Ying’s "Aion – Tower of Eternity" Review

Ying’s "Aion – Tower of Eternity" Review
I meet every new MMO to hit the market with some trepidation. Many of you are like me and have played almost every offering since Ultima Online. However, after reading a decent 1st look review in "PC Gamer" I decided that "Aion" would be a game I’d like to try out (of course those who really know me know that I would have likely tried it anyway).

"Aion" is produced by NCsoft, the makers of "Lineage 2". For those of you who played L2 will notice many elements similar to it from the stunningly beautiful graphics, toons that run on an angle, solid bug free gaming, players selling their wares in the middle of the streets, and many more.

"Aion" is now in closed beta with a posted ship date of September 1st on Gamestop.com. This last weekend of June 19th to 22nd happens to be Beta Weekend #2 which is where I had an opportunity to test the game. This week featured the release of the Asmodian race and their Level 1 – 10 content.

The next beta weekend is scheduled for July 2nd to 6th. According to the published schedule they will be doing beta weekend events every other weekend through August 17th. The focus of the events are marked TBC at this time.

Unlike other beta tests getting into this beta is easy. Simply go to your local game store (i.e. GameStop) and ask to reserve the game. The store will make you put down only $5 for the reservation with no obligation to purchase. You will receive a package which looks like it contains a DVD, but it actually has a small card inside with a beta key. For those of you without a game store nearby I know you can pre-order online and receive a beta key, but I can’t make guarantees as to you how quickly you’ll receive the key.

I started running the download of the client shortly before bed so I don’t know how long it actually took. Gauging how much got done in the time I was up I’ll estimate it will take 4-5 hours (I have a 20mbs cable connection). Oh, before I forget, in order to run the beta you must have an NCsoft master account. There is no cost to this but it is something you will need to set up as part of the registration process.

The Lore
I’ll give you the basics with the side note that the developers have built an extensive storyline behind the game. If I screw some of it up I apologize ahead of time. The official website (http://www.aiononline.com) has a rather extensive lore section from the viewpoint of the two playable factions.

Basically the game takes place in world of Atreia created by the God Aion. The world consists of two opposing immortal angel like factions the Elyos and the Asmodians. The world is really more a plane of existence with the two warring factions living on the polar opposites of the plane (picture a globe with the continents on the inside versus the outside).

The continents were once connected by the Tower of Eternity which was destroyed. When it was destroyed it opened up the Abyss which brought an ancient enemy race the Balaur into the fray. This brings us to the current state of affairs in Atreia.

The Game
Writing up the basics of the game is difficult for me because after all of the MMO’s I’ve played it takes me only 5 minutes or less to learn them. So, I said to myself, what can I write in this section that would give all of you the readers some idea what the game is about. I decided to break it down into some key bullet points and then to rate certain aspects of the game.

What’s Different?

• Wings!!! At level 10 and completion of a quest your character ascends into becoming a Daeva, the winged warriors of your faction. This is the key difference between this game and all other MMO’s.
• Questing hyperlinks – Are you one of those people who hate reading quest dialogue? Or after 2 hours still can’t find the mob, person, or place to complete a quest? Well, in "Aion" when you go into the quest log you can click on the person, place, or thing which brings up a small window further explaining what it is you are looking for. You can then click a "locate" button and the item will show up on your map.
• PVP vs. PVP vs. PVE – The third race that sprung from The Abyss, the Balaur, is an entirely NPC server controlled faction. This aspect is promised to bring unique game play to "Aion". For the beta event thus far I didn’t get a chance to witness this aspect, but in the reading I’ve done its best described as you will sometimes have to join sides with one of the opposing factions to do what is best for your race and sometimes it’s one versus all.

