Frederick, Gladiator.
NOTE: Since this is a preview, I’ll be departing from our normal grading system. If you’re looking for a score, go elsewhere. I don’t feel like I should give a game a complete breakdown until its final version is presented.
PREVIEW, PART I: Aion: The Tower of Eternity
by Luke the Tatum (July 7, 2009)
Oh joy, a new game in the dime-a-dozen MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) genre. Everyone plays World of Warcraft, and those who don’t either have unlimited patience with archaic game mechanics or don’t know a good game when they play one, right?
Wrong.
I was a paying subscriber to World of Warcraft (WoW) for somewhere in the neighborhood of a year and a half, but I’ve also played lots of other MMOs. Over time, I’ve had a growing distaste for Blizzard’s money printing machine. It’s hard to talk about any new MMO without comparing it to that nigh-infinite time sink, but I’ll try to only do it where it’s needed.
Aion has a lot going for it. Enough, in fact, that I paid NCSoft the full $50 price tag just to play in the beta events preceding its release on September 22nd. Herein lies my impressions after two days of play in the third of five beta events.
First thing you should know is that every player gets wings at level 10. More on that later.
Story
Aion features a world that is a welcome departure from the malleable but fundamentally similar one that seems to define the fantasy genre. You know which one I’m talking about. It’s the one that J.R.R. Tolkien wrote about and everyone liked so much that blatantly copying it became the norm.
The basic premise is this. There’s a planet named Atreia that’s in two pieces. There used to be a massive tower, Aion, that held the two halves together, but it’s long since shattered by an unexplained disaster called the Epic Cataclysm. Fragments of Aion float around between the pieces of Atreia in a vast expanse known as the Abyss.
Aion presents players with two playable races, and neither of them are Elves, Dwarves, or Orcs! Both are Human, in fact. Since the planet’s split humanity has changed into two seperate groups: Elyos and Asmodians.
Elyos are from the bottom half of Atreia, named Elysium. They’ve been in the sun for a number of centuries, which has somehow made them lighter-skinned and given their skin a very slight glow. Elyos are also somewhat full of themselves, thinking that they’ve been blessed by Aion. Asmodians are from the top half of Atreia, named Asmodae. They’ve been in the darkness for a number of centuries, which has somehow made them darker-skinned and made their eyes glow red when they’re in combat. They also have a mane of hair that grows down their spinal column.
You see the duality here, right? It’s like a big floating Yin and Yang in space.
Goodness, look at those fantastic wings!
All players, when they reach level 10, will become Daeva, or ascended Humans with wings. Daeva are tasked with defending their side of Atreia for eternity.
When the game starts, the Elyos and Asmodians are at war, recently onset by a long-forgotten evil third race, the Balaur. I have yet to see a Balaur, but I only made it to level 11 in the two days I’ve played. If you want to learn more about your race’s current situation, every NPC you come across can be spoken to, and they each have their own story to tell, which is really nice.
Herein lies my experience with the Aion beta using my Asmodian Warrior-turned-Gladiator, Frederick.
Control
Controls are pretty standard MMORPG fare. WASD, arrow keys, or left-click to move. Click on things to interact with them. Assign your skills to the number keys. Camera can be adjusted by holding right-click and moving the mouse. Every key is remappable.
If you’ve played WoW, you’ll be right at home.
Gameplay
Here’s the real make-or-break for MMOs. Is it fun to play? Yes! MMORPGs don’t tend to have a lot of diversity in gameplay, and Aion is no radical new experience. That said, it does have a number of really well-done aspects that help it to be both different and entertaining.
As you can see, everything in Aion is gorgeous and incredibly detailed.
First of all, the visual aesthetic. Aion is drop-dead gorgeous. It is (to my knowledge) the only MMO to be running in the Crytek Engine. Yes, that’s right, now you can grind quests with friends in the same engine that dumbfounded PCs with Crysis in 2007. Don’t worry, though! The system requirements are well within reason.
It manages to blend the massive, unbelievable, high-fantasy landscapes and colors of many free Korean MMORPGs with the accurate bodily proportions and realistic weapons more common in American games. It’s an American MMO with a slight touch of Korean MMO flair, and it works out reallly well.
For those of you who love character creation, you’ll be glad to know that NCsoft has delivered a very well fleshed-out system. You can choose hair, lip, and eye color from a full palette, and use slider bars for everything from height to neck width. There are even different character voices to choose from. It’s not quite Sims 3, of course, but it’s more than satisfactory.
Combat is well done, too. Every attack I’ve seen so far has had a very unique, very smooth animation that changes depending on which weapon I equipped. Notably, going from a one-handed sword to a massive poleaxe was incredible because the slower attack speed was logically justified by my character taking extra time to swing the extra weight. Very cool. In this respect and many more, Aion feels a lot more like a world and a lot less like a giant number-crunching time waster with graphics over it.
