Opening a new MMO and seeing the login screen appear in front of your eyes is a magnificent experience, the excitement of all the things to follow rushing through your mind. Your hopes and dreams of what is in store once you break through that barrier into a new universe are about to either come true or be shattered, leaving you feeling a sense of being robbed of what you were promised. In most cases the hype around a game will generally cause more dissapointment than anything else, so it's best to learn to come into things with an open mind.

NCsoft has done very well in delivering a well polished game, catering to most styles of play. There are a lot of mixed opinions going around the internet regarding Aion at the moment, but at the end of the day it all depends on what type of gamer you are. If you aren't the kind of person who can spend hours on end grinding through hordes of mobs to level, then this isn't the game for your as that is one of the tasks you will have to participate in to level at a steady rate.

Storyline

Atreia provides a stunning world for players to immerse themselves in, a rich and exciting history takes place in Aion that will keep lore buffs busier than Blizzard trying to fix PvP Balance issues. Okay so maybe that's not that busy, but there's alot of great things going on around you as soon as you take the first step into Atreia.

Atreia was created by the gods as a sanctuary for it's creations. Living on a paradise the gods created the Baluar, a race similar to dragons, with the purpose of protecting the gods creations. The Baluar became greedy for power and control, throttling Atreia into an apocalyptic war which split the planet in half.

The bottom half was blessed with light, it's inhabitants light skinned Elyos (The good side if you must) and the top half blanketed in darkness, which the dark skinned Asmodians now reside (Bad side really means badass side). In the middle of this torn planet lies the Abyss, hunting grounds for pvp enthusiasts and the Baluar. The Baluar are an npc faction that will participate in taking over pvp objectives and attacking players of both sides, adding an interesting mix to pvp.

Character Customization

One of the best features about Aion is the depth of the character creation. You can mould your character anyway you choose, change it's height, body proportions, hair and skin colours from a pallete providing countless opportunities for that perfect skin tone, and a wide range of hairstyles and accessories. You can recreate yourself into a fantasy version, or create that character you always wanted to see in an MMO. With the tools you are given, while obviously limited, you still have alot to play with in regards to the look of your character. No more clones running around, you in most cases will look completely different to any other player you come across.

In this life, don't expect to see cookie cutter endgame gear either! Aion offers the players opportunities to add further customization to your gear and wings. Upon reaching the appropriate level, players gain access to a variety of wing styles, each with their own benefits. Now gear is a big issue for me, I hate looking like everyone else. What made it worse though was alot of armor sets I loved were lower level and completely useless in endgame. Aion has provided a solution to this problem, like the way a set looks but the stats just aren't cutting it? No problem! Transfer stats over from a higher quality item to your favourite set.

While this would be more than enough to keep anyone happy when it comes to the aesthetic side of games, NCsoft took it a step further and even allow you to change the colour of your items with dye. Brilliant!

Questing

While questing exists within Aion, it isn't close to being one of the strongest aspects of the game. The campaign quests each contain their own little cut scene briefly explaining the quest which while the dialogue could have been improved greatly, provides a nice fresh approach to questing. Campaign quests also send you on an easily recognisable path through the storyline of the Atreian world, a big yellow arrowhead represents a quest that is apart of your factions campaign.

Quests consist of the usual kill/collect x of y, or talking to that random guy who needs you to disembow animals for his cupcake recipe. While they provide a great relief from the daily grind, that's about as far as it goes. Quests are not a great way to level through the game, you'll have to make alot of decisions on whether certain quests are worth the effort or not.

PvP

At last, world pvp lives once more! Your spending your day humbly questing with your friends collecting quest items (That guy never gave me my cupcakes ) and gathering for your crating professions when all of a sudden a portal opens up from the opposing factions homeland, allowing them to pour in and start an attempt at a massacre. It's agressive, and when they come through that portal you know they are out for blood. This implementation of a portal system adds a flavour to the game that rivals many others, you'll never know where to expect your enemy to pop up next.

PvP really begins in the Abyss at level 25, a zone filled with fortresses, the Baluar and players from both factions. An intense environment to venture, you may be struggling with the opposing faction over control of a fortress when the Baluar decide to crash the party and players are left to decide whether to fight off the new threat together in a mutual agreement to put aside their differences while facing the new problem, or battle it out and let the remaining faction take care of the Baluar.

Who knows, maybe luring the enemy into a false sense that your willing to work together is a great way to turn the tides of war. The strategy is all up to you! With all this going on, Aion's brilliant flying system adds another brilliant touch to the games arsenal of features.

Diving and gliding your way through zones, not sure whether another player lurks above, below, behind or further off in the distance adds a rush like no other pvp experience.

Economy

The economy in Aion has been put in the hands of the players, with your usual Auction House (Broker in-game), player stores (Currently used to stop d/c'ing and avoiding queues), and trade channels you can expect from the majority of mmo's these days. The icing on the cake though is the way fortresses play a role in the economy of the game. When a legion (guild) takes control of a fortress they control the vendor prices and taxes etc of that area, obviously making that legion that little bit richer and making fortresses a vital strategic objective of the game. If you don't want extremely inflated prices, your going to have to make sure your controlling the fortresses!

Overall

While I wouldn't say that this is the best MMO to-date, I wouldn't say that about any MMO. They all have their perks, and they all have their downfall. Even though Aion is a great game which provides a lot of innovative features, there is still some work to be done. The game has done incredibly well, launching without any real issues. Hopefully within the future we will see some of those missing features implemented into the game, but until then the game provides a solid experience with a fresh view on what an MMO should be. A world full of PvPvE, rich storylines, open world exploration, and stunning visuals awaits you.