Key elements…

• Each race has 4 classes available to them (warrior, scout, mage, and priest) which branches out to two choices at level 10. I will post more on classes when I have an opportunity.
oWarrior – Gladiator or Templar oScout – Ranger or Assassin oMage – Sorcerer or Spiritmaster oPriest – Cleric or Chanter
• Instanced gaming – "Aion" brings in one of the elements I enjoyed from AoC which was multiple instances of the same zones. Are you finding your zone a little too crowded? Just switch to another instance that isn’t quite as populated. This feature is designed to insure that you will easily be able to find the mobs you need for quests and to prevent camping. This aspect should make for a smooth launch and alleviate the newbie zone blues.
• MMO players will find the UI and controls very similar to other games such as WoW, EQ, WH, etc. Hot keys also closely resemble other games such as "I" for inventory, "J" for quests, "P" for your paper doll, and "K" for skills. More and more MMO's are coming out with this cookie cutter type UI, controls, etc so gamers can easily pick them up and play them.

Now for some ratings!

Graphics - 10/10
All I can say is this game is visually stunning and the best graphics I’ve seen in an MMO (yes, I think it beats "Age of Conan"). The land is beautiful and the detail of the world is amazing. This game is well worth a look on this factor alone.

Since I know you’re asking, I play on what I would consider a mid-level machine and had no issues with load times, latency, or graphical issues. So, if you’re one of those people (like me) who can’t quite afford a top of the line tower don’t worry yours should do just fine. I played with a friend this weekend that has a top of the line machine and he was even more psyched about the graphics which means they must be even better on beast type machines.

Minimum System Requirements - Windows XP SP2, 2.8 GHz CPU, 1 GB RAM, NVidia 2900 Ultra w/ 128mb RAM / ATI Radeon x700 w/ 128mb RAM, 15gb HD space, DVD ROM drive, DirectX 9.0c, Sound Device, and Broadband Internet Connection.

Recommended System Requirements – Windows XP SP2 / Vista, Dual Core CPU 2.0 GHz, 2GB RAM, NVidea 6800 w/ 256mb RAM / ATI Radeon x800 w/ 256mb RAM, 15gb HD space, DVD ROM drive, DirectX 9.0c, Sound device, and Broadband Internet.

Sound - 6/10
Let me quantify my rating with the comment that I've never been one to enjoy a good game soundtrack and tend to turn it off in the user controls within a week. So in general my rating may not quite be fair because it'd likely take something magical just to get an 8 in this category. In fact I'm surprised I have yet to turn the music off.

The soundtrack was annoying to me, but I also know many will enjoy it. It was a rock / techno type mix that ramps up when you go into combat. Once I toned down the music I found the game sounds to be pretty well done. When you create your character you have the opportunity to choose your character voice (only 3 available right now, and I'm not sure if this will expand or not). This voice carries over to combat, spell casting mantras, and much more and adds a nice element to the game.

Another nice touch is "Aion" also has several cut scenes that are shown before or after key quests that has its own voiceover. I hate to actually put down what is actually a really cool feature of the game, but some of the NPCs are very active. This includes NPC patrols, guards in the barracks area hacking on practice dummies, etc. I found myself wanting to turn my game sounds down or off when I went AFK too close to some of these fighting NPCs.

Gameplay - 9/10
I'm writing this section last (even though it's in the middle of my review) because it's perhaps hardest for me to describe game play. So, instead I'm going to break game play down into the following key areas not mentioned already: character creation, questing, and crafting. If I come up with more items to talk about I will add them to future posts.

Character Creation - I know some people could care less, but for many players customizing their toons is a hugely important thing. If you are one of those people who like to spend an hour tweaking every little feature of your face, body, etc then you'll love "Aion". This game may perhaps have the most extensive offering of character creation options available in any MMO.

Want hairstyles? There were 33 of them, and that is just the start of what is available to you. If you'd rather just pick a preset option there were like 28 pre-made face templates and a similar number of body type templates.

Questing – The key difference between "Aion" and other games is you have two different quest types: standard and campaign. They are tracked on separate tabs in your quest journal to indicate the importance of the campaign quests. The standard quests are yield nice items, monetary rewards, and XP. The campaign quests yield the same, but are important to your character development / lore.

