Aion: The Tower of Eternity Steelbook Edition
- The Thrill of Flight: Flying is a strategic and integral part of the game, adding a fresh dynamic to all aspects of the genre, including combat, quests, and exploration.
- Stunning World: Discover a meticulously crafted fantasy world brimming with otherworldly inhabitants, mysterious enemies, and ancient secrets.
- Innovative PvPvE: Aion introduces a new dynamic to MMOs by combining both PvP and PvE gameplay into an exciting new style.
- Intense Visceral Combat: Engage in a spectacular and evolving combat system utilizing combos, skill chains, counterattacks, and spectacular aerial combat.
- Unprecedented Customization: Take individuality to a new level through an incredibly in-depth character creation tool, advanced crafting systems, and extensive item customization.
The Thrill of Flight: Flying is a strategic and integral part of the game, adding a fresh dynamic to all aspects of the genre, including combat, quests, and exploration. Stunning World: Discover a meticulously crafted fantasy world brimming with otherworldly inhabitants, mysterious enemies, and ancient secrets. Innovative PvPvE: Aion introduces a new dynamic to MMOs by combining both PvP and PvE gameplay into an exciting new style. Intense Visceral Combat: Engage in a spectacular and evolving
Rating: 
(out of 56 reviews)
List Price: $ 39.99
Price: $ 27.97
Aion: The Tower of Eternity Collector Edition
- The Aion Collector’s Edition includes these in game items, Black Cloud Wing Set and Earring, Special Title, Exclusive Color Dye, and 2 Character Emotes. Also included, a 6.5″ hand painted Asmodian Goddess figuirine, Aion soundtrack, and a double sided Aio
- Stunning World: Discover a meticulously crafted fantasy world brimming with otherworldly inhabitants, mysterious enemies, and ancient secrets.
- Innovative PvPvE: Aion introduces a new dynamic to MMOs by combining both PvP and PvE gameplay into an exciting new style.
- Intense Visceral Combat: Engage in a spectacular and evolving combat system utilizing combos, skill chains, counterattacks, and spectacular aerial combat.
- Unprecedented Customization: Take individuality to a new level through an incredibly in-depth character creation tool, advanced crafting systems, and extensive item customization.
The Aion Collector’s Edition includes these in game items, Black Cloud Wing Set and Earring, Special Title, Exclusive Color Dye, and 2 Character Emotes. Also included, a 6.5″ hand painted Asmodian Goddess figuirine, Aion soundtrack, and a double sided Aion. Stunning World: Discover a meticulously crafted fantasy world brimming with otherworldly inhabitants, mysterious enemies, and ancient secrets. Innovative PvPvE: Aion introduces a new dynamic to MMOs by combining both PvP and PvE gameplay in
Rating: 
(out of 33 reviews)
List Price: $ 69.99
Price: $ 109.95
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Review by Trevor J. Edwards for Aion: The Tower of Eternity Steelbook Edition
Rating:
Aion is a good looking game, this is true. Looking past the pretty façade I however am left underwhelmed by the game. It doesn’t seem to offer anything particularly new or exciting.
Character creation is decent, there are quite a few options to customize both your facial and body features. I can’t really fault it in any way considering that you’ll eventually be decked out in armor and character creation in such a game usually stands as a generic look. There unfortunately isn’t much avoiding looking like everybody else in a broader sense because there are only two races. Upon close inspection you should find that most characters manage to create a pretty unique look. As you progress through the game you can choose to maintain various armor looks despite equipping other pieces though which is a nice way of looking unique in the long run.
There have so far been pretty annoying race lockouts on certain servers in an effort to balance them. For example I haven’t been able to play with many of my guild mates because no more Asmodians are being allowed on their server. I imagine this will be fixed to some extent but I can’t really lie and say that I’m not a bit bitter about being blocked from playing with my friends. Hopefully those who choose to jump in to the game after my writing this don’t have this minor annoyance to deal with.
After some initial hiccups at launch the game actually runs quite well. Again the game looks gorgeous with interesting environments and flashy attack animations. The default UI is alright, pretty standard action bar with health bars, but if you’re coming from another game it may take some getting used to. I for one am hoping for add-on support or UI customization though since I would personally prefer a slightly more minimalized UI.