Now, as I mentioned before, every player gets wings when they become a Daeva at level 10. They aren’t always out, (I suppose so you can see your beautifully-rendered equipment,) but they instead sprout from your back whenever you take flight. Some areas are no-fly zones, but even in these you can spread your wings and glide back to the ground while airborne from a jump. The wings are well-animated, look wonderful, and are easy to control. R and F let you rise and fall, respectively, while a quick press of PageUp takes off and PageDown lets you put your wings away. It takes a little getting used to at first, because your fly time is limited (though as I understand it, your flight time increases as you progress.) After a few deaths, you’ll have a firm grasp on the mechanics involved.
One of the big draws of the game is PvP in the Abyss where everyone is flying around, casting spells and swinging weapons in every direction. I haven’t gotten that far yet. I look forward to reporting on it after the next beta event. Even without PvP, though, flying is sleek and supremely satisfying.
Another interesting aspect to combat are chain attacks. Chain attacks are a branching set of attacks that lead one into the next. For example, say I have five attacks. A, B, C, D, and E. A, B, C, and D are part of the chain, and E isn’t. Chain attacks work in a tree structure. A chains to B or C. B chains to D. C doesn’t chain any further.
My options are:
A => B => D
A => C
E
I could also do A => E, but since E isn’t part of the chain, I couldn’t put use D until after executing A and B again. I know it’s confusing, but within the game it’s easy to open up your chain attack list and see what works.
Screenshots really don't do Aion justice. I can try, though!
Now then, another big topic: classes. When you create a character, you select one of four: Warrior, Scout, Mage, and Priest, with a choice between two paths when you hit level 10. They’re all pretty self-explanatory, especially to those familiar with the genre. The only thing that may catch you off-guard is that priests aren’t confined to cloth armor. Think clerics from Dungeons and Dragons. These guys can be heavily armored.
Here’s what you have to choose from at level 10:
Warriors:
Gladiator: The damage warrior. You’ll probably end up with a massive two-handed weapon, brutalizing everything that moves.
Templar: The tank. You soak up damage like a sponge, weilding a one-handed weapon and a shield.
Scouts:
Ranger: The ranged Scout. You excel use bows, but can still use melee when your target closes in.
Assassin: The stealth killer. Stealth behind your target and kill them quickly.
Mages:
Sorcerer: The damage caster. You kill everything, but can’t take hits very well.
Spiritmaster: The summoner. You get elemental pets to follow you around and help you fight.
Priests:
Cleric: The healer. You keep your friends alive, and can even resurrect the fallen.
Chanter: The buffer. You make everyone do everything a little better.
The game’s UI (User Interface) is also extremely helpful, with quest text functioning much like a wiki, displaying the names of locations, objects, NPCs, and creatures in blue. If you click on something that appears in blue text, an extra window pops up with a little additional info and the option to “Locate” the thing in question. Clicking the locate button places a purple “X” on your map where so you can easily find important tasks. You can also go back to completed quests by turning changing filters in the quest log, just in case you ever need to locate something that isn’t part of an active quest but you remember from yesterday’s adventures.
Music
Aion has a lot of music. Every area I’ve been to so far has had its own theme. Whenever you attack something or otherwise go hostile, (pulling out your weapon by pressing X,) the music switches to, well, battle music. Though there wasn’t quite as much diversity in my experience with battle music as with the more casual themes, it was extremely refreshing to find several different battle tunes depending on where I was. The music isn’t anything spectacular, but it’s pretty good, and it helps keep the oft-dull grinding from reaching that point. I’m sure that many players will still mute the music and just crank some favorites up in a media player running in the background, but the fact that NCsoft put forth the effort for adaptive music just in case you want it is indicative of the care that’s been taken with the rest of the game’s creation.
Very well done all around.
Fun Factor
Can’t really fill this one in quite yet. In the two days that I’ve been able to play so far, I spent my time away from the game telling friends about it and hoping I could get back to it soon. The Fun Factor category is about lasting enjoyment, however. I’ll save this category for the full review. If you don’t mind the monthly fee, are burnt out on WoW, need something to do, are curious about MMORPGs, or any combination of the above, you should keep an eye on Aion: The Tower of Eternity. It’s set to hit store shelves on September 22nd this year. If you pre-order, you get into the remaining beta events, plus you’ll get a 48-hour head start before the official release and a few other bonuses.
See you in game. Blood for blood!
Very nice Mr. Tatum, looking forwards for more.
very well done. i like the in depth explanations.
ehhh, It sounds like a fancy shmancy version of wow with new story, I’d really like to see some more Next-gen MMO’s. More skill involved but keeping that individuality feel to it…
Finally got into the beta! I had some fun but it just didnt capture me! I have no idea why! Maybe because i’ve wasted my life on WoW! Waiting for TOR though! I loved the preview though, keep um up!
[...] PREVIEW, PART I: Aion: The Tower of Eternity (56 views) – Beta impressions can carry you pretty far in game journalism, it seems. As one [...]
Do we get an update now that it’s out?
Hmm… I am interested in your current opinions as well.