The standard quests are very similar to what everyone is used to. Kill 10 of this type of creature, collect 8 of this off this monster, go and talk to this person, or deliver this item for me. When you pick up a quest it flashes for about 10 seconds on the right side of your screen which is your quest tracker.

If you want to keep it up on your tracked quests you can click on the check box while it's flashing to keep it up there (you can also do this in your quest journal). If you wish to re-read the quest dialogue click the arrow to the right of it. When looking at the quest dialogue the people, places, and things in the quest all have a hyperlink.

Click on the hyperlink and a small window pops up further describing the item and where it can be found. This small window has a "Locate" button which will cause the client to mark it on the mini-map. Oh, and if it's a mob you clicked locate on and someone kills it before you get there it will cycle to the next closest mob for you which I thought was a nice touch.

The campaign quests are quests you are required to finish before moving on to the next area. You need not complete the quests in order, but the game suggests you do (because you typically enter higher level mob areas with the later quests). In the starter zone the campaign quests make you to prove yourself to some of the key officials in the area. This all leads up to your ascension into become a Daeva and getting your wings. The campaign quests are the ones which also contain the cut scenes mentioned in the sound section.

Crafting – "Aion" appears to have a rather robust crafting system. There are 6 crafting professions available to you as a player. They are Armorsmithing, Weaponsmithing, Alchemy, Cooking, Tailoring, and Handicrafting. There are two gathering skills (Extract Essence and Aether Extracting).

Handicrafting allows you to create jewelry and bows. Extract Essence is your basic gathering skills for all flowers, foods, ores, precious metals, etc. Aether Extracting occurs from gathering what can best be described as the energy or essence of Atreia. Aether is used to transmute items to make them more powerful.

You can only extract Aether from energy nodes in the air. I'm not sure how important this skill will be to the game but it does appear to be important for crafting because my 1st real non-part recipe required Aether extracts in the recipe.

For those of you who are craft nuts you will be happy to know that there is no restriction to the number of professions or gathering skills you can take up. Each skill is split up into levels (i.e. skill level 1-99 is basic, 100-199 is…) and once you reach the next level you have to buy that training.

I happened to play with Armorsmithing this last weekend to give grafting a try. I bought the skill for something like 2,500 of the monetary unit. Ok, so I'm guilty of not writing down the name of their money. Each trainer has a base quest available to you to let you get started once trained. They also have work orders that you can receive to improve your skill.

Go to the crafting station and the interface is fairly self explanatory with the recipe list on the left and the items needed on the right. You have the ability to make multiple of the same items in the bottom right of the interface by the right arrow (reduce qty through the left arrow). Another nice game feature is a "Craft All" button which will make as many of the item you have selected that you have resources for.

Beyond needing Aether for items the recipes also require drops from mobs or items purchased from the vendor. The drops don't appear to be too difficult to gather once you know what mobs drops it. I was told that the trainer has a quest available to you that lets you know what drops the items, but in my testing some things I abandoned the quest and can't seem to get it back.

In the amount of crafting I found it slightly expensive to do especially purchasing the vendor sold items. However, it appears the items that are craftable are well worth the price over vendor bought items. I'm not sure how craftable items compare to rarer drops though. I happen to like that you actually need to go out and adventure for money to craft.

For those that are "gather-a-holics" you'll find relief that with each successful attempt you gain a small amount of XP. It's nowhere near as much XP as you would get for killing a mob, but gather a lot and you are still leveling. I also liked that gathering items (except Aether) was all part of one skill versus having mining, reaping, etc type skills.

Community – 9 / 10
"Aion" has been in release in Korea for almost a year now. This leads to an extensive amount of information being available on fan sites, etc. I found both the beta board forums and the fan sites to be very active. I believe players will find a well established community from the start and a plethora of information for those who like to research all aspects of the game. I've never been much of a player who follows community deeply so I may not be the best person to give this an accurate rating.