The introductory zones come paired with help messages which offer limited video and audio help which I found to be a pretty nice newbie feature. Quests also have a keyword location feature which is like a built in quest helper. I find this feature to be pretty neat, I feel that it adds a sense of authentic adventuring to it for some reason and it doesn’t clutter you map with all sorts of quest waypoints. So with these two features getting in to the game and advancing up to level 10 is rather painless.
At level 10ish you become a Daeva which grants you wings and allows you to choose from 2 specialties with your class. There isn’t really anything of particular note here but it does add a bit more depth to game play.
Following level 10 it seems that the game becomes increasingly grindy which I don’t much care for. Following level 15+ leveling is still quite doable but the rate at which I’m being rewarded for my time is a very important factor for an MMORPG for me and I don’t feel that I’m gaining skills or equipment quite fast enough to hold my interest in the game. This has nothing to do with slogging through content too difficult for my character or being oblivious to other questing hubs, I’m simply noting that experience gain tapers off quite quickly. Gaining levels doesn’t appear to get you anything aside from skills another factor contributing to the slow feel of the game. It has thus far been quite common for my character to go 2-3 levels getting very little aside from statistical boosts. This is hardly an issue unique to Aion but again it’s another one of those things that takes away my desire to get from one skill to the next.
Eventually you get access to Stigma Stones which are sort of like a generic talent tree that allows you access to more skills. I was a rather let down to find out this was the feature which NCSoft was heralding as the way to play your character totally different from another player. While it is true that it allows you to diverge away from other players within your class specialty it isn’t so broad in its choices that you’ll find a slew of viable builds. I’m looking at it right now as something that will easily be theorycrafted to a point where everybody competitive will play a given class in maybe one or two ways.
Skills are pretty standard for the most part but one pretty cool thing so far is that you get chain skill where one initial attack triggers the use of further more powerful attacks. Unfortunately you can’t use chain skills out of sequence but I do like the feel of an attack coming off cool down allowing you to unload on an enemy all at once. Having more than one chain attack generally allows you to be in constant active control of combat. The various chains and what you need to complete them are listed in your skills window and there appears to be quite a variety for the various classes.
Another feature I like is having your own personal shop which others will be familiar with from games such as Ragnarok Online or Fiesta Online. Basically you can open a little shop anywhere and sell your stuff. I far prefer this to auction houses typically because it allows you to be more competitive as a salesman than an auction house typically does because location becomes a valid choice and undercutting doesn’t kill all chance at profits. It’s also good for going afk for extended periods of time.
Flying is a big part of the game considering you have wings and all. I haven’t liked flying much at all so far and I’m really kind of dreading parts of the game where it becomes more necessary. The controls seem very clunky and the limitations of cool down between use and the overall flight time lead to a high preponderance of ineffectiveness of death. You can modify your wings and combat abilities while flying so perhaps by the time I really need to worry about flying it’s more tolerable but up to where I’m at now it seems little more than a poorly implemented gimmick. After quite a bit more practice with my wings I’m still only finding the flight mechanics to be marginally more tolerable, perhaps I suck but be fairly warned.
PvP has so far been respectable, especially for a rather new game. I haven’t personally encountered any particular class which I feel is broken beyond belief despite some community complaints of balance issues. There does seem to be an attitude of this game and its PvP being “hardcore” and I have to comment that I feel this is a rather glorified designation. The flying adds a bit of depth and skill to PvP but I feel that’s where the unique aspects of PvP in this game end. I don’t think anybody playing WAR or WoW, particularly PvP servers, are going to switch over to this game and be refreshed by the PvP. It’s fun and well implemented but at its core this has been done before.
Pros:
Good looking
Overall solid game
Seemingly popular
Cons:
High grind possibility
Awkward flying
Race lockouts
In summary, I don’t think I’ll be sticking with this one for long, I’m simply not being moved in any particular way by it currently. It’s different enough from other games to warrant some consideration but it also hold so many cliché similarities that prevent me from getting too excited about it. The game has great potential for many players but I recommend taking a long look at it before biting the hype bullet. If I had to recommend it I feel that fans of Guild Wars, Lineage 2, FFXI, or even first time MMOers would like the game quite a bit.
Review by Halo Faire for Aion: The Tower of Eternity Steelbook Edition
Rating:
Just putting a post, to give out some information for those folks “sitting on the fence” wondering if Aion is worth ordering or not . I’m trying not to be negative about the game per se, rather saying it maybe not for everyone. It tends to lean heavy on the “PvP-aholic”; “Grouping is where its at” ,”I luv to grind XP ” style of game play. Which don’t get me wrong is a perfectly valid style of play, but tastes do differ. I much prefer the exploration aspects of a Morpg verses bragging rights.
