style="margin: 2px; width: 210px; float: right;">

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/69409" target="_blank"> style="width: 200px; float: right;" alt="Aion Class Selection"
src="/image/view/69409">

In the spring of 2005, a little game called href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/47"
target="_blank"> style="font-style: italic;">Guild Wars
came roaring into existence hot on the heels of a series of highly
successful beta weekend events. For a game that ultimately took
traditional MMO conventions and turned them on their ear, offering
capsulated experiences leading up to launch rather than a full-blown
open beta served to build up a critical mass of hype. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/67514" target="_blank">Four
years and over href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/67198" target="_blank">six
million units later the Guild
Wars franchise is still going strong, even after launching during a
window of time when the href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow" target="_blank"> style="font-style: italic;">World of Warcraft
snowball effect was picking up speed and showing no signs of slowing
down.  



A major contributing factor to the success of those weekend events was
the fact that players were being exposed to a game that was extremely
polished and ultimately fun to play on many different levels. Between
events communities and guilds were formed as players contemplated not
only what they wanted to achieve with their characters during the next
event, but after the launch of GW as well.



When I first learned that NCSoft would be following a similar approach
by hosting a series of beta events for href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/254"
target="_blank"> style="font-style: italic;">Aion
leading up to launch, I couldn’t help but consider this a
smart move. Only time will tell whether style="font-style: italic;">Aion
will become another MMO success story in the pages of the NCSoft
history books, but if this weekend was any indication, style="font-style: italic;">Aion
has certainly set the stage for what I’d consider to be
the first true blending of an eastern approach to game design delivered
in a distinctly western wrapper.



For the kickoff event, players were allowed to create characters from
the Elyos and advance them up to level 20, with the Asmodians and
higher level content presumably earmarked for future weekend events.
The character creation process itself is fairly straight forward,
though ended up being far more robust than I’d originally
envisioned thanks to a slick interface revealed after making your core
class selection; Warrior, Scout, Mage or Priest. On the cosmetic side,
dozens of preset combinations and hairstyles are available as is the
option to href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/69408" target="_blank">fine-tune
specific facial features and body parts.



One thing that stood out for me is that players are able to create
believably young or even outwardly haggard characters rather than
simply sticking to the realm of unearthly beauty that’s
typical especially of female characters in MMOs. The most dramatic
shifts can be seen on the male end of the spectrum, though expect to
wade through a high volume of overly androgynous preset options in the
process of tweaking a character to your liking. Another nice touch is
allowing players to toggle starting and more advanced armors to give
you an idea what your character might look like decked out in high end
gear. So for example if you wanted to create a crazy hobo assassin and
are curious to see what they might look like with a href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/69407" target="_blank">giant
unicorn head placed squarely on
their shoulder, you’re certainly able to do so!



style="margin: 2px; width: 210px; float: right;">

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/69405" target="_blank"> style="width: 200px; float: right;" alt="Aion Akarios Village"
src="/image/view/69405">

Your first steps into style="font-style: italic;">Aion
as an Elyos will land you on the island of
Poeta after having woken from an odd slumber that has left you
searching for answers and a desire to recover lost memories of a former
life as a Daeva. This will be the main storyline that will sweep you
through roughly the first nine levels and ultimately drives you to
recall having been the leader of a great legion in the Abyss who fell
in battle, which is a clever way of guiding players towards their
subclass selection, but I’ll get into that a bit more later
on.



The first thing that struck me which I feel deserves special mention
here, is that style="font-style: italic;">Aion
is not only an incredibly beautiful game, but that I
suffered only the most minimal of performance hits when I first logged
in to see the starting area flooded with literally hundreds of other
players. With all graphical settings turned up to their max I never
fell below 30 fps, most often seeing closer to 100+ which is no mean
feat considering how visually stunning both environments and combat
animations are. It’s also worth noting that I was playing on
a somewhat middle of the road PC, with a 2.60 GHz dual-core processor,
4gigs of RAM and a 9800gtx GPU; so not a powerhouse machine by any
means. The graphics also scale incredibly well, so that even with
everything turned down to the lowest settings style="font-style: italic;">Aion
still carries that
otherworldly glow of a believable and visually appealing game world.
Throughout the weekend I had an entirely stable, lag-free experience
which just goes to show that once the localization efforts for style="font-style: italic;">Aion
have been completed, the game is certainly ready for prime time and
will hopefully offer an equally solid experience for a broad spectrum
of PC users.



Another thing I took an immediate liking to is the slick, one-piece UI.
While there is the option to toggle the placement of your
character’s status window and the mini-map at the top of the
screen which has become somewhat of an industry norm, I’m one
of those players who will typically opt for a less cluttered screen in
exchange for a better view of my surroundings. Many of the other bells
and whistles you’d come to expect from a newer western MMO
are also present such as the option to add more hotbars at the click of
a mouse or even being able to preview armors before attuning them to
your character. During my exploration I also discovered such perks as
being able to retain the visual appearance of a particular piece of
armor while gaining the benefits from a newer equipped piece by paying
a simple fee (which is currently only available at level 30).