Guilds – Unrated
The guilds in this game are called Legions. I did not have an opportunity to join or form a guild during my game play. Therefore, I am unable to do a write up on the guild interface or benefits of joining a guild. I did notice that each guild is allowed to create their own crest. I hope to write more up on guilds during Beta Weekend #3.

PvE - 8/10
The PvE aspect of this game is not very different versus other MMOs. The instanced zones make for plenty of mobs available to everyone. The starter zone did not have any dungeons or raid instances available to try out and rate.

One aspect of PvE I loved that is new to this game is they show aggro range of aggro mobs on your mini-map. Aggro mobs are shown as a red dot on your mini-map, non-aggro mobs are white, friendly are green, etc. If you are facing an aggro mob in your frontal cone (approx 120 degree cone) and start to approach an agro mob their agro range will show up on your mini map. Once you enter their range the mob will display an exclamation point above their head and if you exit the range within a second or two they will not attack you.

PvP – Unrated
I'm hoping and praying that Beta Weekend #3 will add in the PvP aspects of this game. Being a huge PvPer and knowing that PvP is an important aspect for many of my friends who play MMOs I want this aspect to be as good as the developers tout it. The system seems to key in on you "Abyss Rank" which seems to be a rating system of your prowess.

There is special gear you can purchase based on your Abyss rank similar to arena gear in WoW. A podcast released by the developers promises PvP specializations for ground or air combat. Yes, the key feature of this game will be flight, but from the sounds of it ground combat will also play a key and pivotal role.

As mentioned in the key features area I know there will be aspects of the PvP in this game which will be PvP vs. PvP vs. PvE. I'm hoping this makes for some cool battleground/scenario type games in "Aion". Given that only the Level 1 – 10 areas were open I do not know what type of open field PvP will exist.

The only PvP in game right now is the coliseum in the capital city. This was pretty much a free for all gank fest you could join. I didn't last too long alone versus some 5-10 man guilds which were in there. It looked like it could be fun though if I went in with a group of my own.

Long Term Enjoyment – 10 / 10
I struggled with giving this aspect a rating just yet because of only limited content being released. However, I decided to rate it anyway based on my desire to want to play the game more and experience more of it. I am a firm believer that I know whether I will like a game or dislike it within the 1st ten levels. Sure, I know what most of you are thinking and asking… what about the end game?!?

So I will concede that I know very little about the end game and the sustainability of the game. I don't know what dungeons exist or how raiding will work if it exists at all. Yeah, I'm sure I could do the research on the fan sites to lend more information here and I'm sorry that I didn't. I didn't even get to try out the PvP aspect of the game yet, but I really can't wait to try out a little air to air to ground combat.

I will make this statement though… unless something better comes my way before release I plan on playing "Aion" on release and believe it will hold my interest for a long time (which in MMO player speak is 6 – 12 months). Enough said ?!?!

Overall Score 9 / 10!
I may adjust all of my given ratings above as I get to experience more aspects of the game in time and promise to do so. This game has potential to be a really popular and playable game. It has been in release in Korea for almost a year now and is bug free and seems to be tweaked for prime performance.

The added aspect of your characters having wings intrigues me and I'm positive will add a unique aspect to game play both PvE and PvP. The game play is smooth, fun, and found me wanting to play more. The lore quest lines are really cool and make you feel like you are really developing your character beyond just grinding out levels.

I am a firm believer that no MMO will ever take away the throne from WoW. It's largely impossible when you have several million subscribers and the billions of dollars in the bank those subscribers brought in to keep developing fine expansions. So for those of you who are looking for the next WoW keep looking because it may never exist.

For those of you who are looking for a graphically brilliant game with strong game play, excellent lore that you are a part of, hopefully strong PvP, and much more I suggest giving "Aion" a try. Hell, if you're not sure how you'll like the game spend the $5 at Gamestop and get into the beta and try it for yourself. That's a small amount of cash to risk to see if "Aion" may be the game for you. I know I took the chance and to date I'm sold.

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