Graphically it’s very nice. Similar to Guild wars in appearance,but perhaps a little more advanced and shimmering. The zones are similarly laid out; with the usual “single road” and long corridors to fight over/through. If your expecting the freedom of flying and therefore tons of massively open 3D areas; be prepared at least for levels 1-30 to be largely ground based (there’s lots of no fly zones) and be hemmed in by mountains. Leveling is and can be a bit of a Lineage 2 grind fest, with the usual kill 10 of these, deliver this experience. When you start reach lvl 18 + quests , then your kinda forced to group. It’s hard to solo, not impossible, just be prepared for lots of repetitive “farming”. Most folks find it a drag until you reach lvl 25 then you begin the main part of the storyline.
Overall the aim of the Aion is to get you to this massive open ended Zone “the Abyss”. As this is where the game is suppose to shine, with the focus tending to lean heavily on PvP and again grouping to survive. Bear that in mind if you buy the game, yes there are other things to do, crafting,big boss instances etc. But it’s in the open 3D “battleground” of the Abyss, where the NCSoft are putting the heart of the Aion Experience.
Overall it’s a fine MORPG, nice visuals, follows the standard pattern of leveling by gaining XP thing. And that’s where it’s strengths and weaknesses are. Is it a good game? Yes. But the next “big” new thing? In my experience sadly no. Hopefully one day a developer will have the courage to break free from the Everquest style of design and produce a different gaming online experience.
Review by Yu-jin Chia for Aion: The Tower of Eternity Steelbook Edition
Rating:
The first thing you’ll probably notice about Aion is that it is graphically amazing. It uses CryEngine and is undoubtedly the best looking MMO in existence at the moment. Character models in particular are incredibly detailed- superior to even most single-player RPGs. Character customization is also extensive and very well done- you can truly make a unique character in every possible way, from facial features (which has more sliders than Oblivion or Fallout 3) to body appearance, armor, and size. If you want a game where you have maximum control over your look, this is as good as it gets.
Let’s face it though- great graphics only take you so far. In terms of gameplay, Aion’s a pretty standard MMO: trade and gathering skills, quests, dungeons, etc. This is nothing new to anyone that’s played an online RPG. If you’re expecting brand new game mechanics or anything revolutionary, you’re going to be disappointed. That in itself isn’t bad; a solid, polished, tried-and-true formula game with graphics like this would be a surefire hit. Unfortunately, Aion is far from this… very far. I can see it becoming a game to challenge the likes of WoW, but it’s going to take a LOT of work, and- to be quite frank- NCSoft is not known for moving quickly on changes. Additionally, the few areas where Aion does deviate from tried-and-true game mechanics are uniformly badly implemented, and more than anything else are likely to turn off the majority of new players.
Those considering trying Aion may have heard that it’s PvP oriented. This is most assuredly true, and it is a very extreme case. I’ve seen a lot of people complain that other NCSoft games, e.g. Guild Wars, focused too heavily on PvP. Until you’ve played this one, however, you’ve got no idea. You can PvP literally anywhere you can travel, and you can travel just about anywhere. There’s almost no place that’s safe- pretty much the two starter areas and the capital city are it. There is absolutely nothing preventing high level players (or, even worse, GROUPS of high level players) from entering low level areas and slaughtering hapless low level players trying to do quests. Furthermore, lower level characters are not merely at a disadvantage when encountering higher level ones. They are completely, utterly, hopelessly helpless. You can’t even hit other players 5 or more levels higher than you, and even if you could it wouldn’t even hurt them. This is PvP at its worst- not fair or fun in any sense of the term. There also seems to be high level players on every server that literally spend all day killing low level people, purely for fun. Due to the way the game is designed, it’s not just easy to do this but ridiculously so. Even if you call over high level players from your own side to kill the offenders, they can be back in a matter of seconds. This is probably the heaviest deterrent to new players, and I actually know people that have quit this game purely because of it. I can see why: even though I enjoy PvP, I would rather do it when I want to- not when some virtual sadist 30 levels higher than me wants to. It’s something that could be pretty easily remedied via patching, but I’m pretty sure NCSoft won’t do it until they realize it’s killing them- by which point it’ll be far too late.
