blog
Aritcle
digg
1
There's some genetic variation in Aion, but you can see some obvious in game features borrowed from wow, but some aren't really implemented well. I would say it's a decent MMORPG with standard MMO questing and a lot of character customization.
Gameplay:
The gameplay is like most MMORPGS, mostly skill based and auto-attacking. You can move around while in combat like in WoW, but you also get an attack/evade bonus for running around in a certain direction until an arrow appears on the screen. The bad thing about this is that your auto-attack will deactivate if you move too far from your target while doing so. Also incorporated into this game is WoW's sheathing. Yes Lineage II fans, no more running around with your weapons in hand 24/7. Sounds nice, but it's actual annoyance in combat. If you try to attack while standing still you have to wait one second to dramatically draw your weapon before attacking. There is no attack queuing so you will have to delay pressing any other skill until you've casted that skill or else it will cast the most recent skill. I make sure to manually draw while running because this draws your weapon in a split second and so I don't have to wait.
Speaking of queues yes there are queues during prime time and they've alleviated the problem by increasing the server capacity a few times and setting a 30 minute afk boot for private shops (Don't worry there's an auction house for your selling needs).
Oh yeah if you're wondering about the flying, you can only fly for 1 minute plus or minus a few extra seconds and flight is limited only the abyss or certain areas (As in barely anywhere but near towns or in the abyss). Also monsters flee from you if you fly and fight them, but you should be able to kill them before they despawn.
Questing in this game is the way to level, although at some points you will need to grind a bit. This is a Korean game, but they "Westernized" the story and the leveling curve from what I could see between my closed beta and full release experiences. I've had to grind to level to the next level because most quests you can get are only available to you once you've achieved a certain level, and the level requirement to begin the quests are nonsensical. You will sometimes complete all of your quests and grind on a monster in the area where your next quest will begin, only to find that you have quests to kill the monsters you were grinding on once you level.
Quests come in your standard kill types, pick an item off the floor a few times, drop or gather crafting items. There are also group quests and campaign quests which are like story quests and are automatically obtained, but need previous campaign quests done to receive the next. I did all of the quests except the gathering quests starting at a certain level because leveling gathering is like WoW's gathering except more grindy. It's like NCSoft looked at WoW's crafting system, thought it was good but thought it would need to have more grind to be more fun. Comparing the current release version to the closed beta version, I could say they reduced the gathering requirement about four times, but it's still grindy. Once you get past your first 20 gathering levels, about 1/6 gathers or less will level your gathering skill. And once you travel further in game there are even higher jumps for the gathering requirements. One good thing the developers added for crafting was work orders, in which you level your skill with NPC store bought items but it takes a lot of money to do so.
A major problem in this game is bots/gold selling advertises. Originally they only whispered you... Now they spam the global chat channel, which is the party recruiting channel as well as whispering you. You would think any GM with a brain in his head would see the gold selling advertise every 30 seconds (Because you can only use the channel every 30 seconds), but I would play a few times throughout the day and the same bot with the same name will be spamming the global chat and whispering you. In addition, there is no in game petition system. You will need to fill out a report on the NCSoft website.
There are bots as well, although there aren’t very many sightings of these. If you think this is because we don't have a gameguard in this version, it won't. In every other game with gameguard there are bots. NCSoft is a problem as well. NCSoft's previous game, Lineage II, was bot and gold farmer riddled and nothing was done. They claim have changed, but so far in Aion was no official message except from a GM in an in-game global message telling people not to visit phishing websites (While this message was going off, spam bots continued to spam their gold selling websites).
A few good points about the game is the PvP and in game NPC search or monster search which can be performed by clicking the character or monster name in the quest log. PvP can begin once you are level 20 and enter an area with only one channel. You or players of the opposing race can enter rifts and enter the PvE areas of your enemy race and kill each other. If you enter a rift and die, you will need to be resurrected by an ally or you will need to return back to your previous bind point. These rifts are time and player limited so you will need to wait if you want to gank this way. Oh, a problem with the PvP system is that level makes a huge difference in how much damage you deal. If someone is maybe 4 or more levels higher than you, expect to lose. Even if it's 3 vs. 1, you will not do enough damage.
Once you reach level 25 you can enter the Abyss and that's where the fortress sieging pvp begins. Fortresses are siegable every 2 hours for a certain amount of time and either players or an NPC race can hold the fortress. It's possible for a legion (Aion's guilds) to control the fortress or the entire race if unaffiliated players deal the most damage during the siege or defense.
Story:
There's some cut scenes involving you and a short plot-line that occurs every few levels if you follow the campaign quests. Cut scenes are voiced but are usually less than 30 seconds then it's back to the quests. The quests do have some written stories and in game dialogue, but as with most MMO's I didn’t read after a few quests.
Graphics:
Aion has probably the best graphics out there, but don't expect anything under a decent computer to run it. Fluid movement details, water, weather, pretty much everything is in this game.
Play time/replayability:
It's an MMO, it doesn’t really end until you get bored. Leveling could take a lot of time depending on how much you play, but the end game is raiding and fortress raiding pvp.
Final recommendation:
I'd get it if you're a fan of MMO's and like to PvP, but there is a lot of problems that prevent this game from shining. It could be good or bad depending on how you like your MMO's, but because the uncontrolled gold seller spam problem I'll give this game a 7/10.
(I also posted this on gamefaqs)
Tags: Aion NCSoft WoW Bots RMT Spam
Ariticle url: http://my.mmosite.com/blog/1cd10251c16a43d090e2399862b464a2/blog/item/96d47c0fcc6408443dbe0c8370a69b9d.html