have this shiny resume filled with MMOs and you fall to using WoW as a standard. There's no brains.
WoW cannot be used as a measurement, because it's the anomaly instead of normal. If you don't take my word for it, feel free to list all over 5 million subscribers MMOs there is.
If you're trying to review Aion, you have to put it into the real context which is eastern MMOs. And in that comparison it works fine.
You've already tried to belittle Aion by race count, area count, number of quests count, is the next step the level count? Or maybe facial expressions count?
This has been said too many times on these forums and it has never worked to people like you: if you don't like the game, move on and let the sleeping dogs lie.
eeeeh? Weird. Aion designers themselves said they wanted the WoW audience and tried to copy Western design, and you can't hold WoW as a standard to Aion?..eeeh?
Aion isn't like WoW, it is true, but only because they failed to do it, not because they were trying something new, because Aion is just like WoW, only less good.
Awww.. did I threaten the sanctity of your online paradise?
Me so sorry!
This is a sequence of characters intended to produce some profound mental effect, but it has failed.