The problems with PvP would be forgivable if the PvE content was excellent. Unfortunately, it falls far short of that. For the most part, you’re stuck doing mob killing quests, many of which are repeatable for ‘reputation.’ This isn’t faction reputation like in WoW, though- it’s per quest giver rep. If you do enough repeatable quests for someone, they give you special rewards. This sounds like a cool idea until you realize how many you have to do- on average a HUNDRED turnins. These are not short quests either; on average they take about 20 mins to complete each time! I honestly don’t see why anyone would bother, or what the developers were even thinking. Most of the campaign quest content requires a group, which is inconvenient considering how few players there are at any given level on any given server (it can take upwards of an hour to put together a halfway viable group, and this is during peak hours). Dungeons are likewise lackluster and poorly designed. First off, there’s absolutely no safe places- you can literally get killed by a patrol at the very entrance of a dungeon without even moving from the doorway. For some reason, there’s also upper level caps on dungeons- which means you can’t help lower level friends and can only run each place a few times per character. There’s also a full day lockout on ALL dungeons a la WoW heroics, and this lockout occurs when you ZONE IN. To make matters worse, bosses in these instances often drop no loot. You read that right: you can run an entire instance and literally not get anything. Even worse, it’s possible for items to drop that are only usable by the other faction. It remains to be explained why things are even faction-bound, but this would be akin to an Alliance-only item dropping on Horde side in WoW, with NO MEANS to move it there. On that note, you can’t communicate at all with the other side. You can’t even create new characters on the other side of the same server, unless you have more than one Aion account. Lastly, if you die in an instance, you resurrect wherever your bind point was. To put it in WoW terms, it’d be like resurrecting at your hearth… which is pretty bizarre. Generally speaking, instancing is unbelievably primitive and poorly executed. After seeing how badly designed the dungeons in Guild Wars were, and now this, I’m firmly convinced NCSoft is simply incapable doing it.
There’s also a host of lesser things that could definitely use more polishing, such as the camera options, inventory management, and quest tracking. Some things as basic as targeting are glitchy, and there’s a lot of skills and abilities that are ridiculously imbalanced. For that matter, there’s just plain too many of both- enough to make your head spin even if you’re a Guild Wars veteran. There’s no support for addons, and macros are buggy and very limited in scope. You’ll find frequent inconsistencies and problems with mob scaling, area design, and itemization. For example, quests often require you to kill specific mobs, but in the same area there’ll be slightly different named mobs that look and act exactly the same… but won’t give you quest credit. Many stats are either partly or totally useless, for example magic crit doesn’t affect any spells- only your magic weapon autoattacks. You can also find, in almost any given zone, quests and enemies with a level difference higher than 20. When you consider there’s only 50 levels in the game, you can see why this is just a tad weird.
Dying to anything but an enemy player also causes you to lose experience, and it is very easy to die. An alarming number of PvE enemies can stunlock or silence you, which means aggroing more than one is very likely to kill you unless you pop consumables. Elite mobs are often indistinguishable from regular ones, and just as often intermixed with them. Especially if you’re not in plate, most of these will kill you so quickly you won’t even know what hit you. There’s also some other more minor quirks, such as an odd tendency for the game to quit completely if you get disconnected and melee enemies hitting you at range (good luck trying the reverse). Lag is handled very poorly- you’ll often ‘rubberband’ just like in Guild Wars, and due to the flight aspect this can be directly fatal. Resource nodes also have an ugly, inexplicable habit of despawning if you cancel gathering or get interrupted by something. Resource gathering in general is slow, boring, and buggy- you’ll often fail to gather immediately due to a bug that has inexplicably never been fixed. These issues, taken individually, might not seem irritating at first, but the more you play the more it wears on you because there’s always at least one of them apparent.
Lastly, let’s talk about flying. This, aside from the free-for-all PvP, is one of the ‘exciting new features’ trumpeted by the developers. Unfortunately, either as a result of balancing or just due to sheer lack of imagination, they’ve made it little more than a means of travel. And a pretty bad one, at that- even WoW’s flying mounts, limited as they are to two continents, are far more flexible. The vast majority of areas disallow flying, including some places where you would think it’d be a no-brainer to allow it (e.g. capital cities, complete with floating islands accessible only by a 10 minute round trip by boat…). There’s skills geared towards flying combat, but in practice it’s just too unwieldy to be any fun. At any rate, there’s a hard time limit on how long you can fly at once and, inexplicably, also a flight cooldown that limits how often you can sprout your wings. Potions, wing upgrades, and manastones can extend flight, as can flying through special rings in places like the Abyss, but if you were expecting to spend a lot of time in the air in this game, you will be extremely disappointed.
