Silk
Well-Known Member
If you don't know much about Aion then rather than repeat information here I'll point you to the wiki. Long story short, mmorpg with wings.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aion_(computer_game)
Further review can be found here
Downloaded the latest client on Sunday night (when open beta launched) and had my first crack at the game Monday night. So far I am a level 9 warrior with the intention of becoming a gladiator upon ascencion. Therefore these views are far from complete, I'll update once I've lived life as a daeva for a few days.
Character creation - very customizable, you can pick a preset and then change whatever you want really (even be a pygmy with a giant head). I really like the way hair works, it bounces and looks more real than any other game I've played lately.
Storyline - Hard to say right now but from reading the wiki and some lore, it's very jap-RPG but I think that's a good thing. So far I've found it interesting.
Graphics - Impressive, I'd say more attention has been given to the characters than the landscapes. The armour pieces I've seen so far are very shiny and the texture resolutions are a lot higher than wow so you can get a lot more detail. One gripe, there doesn't seem to be any foliage so the ground feels flat (unlike wow where you always have things sticking up off the ground).
Sound - I haven't turned the music off yet, but probably will. I mean it's well done, and the title screen has a noticably impressive score, but I prefer no music in these kinds of games. Sound effects etc. hard for me to judge as windows 7 doesn't properly suport my 5.1 sound card (bass is completely wonky).
UI - Easy to use, intuitive. Very configurable, plenty of hotbar slots. Chat windows are fully customizable and you can create as many as you want, but I haven't found a way to reduce font sizes yet. I have one major gripe with the UI, which is if you press both mouse buttons to move forwards, you can't turn the cam with your mouse at the same time, also you can't turn the cam "auto follow" off as you can in wow. i.e. I like to autorun forwards whilst looking behind me, or at any angle really, but Aion (and wow by default) make the camera "snap to" forward facing once you release the mouse button. I can forgive these though, guess it's more a case of getting used to it than anything and I have to say everything else is well done.
Quests - Quests are trackable but the default font size means you can only track 8 or so at a time (the font is too big, I hope there's a way to reduce it). Quests (in Solemn's words) are presented almost like webpages or wikis, with certain keywords clickable for more information, most of which you can request a location marker on your map for (so you can find out where mobs are, or locations, without having to leave the game). Campaign Questlines show in a seperate section in your logbook, which I thought was a nice touch. Some quests have a short cinematic, which makes you feel more immersed.
Combat - In-flight combat is a key selling point and I can't review that yet. Ground combat however is very fluid. Certain abilities can be chained together, which in other games can be an infuriating case of finding the right keys at the right time, but in Aion is rather well done. I assigned a hot key to my main attack, at level 4 I learnt an attack to chain off it and thought oh God here we go, and begrudgingly set it to a different key. Imagine my surrpise when the key I had set to attack #1 automatically changed to attack #2 when I pressed it, so I basically can just press it twice. Nice! Also the available chained attacks popup next to your character, easy to click if you prefer playing that way.
Healing/buffs - Typical fare here. As a warrior I started with some bandages, which heal me to full when used. Or I can rest, which heals fast. Or chug a potion which either heals over time or instant, depending what type. Not had any issues with downtime. Food increases a certain stat for a certain duration, nothing new so far.
Shops - you can (anytime and anywhere you want) set up your own shop, and players can come and buy from you. So if you need a 20 minute break to eat, you can leave your avatar in-game selling your wares. Selling things to a merchant is easy - there's a button to automatically sell all trash.. brilliant idea really, makes you think "why didn't they think of that sooner?!".
Misc - You can bind to towns and hearth to them. There are flight paths. Default run speed is quite swift. Mobs show on your minimap - white for neutral red for hostile. There are stones with stats that randomly drop which can be put into slots on your gear. Most gear has at least one slot. I haven't found an AH yet, hopefully there is one even though your avatar can effectively be a shop (don't want to leave PC turned on and logged in just to sell stuff).