While I’m on the subject of fees, many gameplay elements
eventually will end up costing you Kinah, the main currency in style="font-style: italic;">Aion.
Examples here would include travel or teleportation between areas,
removing the XP debt obtained upon death or even some of the advanced
work orders you’ll likely end up doing as a means of
advancing your crafting skills. Thankfully Kinah is also generously
handed out as quest rewards and even the most basic dropped items sell
to vendors for a decent price, so I never really encountered an
instance of feeling a pinch in my coin purse even when teleporting back
and forth from the crafting workshop and the bank numerous times or
paying the fee to bind my recall point to a new area.



style="margin: 2px; width: 210px; float: right;">

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/69414" target="_blank"> style="width: 200px; float: right;" alt="Karamatis Flight"
src="/image/view/69414">

The early levels are spent questing and getting a general feel for both
your archetype and how combat differs ever so slightly from what you
might have experienced in previous MMOs. One example here would be the
combo system that, on the surface, appears somewhat complex but has
been seamlessly integrated into the combat experience much better than
previous iterations on the concept such as the Heroic Opportunities in
target="_blank"> style="font-style: italic;">EverQuest 2
or whack-a-mole combos in href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aoc" target="_blank"> style="font-style: italic;">Age of Conan.
Hitting the combo
starter will temporarily swap out the same keybinding with the next
skill in the chain which makes pulling off some of the longer chains
you’ll experience later on a breeze.



Combat does tend to feel a bit slow at first, but ultimately hits a
point in the early teens where it not only becomes more involved, but
has a distinct visual flair as well. Though I did spend some time with
each of the core archetypes during the event, I quickly took a liking
to the href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/67257" target="_blank">Gladiator
subclass. The interface is comfortable and familiar
when playing the class, while combat itself felt extremely fluid and
graceful. Gladiators attack in a series of grandiose, href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/69412" target="_blank">sweeping
movements that instantly brought
fighting games such as style="font-style: italic;">Soul Calibur IV
to mind much more so than anything I’ve experienced in an MMO
previously. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing how the
class fares in aerial combat in the Abyss should the option become
available in future weekend events, but for now I was quite content to
scamper around and beat the living snot out of everything that stood in
my path; all the while looking the part of a badass warrior with some
seriously mean moves.



Flight itself becomes available upon completion of a quest you
automatically gain at level nine that allows you to select which of the
eight unique subclasses to advance your character into. One minor
sticking point here is that, for such a hefty decision, the subclasses
themselves are only briefly described in a few simple lines of text
with many offering a completely different playstyle than what you might
have experienced in the first nine levels. For example, Scouts can
become either an Assassin or Ranger; with the first nine levels
dedicated to melee attacks and more assassin-oriented combat it would
be hard to really understand how vastly different the Ranger subclass
would pan out since you haven’t seen any of its skills in
action at that point. This reminded me of certain aspects of
EQ2’s long-gone archetype system where you’d spend
20 levels essentially playing a Conjuror only to have an entirely
different experience with your Necromancer later on.



Abrupt, non-descript “here’s your future”
decision-making aside, at level 10 characters finally become Daeva and
earn their wings. Most combat areas
were designated as no-fly zones, but
there were enough areas where flight was an option to get a decent feel
for how much it will impact gameplay later on. Even in the no-fly zones
your wings can still come in handy, as a quick double tap of the
spacebar allows you to glide for short, 10 second bursts which can
dramatically speed up travel in areas with terrain of varied elevations
or even in Sanctum, the main city hub you’ll also gain access
to upon becoming a Daeva as an Elyos. In certain areas crafting
components can only be harvested while in flight as well, which
certainly adds new a new layer of depth to such an otherwise
commonplace activity.



style="margin: 2px; width: 210px; float: right;">

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/69417" target="_blank"> style="width: 200px; float: right;" alt="Sanctum"
src="/image/view/69417">

Crafting itself takes place within Sanctum, and is somewhat easy to
learn thanks to the above mentioned work orders you can obtain from
various NPCs related to the specific trade you’d like to
advance. This weekend I opted to explore Armorsmithing to see if I
could craft myself a new set of armor for my Gladiator, which I was
able to achieve though it did involve a fair amount of travel to obtain
all the necessary components. Most recipes involved a mix of crafted,
dropped and harvested subcomponents, adding a layer of complexity to an
otherwise straight forward process. Basic recipes could either be
purchased from a vendor or granted as work order rewards, with some
rare recipes dropped randomly as loot.



As a means of circumventing all the component gathering involved in
crafting it was also exceedingly easy to hop on over to the local trade
broker, or Aion
also allows players to whip out a stool and set up a
personal shop anyplace they’d like. These personal shops also
allow players to advertise their wares with a small floating text box,
or in some cases I saw them being used as recruitment tools for
legions, Aion’s
version of guilds. While I like the concept
and can see the potential for centralized, player-driven swap meets ala
the early days of EQ in the East Commonlands tunnel, I can also see the
potential means for gold farmers to get some cheap (OK, free) in-game
advertising if the system isn’t kept in check. Hopefully
towns and outposts won’t become flooded with this kind of
thing come launch, but the system itself is a nice way of allowing
players to buy and sell items without having to constantly run back to
the city to do so.



Overall, based on my experiences this weekend I’d say style="font-style: italic;">Aion
is
coming along exceptionally well, and could quite possibly be the first
Korean MMO to make a major impact on the North American market. The
extra time spent with localization is paying off, even if some elements
haven’t quite fallen into place as of yet. Still, many of the
rumors that style="font-style: italic;">Aion
is simply a grindfest or lacks the flair necessary to
appeal to a western audience can finally be put to rest, as the game is
already incredibly polished and packed with potential. This is one game
to keep your eye on in the coming months, and in the meantime
I’m looking forward to getting some hands-on time both with
the Asmodians and some of the higher level PvP in the Abyss.


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our EverQuest II Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

About The Author

Reuben "Sardu" Waters has been writing professionally about the MMOG industry for eight years, and is the current Editor-in-Chief and Director of Development for Ten Ton Hammer.

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