Believe it or not, I could easily double the length of this review with other bugs, problems, balance factors, and things that just plain need improvement. To sum it all up, Aion is a game that could be great if they would fix most- or heck, even a fraction- of the problems with it. Unfortunately, that list of problems is so long, and with so many intractable issues related to fundamental game design, that I honestly don’t think it’s likely or even feasible. Aion will probably survive for some time due to its original hard-core fan base- especially the Korean market, which seems to get all the updates months ahead of everyone else. However, I really don’t see it getting any bigger or more successful, and once a true successor to WoW finally shows up, I doubt anyone will even remember it. I picked it up mainly because I was bored out of my mind with WoW, but my Aion experience has been so disappointing that I’ve decided to just go back.
Review by J. Dunbar for Aion: The Tower of Eternity Steelbook Edition
Rating:
Aion is a solid MMORPG. I’m not going to go on here and say it is a World of Warcraft killer or anything, but it has some aspects that I like better over WoW. The fantasy world of Aion itself is beautiful. I was really impressed with the way the world looks. The character creation system for the game is very well done. The characters look really good and there are a lot of options. In World of Warcraft, you get one type of human body, but in Aion you can be skinny, muscular, stocky, short, tall, and lots of other combinations, which is great.
I like the crafting system a lot. It reminds me of crafting in Lord of the Rings Online. The crafting system has a level of complexity I enjoy, but it is not so complex that it gets on my nerves. World of Warcraft’s crafting system is so easy it is boring to me. Also, WoW’s crafting system doesn’t have much variety, so WoW kind of fails on crafting when compared to Aion. Also, I like the crafting halls in Aion. I enjoy seeing other people craft while I am crafting. One thing I never really liked about WoW is that there isn’t really any crafting halls. The cities where the crafting halls are have teleporters that make it easy for you to go to the bank and back to the crafting hall for a small money drop, which is really great as well.
The Player versus Everything (PVE) play is very well done and challenging. Some people have complained that there is a lot of grinding. I’m not sure what MMORPG does not have a fair share of grinding really so I think this criticism is amusing. Anyway, NCSoft has started doing bonus XP weekends to help out the casual players, and so far I feel this has helped with any slowness in level gains.
The character classes are very good. I’ve played almost all of the classes and each one has something to offer. I feel that some of the classes are harder to play at early levels than others. Warriors seem to be the easiest class to play. However, I think the gameplay gets somewhat easier the higher in levels you get, due to added abilities. I would say the toughest classes to play are Assassin and Ranger, but I have not played them up to level 20 and they might get easier at a certain point. I do not know for sure.
In short, I would recommend this game to anyone looking for something new and different in the MMORPG genre.
Review by Alan R for Aion: The Tower of Eternity Steelbook Edition
Rating:
This game is so shallow it’s like a kiddie pool. From the exploration, to the questing, crafting, instances, character customization, items/loot, flying, abyss, guild management tools, UI, etc, EVERYTHING is paper thin and screams of a f2p game. The world is perhaps the most linear I have ever seen in an mmo and you can only fly unrestricted in the abyss. If you haven’t gotten to level 25 people will tell you that’s where the game opens up and becomes fun. Um, no. Take all 3 layers of the abyss and put them together and you have the size of one zone approximately since most of it is islands and open space. The fortress and artifact battles seem intriguing at first until you realize that there really is no big benefit to having control of one of these things. Questing in the abyss is beyond boring as it is in any other part of the game and the dungeons/instances are the most uninspired I have ever seen. Oh yeah, and expect to run instances multiple times and not have any boss drop loot. LITERALLY, even end bosses of a dungeon will often times drop LITERALLY nothing. NOTHING.
I got to level 30 in this game and realized that everything that was supposed to be fun wasn’t, and why keep going in this disaster. Perhaps this game will be to your liking, but it definitely wasn’t to mine.
Review by David Manvell for Aion: The Tower of Eternity Collector Edition
Rating:
This is a solid game and a lot of fun. Most press on this game tends to be focused around its graphics which are really great but to be honest that is just the surface of it. This game is just really fun, plain and simple. If you’ve played any other the other big games out there like wow, warhammer, lineage, lord of the rings etc you will feel right at home.
