Preview: Aion

[greywolfsage]

To the naysayers... a MMORPG is a MMORPG.
Its sort of hard to reinvent the wheel, persay.

But it looks interesting, and its a different world to play.
"You're the big hero that will save us all" is a pretty common mechanic.
Its what WoW tries to do if anyone actually reads the text in the quest panes anymore instead of just rushing to accept it and letting an addon lead the way.

The lvl10 branching is similar to the WoW talent tree, but trying to limit the classes. Warrior can take Dps/Tank, scout sounds like the Hunter and Rouge mashed together, im betting choosing between range/melee dps, mage split is probably element, just like EVERY other game, (WoW Arcane/Fire/Frost, Runes of Magic Fire/Wind...) And i wonder if the Priest goes the way of WoW Shadow/Holy or something.

I do generally enjoy a good RPG, and seeing as how my WoW experience is coming crashing to a halt, and Trade chat annoys the hell outta me, Aion might be a nice change, adding a little flavor.

I have hopes, but I'll be buying ODST that day, not it almost certainly.

 

[Ickorus]

No game will kill WoW, the only way WoW will die is of old age or crippling itself. Blizzard seems intent on doing the latter.

Anyways, Aion is a great game, ive been playing since the first closed beta and it has not stopped being fun even once for me yet.

I should also mention that the game runs smoother on my system than WoW ever did.

 

[wessexvoice]

well my initial oppinion Japanese ANIME Yuck
also OMG its angel warfare which is even more rubbish. Sorry characters with big wings doesnt do anything for me

Personally i like the old and original version of starwars galaxies , where as a master bounty hunter/pistoleer u could force combat on padawan unless they hid in their house or guild hq buildings and destroy days of their farming of xp, but u would get generally spanked by the jedi masters of which there were very few on the servers. Crafting was more complex and fun.
SWG was imho designed for the more older players at least the old version was, where as AION is not.


Then the revamp came. destroyed it to suit the kiddies who couldnt cope with the levelling

I switched to wow after the stupid combat revamp (this was done by soe too suit kids and teenager because the old one was too hard for teenagers and kids to get into. It would be nice if for once they actually create an online game designed for adults for change since we have the money to spend and as we are generally geeks we also have the time to play them rather then revising for degrees or lower qualifications)

WOW imho has become staid and boring and all that has happened is that npcs are larger then before. Tried warhammer again i liked the pvp but lag was appaling for some people also i still think what is lacking in most of these games is a guild or player presence which was one of the good aspects of SWG ( I expect republic wont have this either). I dont rate wow much either anymore and find Uldar instances a tad boring.

All they had to do with swg was improve the graphics engine not mess with the combat system and create instances as they have started to do but they seem ad hoc atm and may be some instance combat for those not wanting to do crafting.

Sorry AION gets a thumbs down from me but im sure the kiddies and teenagers will like it

 

[Ickorus]

well my initial oppinion Japanese ANIME Yuck
also OMG its angel warfare which is even more rubbish. Sorry characters with big wings doesnt do anything for me

Personally i like the old and original version of starwars galaxies , where as a master bounty hunter/pistoleer u could force combat on padawan unless they hid in their house or guild hq buildings and destroy days of their farming of xp, but u would get generally spanked by the jedi masters of which there were very few on the servers. Crafting was more complex and fun.
SWG was imho designed for the more older players at least the old version was, where as AION is not.


Then the revamp came. destroyed it to suit the kiddies who couldnt cope with the levelling

I switched to wow after the stupid combat revamp (this was done by soe too suit kids and teenager because the old one was too hard for teenagers and kids to get into. It would be nice if for once they actually create an online game designed for adults for change since we have the money to spend and as we are generally geeks we also have the time to play them rather then revising for degrees or lower qualifications)

WOW imho has become staid and boring and all that has happened is that npcs are larger then before. Tried warhammer again i liked the pvp but lag was appaling for some people also i still think what is lacking in most of these games is a guild or player presence which was one of the good aspects of SWG ( I expect republic wont have this either). I dont rate wow much either anymore and find Uldar instances a tad boring.