Summary - Is it a wow beater? Can't say until I've gained flight but it has the right ingredients. I didn't want to sleep last night.. darn work! Anyway, it's certainly worth a go (and hands down better than any other mmorpg that's challenged wow).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aion_(computer_game)
Further review can be found here
Downloaded the latest client on Sunday night (when open beta launched) and had my first crack at the game Monday night. So far I am a level 9 warrior with the intention of becoming a gladiator upon ascencion. Therefore these views are far from complete, I'll update once I've lived life as a daeva for a few days.
Character creation - very customizable, you can pick a preset and then change whatever you want really (even be a pygmy with a giant head). I really like the way hair works, it bounces and looks more real than any other game I've played lately.
Storyline - Hard to say right now but from reading the wiki and some lore, it's very jap-RPG but I think that's a good thing. So far I've found it interesting.
Graphics - Impressive, I'd say more attention has been given to the characters than the landscapes. The armour pieces I've seen so far are very shiny and the texture resolutions are a lot higher than wow so you can get a lot more detail. One gripe, there doesn't seem to be any foliage so the ground feels flat (unlike wow where you always have things sticking up off the ground).
Sound - I haven't turned the music off yet, but probably will. I mean it's well done, and the title screen has a noticably impressive score, but I prefer no music in these kinds of games. Sound effects etc. hard for me to judge as windows 7 doesn't properly suport my 5.1 sound card (bass is completely wonky).
UI - Easy to use, intuitive. Very configurable, plenty of hotbar slots. Chat windows are fully customizable and you can create as many as you want, but I haven't found a way to reduce font sizes yet. I have one major gripe with the UI, which is if you press both mouse buttons to move forwards, you can't turn the cam with your mouse at the same time, also you can't turn the cam "auto follow" off as you can in wow. i.e. I like to autorun forwards whilst looking behind me, or at any angle really, but Aion (and wow by default) make the camera "snap to" forward facing once you release the mouse button. I can forgive these though, guess it's more a case of getting used to it than anything and I have to say everything else is well done.
Quests - Quests are trackable but the default font size means you can only track 8 or so at a time (the font is too big, I hope there's a way to reduce it). Quests (in Solemn's words) are presented almost like webpages or wikis, with certain keywords clickable for more information, most of which you can request a location marker on your map for (so you can find out where mobs are, or locations, without having to leave the game). Campaign Questlines show in a seperate section in your logbook, which I thought was a nice touch. Some quests have a short cinematic, which makes you feel more immersed.
Combat - In-flight combat is a key selling point and I can't review that yet. Ground combat however is very fluid. Certain abilities can be chained together, which in other games can be an infuriating case of finding the right keys at the right time, but in Aion is rather well done. I assigned a hot key to my main attack, at level 4 I learnt an attack to chain off it and thought oh God here we go, and begrudgingly set it to a different key. Imagine my surrpise when the key I had set to attack #1 automatically changed to attack #2 when I pressed it, so I basically can just press it twice. Nice! Also the available chained attacks popup next to your character, easy to click if you prefer playing that way.
Healing/buffs - Typical fare here. As a warrior I started with some bandages, which heal me to full when used. Or I can rest, which heals fast. Or chug a potion which either heals over time or instant, depending what type. Not had any issues with downtime. Food increases a certain stat for a certain duration, nothing new so far.
Shops - you can (anytime and anywhere you want) set up your own shop, and players can come and buy from you. So if you need a 20 minute break to eat, you can leave your avatar in-game selling your wares. Selling things to a merchant is easy - there's a button to automatically sell all trash.. brilliant idea really, makes you think "why didn't they think of that sooner?!".
Misc - You can bind to towns and hearth to them. There are flight paths. Default run speed is quite swift. Mobs show on your minimap - white for neutral red for hostile. There are stones with stats that randomly drop which can be put into slots on your gear. Most gear has at least one slot. I haven't found an AH yet, hopefully there is one even though your avatar can effectively be a shop (don't want to leave PC turned on and logged in just to sell stuff).
Summary - Is it a wow beater? Can't say until I've gained flight but it has the right ingredients. I didn't want to sleep last night.. darn work! Anyway, it's certainly worth a go (and hands down better than any other mmorpg that's challenged wow).
