Initial Impressions of Aion2009-11-09Lately the MMO world has been buzzing with interest about a new offering from NCSoft called Aion. I purchased the Collectors Edition in order to get access to the paid preview otherwise known as the closed beta which is only available on select “beta weekends”. Kudos to the NCSoft marketing department for this clever ploy.I’d just like to share a few of my thoughts regarding Aion while they are still fresh. This is going to be a rapid-fire guerrilla blog post. By no means is this a complete analysis or review of this MMO. It’s just what I saw and remembered after playing a few nights.The SettingAion takes place in an all too familiar setting of a war torn world that has been split into two factions which are pitted against each other鈩? This time the world is named Etrea and the good guys are the angel-like Elyos and the bad guys are the demon-like Asmodians. In the middle is the Abyss which was formed by the Cataclysm which destroyed the Tower of Eternity that used to join both of the worlds.Both sides also face “an ancient evil” called the Balaur that threatens the very fabric of their world and which serves as convenient PVE villains much like the Burning Crusade or the Scourge from WoW. Of course, all of this is standard fantasy MMO stuff.Class SelectionThe interactive screen that the player is presented with is the class creation screen. You have 4 choices that fill the traditional fantasy RPG roles:warriorscoutmagepriestWhat I find interesting is that these classes are displayed in their full regalia — obviously high level gear. This is important because NCSoft is trying to tantalize the player and sell them the future power and prestige of each class. It’s very hard to resist this MMO with such impressive demonstrations of each class. Select one and they come to life with animation and speech.Also worth noting, at around level 9 when you complete the main campaign quest line you qualify to “ascend” and become a Daeva which is an immortal with wings (eventually flying is a major part of PVP combat in an area known as the Abyss). At this point you get to choose between 2 classes. So a mage would be able to become a sorcerer or a spiritmaster. I thought they handled this quite well.Character CreationAfter you select your class and gender it’s time to customize your avatar. Creating a character is a joy to behold in Aion. The artwork is outstanding with very few Uncanny Valleys. The developers have wisely created an extensive number of attractive/handsome preset appearances that enables the player to quickly choose one without having to fuss over details of choosing the right nose, face, ears, etc. This lets the player get right into the game.For players that like to create their characters from scratch NCSoft offers players an ingenious system that let’s you change any feature in a basic way then gets even more detailed with advanced customized features. The key here is that the player can decide how much they want to customize their avatars.Since Aion was purportedly developed in Korea there is a distinctive Asian feeling to many of the faces which is understandable. Many of them are done in the anime style.One issue that I’m concerned about is that there is only one race that players can play in Aion: humans. For most fantasy MMO enthusiasts who delight in being able to choose from a wide variety of races this may be limiting and as Tobold aptly noted will affect replayability. Another thing I’m worried about is that it could lead to a very boring and homogeneous world where everyone is the same.User InterfaceState of the art. Still a bit buggy dragging icons from your ability panel on to your hot bar. I loved the transparent map feature that comes on the screen when you press N.CombatI found the mage class to be a bit laggy while I was casting spells. On the other hand the melee classes were very fast and exciting to play. Lots of sound effects and visual effects.Each ti...