The first week or two the servers went on-line the game had some major hick-ups as they got the servers and loads balanced but the game has since evened out.
I’ve played most of the major MMORPGs out there (Wow, lotro, lineage, warhammer, conan etc) and have now played Aion up to max level so will give you a quick run-down on Aion here:
Character creation is extremely extensive. You really can pretty much make your character look like anything. Even your characters voice can be changed around. There are 3 races in Aion, 2 of which you can choose to roll (3rd race is server controlled). Any piece of armor can be used as a template for another so you can make your plate mail armor look like cloth etc. Every piece of gear can be modified in color as well for full customization. But the real character customization is not with the character looks but with how your character is. Titles, manastone, godstones, stigmastones etc. allow you to pretty much make your character into anything you like. None of the other MMORPGs released allow this much customization in player looks or abilities.
You have your typical mage, cleric, rogue and warrior types in Aion. You further define a subclass at level 10 for a total of 8 classes:
Sorcerer (Crowd control and nuker. They hit hard with spells but fold as easily as paper if hit.)
Spirit Master (Pets, DOTs and lots of Fears.)
Cleric (Healer. Sorry I personally think healing is boring so kind of hard for me to get pumped up here but those who like to heal seem to love this class.)
Chanter (DPS and buffing healer. Substitute main healer.)
Assassin (Melee DPS. Stealther. Posions. Assassins are great at pi$$ing other players off in PVP.)
Ranger (Ranged DPS. Kiting and crowd controls.)
Templar (Tank. They can do damage but they can’t be killed easily either.)
Gladiator (A DPS tank. Melee mostly. Subsitute main tank.)
The classes are well balanced and of the 6 out of the 8 classes I’ve played so far all are a lot of fun.
The first few levels have a lot of things to help out new players of MMORPGs from in game help videos to lots of pop-ups with tips. Well done entry to the game.
At level 10 you choose your subclass and get your wings as you ascend and become a Daeva. You were a lowly human until then. You don’t really use your wings though until much later.
Levels 10-25 are pretty much learning the abilities of your class. Tons of quests and gathering to do. Lots of which are only done in groups although you can solo all the way to 50 if you’d like but not recommended. At level 20 you may start to encounter the opposing faction and start doing some limited PVP. Up to this point the game is pretty linear and scripted.
Level 25 you do your abyss entry quests and enter a completely 3d world. The Abyss is huge. Larger than the rest of the world combined and you really do go all over the place in it. You will encounter both the opposing faction and the 3 race, the Balaur. The Balaur are a computer controlled faction and are used to balance out the two player controlled races. If one race starts to dominate too much, the Balaur come in and wipe the slate clean. You are often thrown in against both factions at the same time in combat.
Level 25 to 50 consists of quests, PVP, instances and crafting mostly. Tons of stuff and you never run out of things to do. Unlike most games you do all the quests all over the world map. You even have to go back into the starting zones a few times. So while the start of the game consists of doing quests in one area then move to the next, this ends later as they send you all over the place. In other words, the game is very linear at first and becomes completely non-linear later on.
End game consists of well the same things as above except you can actually work on getting your gear set. Tons of end game instances and PVP to do. Fortress sieges really start at level 35+ but are mostly done by the upper levels. There is a lot to do at end game already with more content on the way. When the servers first came on-line there were very few upper level characters but now the shift has changed and more level 50s then lower. This has made it much easier to do the upper level group quests and instances and PVP.
Instances:
First instance is level 25 and is designed to train you how to do an instance. The instance is even called Training Grounds. It’s actually designed both to teach you how to do instances as well as teach you how to do the later fortress battles. It’s simple and easy and a good way to learn. Most instancing starts at level 30 and up. There are several dozen instances so far and they have plans of adding quite a few more. You really don’t run out of instances to do. Some instances have both mobs and the opposing player faction at the same time. Many instances are timed (Speed instances) and all of the instances are quick to complete 20-60 minutes). If you come from a heavily instanced game like wow you will have no issues here.
Loot:
Yes there is loot in the game but Aion is not a loot based game. You won’t find any DKP systems or people checking your gear to see if they will group with you and such. Most bosses don’t even always drop loot. Aion is about the game play, not the loot. It is very easy to make Kinah (Gold) and very easy to spend it. Money is tight until after level 40 but gets easier after that. Once again loot is secondary in the game to the game play.