All they had to do with swg was improve the graphics engine not mess with the combat system and create instances as they have started to do but they seem ad hoc atm and may be some instance combat for those not wanting to do crafting.

Sorry AION gets a thumbs down from me but im sure the kiddies and teenagers will like it

You talk almost 90% about other games giving reasons why you like or hate those then you say you don't like Aion without giving any real reasons.

Also how is it anime? Its asian fantasy which is not anime.

You evidentally haven't played Aion so don't say its for kiddies without any knowledge of the game. =/

 

[wessexvoice]

with all due respect each to their own , im not intrested in 'asian fantasy'. maybe why its popular in the east is because its based on asian type fantasy ,im not sure it will replicate so well in the west as not everyone is into asian or japanese type fantasy

but what i saw of their website imho i think its crap, it seems to have no depth and i dont like the idea of waiting to level 10 until u know about the class . But i like in depth games
which today is sadly lacking as they try to appease kiddies and teenagers who tend to have the intrest span imho of a goldfish, ie good crafting systems , good pvp that has an impact on the mmo realm , instances and visual presence for guilds or solo players , for me the old version of swg ticked 3 or those 4 boxes

It appears to me by their site its all show no depth

i like beowulf saga type or tolkein based fantasies mmos and in terms of space type mmos , those that replicate the starwars or dune or greycoat firefly type ideas

if u dont like my oppinions thats your choice but all have a right to their point of view at least in the uk thats the case

 

[spikespiegel]

Wow, finally a new mmo with actual cutscenes tto pull the charatcer into it. Loved it in FFXI, it was even in GW.

Though Im waiting for FFXIV.

Still, pretty cool.. Every MMO should have this focus on character immersion.

 

[WendelI]

yeah yeah WoW killer discussions bla bla bla... Hey they said the same about War Hammer. they are saying the same about lineage 3. The problem here is that all of these games are Pretty similar. People Will stay with the game they have spent the most time with and are actually the most bad-ass'ed in. People who have a lvl 100 character in wow with Epics for all of their equips wont be leaving wow to join Aion. Unless they are sick of WoW then that means they will try Aion find out that it SUCKS to start from scratch on an MMORPG when in another one you are already GOD. People that play WoW today wont be leaving the game for pretty graphics and almost exactly the same game play. But yet again new players who are pulled in by pretty colors and graphics will come in the direction of Aion. Not to Outdated Graphics engine WoW. If Blizzard decides to make a WoW2 and some how find a way for people from the previous WoW game to transfer their characters and progress to the next generation of wow. Then that would literally mean that this game is unkillable but when it comes to WoW the only thing that can actually kill it is time. not another game with IDENTICAL core game play and only a few tweaks and graphics to set it appart from the rest. Now dont get me wrong, i have played all of these games and they are well made well directed and all around well managed (with some exceptions) All I'm complaining here is that wow cant be killed with more wow-like game-play. You need something different yet familiar and easy to learn so the RPG fan can be pleased without ever feeling alienated.


Quick adition: Aions music is similar to that of Zelda meaning that combat only Adds instruments to the already playing soundtrack in the background. this leads to amazing music and attack animation coordination. Also the music in the background of the pop up foreground music like the one you listen to in towns or the fields also gets more orchestral ever 10 or so levels. that means that there will be new music EVERWHERE at level 10. and more new music EVERWHERE at lvl 20. thats pretty cool... >.>

 

[Xardan]

Ncsoft is very talented and i have high hopes for Aion. Whether i stick with this game though depends on its community.

 

[Ohlookit'sMatty]

I must sat the environment and wings are quite beautiful

-M

 

[Proteus214]

I mean it looks fantastic and the gameplay doesn't look half-bad, but then I saw this chart.

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/7706/lvl3044expis4.jpg

So is this going to be a stand up and fight MMO sir, or another grindfest?

 

[mannaroth]

It looks good, but you failed to mention that it is P2P and I refuse to help greedy money grubbing companies that do this.How come Guild Wars was a 1-time pay and this isn't? I guess that NCSoft is stupid because that was a major appeal in GW because monthly fees as bulls**t

 

[Bastor]

The world is called Atreia. The god is called Aion.