Crafting:
Crafting is very extensive and takes a long time to complete. You can learn all professions but only master two. The professions are Weaponsmithing, Armorsmithing, Tailoring, Alchemy, Cooking and Handicrafting. Crafting takes a lot of money and a lot of time. You cannot level crafting in hours like in some games. It will most likely take you months to level your first profession to max. Crafting is multi leveled and is more similar to the crafting system in Lord of the rings than any other MMORPG. Crafting in Aion puts some games (Warhammer, wow Conan) crafting systems to shame.
Gathering:
Gathering is not a profession per say. There are two types. Air and ground gathering. Took a while to get used to the gathering system but now love it. It is very slow at first but speeds up a lot later. Gathering is used quite a bit in Aion but some people do not like to gather and just buy mats in the broker. Air gathering is very slow but does teach you to fly better so I highly recommend it. I would not start learning any profession until you have your gathering up some.
PVP:
PVP starts at level 20 but to be honest you don’t really do much until later. PVP is a complete free for all in that you can easily encounter people much higher or lower than you at any time. I suggest you make friends and stick together when soloing or are lower level as single players are often easy prey by passing players from the opposing faction. PVP is very fast and not easy at all. You are not gimped in what abilities you can use and there are safe places to go to avoid PVP but sometimes even the major towns are raided so you can’t even be totally safe except for in one zone and your capital city. All the classes are fairly evenly balanced with none standing out as better or worse than the others. As you get higher in level more pvp is introduced and you are sent into the opposing factions areas for specific quests to do. There are several instances in end game where you have to fight both the instance mobs and players from the opposing faction. If you want to avoid PVP you mostly can but sometimes you will run into it a bit. You just can’t avoid it totally. If you absolutely hate PVP, buy another game. If you love some or a lot of PVP you will love Aion.
Graphics:
Yep top of the line. Very difficult to find a game with better graphics than Aion. Lord of the rings online has great still graphics but sucky animations. Wow has very poor graphics compared to aion in almost every category. It’s not just the looks of things in Aion but the animations and how fluent everything is. Sort of a cross between Conan (Looks great but horrible lag) and wow (Great gameplay but graphics are terrible).
They are talking about a graphics upgrade later in 2010. I doubt there will be much improvement though as its top of the line already. I’m not sure where they can improve. When you go into the graphics options, you can click the auto-detect settings and it will scan your computer and set the graphic levels to the best level for your hardware. Except for just downright piss-poor computers, almost everyone will be able to run Aion at max settings. Oddly enough even though the game’s graphics are better than most games, the system requirements to play it at those levels is fairly low. Moving from any other MMORPG you will see an instant improvement in both looks and or animations.
UI:
The user interface is very easy to navigate around in. It looks good, it’s simple but has enough to get the job done. There are no addons in Aion and to be honest I first thought this was a major set back. But after playing I realized addons are not needed. There really isn’t anything missing from the UI and it’s laid out about as perfect as you can think. It is highly customizable but most people I have talked to seem leave it at the default. Gone are the days of updating addons after every patch. When you talk to NPCs and accept quests, you have a hypertext type system in place which is really nice. Click on an item name in the quest text and it will give you the description of it in more detail including what types of mobs drop it. Click the mob name and it will give you a description of where to find that type of mob. Also included are place names and locations which activate maps and such. It’s really well done. The world map is nice and even nicer is the map overlay which brings up a transparent world map. It’s easy to navigate. UI in Aion gets a A+. Looks great, simple yet customizable enough for any need. Night and day difference in the UI between games like Lord of the rings and Aion.
Broker, mail, vendors, etc:
Yes there is an auction house but being this is not a loot oriented game, it is used but it’s not a centralized part of the game. You won’t be spending hours scanning the broker with addons and you can’t even put many items in the broker at once. The game is just more oriented to playing rather than doing maintenance to get ready to play. All items stack to 1000 or 10000 and your cube (Bags) do get full but inventory control is not too much of a problem. You can expand your cube, warehouse (Bank) and legion warehouse (Guild or fellowship bank) via quests and from leveling certain crafting or by just out right paying for it. You do not have to repair your gear ever (Gear does not get damaged in Aion). Mail is simple and easy to use. Not used often actually but it is there. There are trainers for all kind of things and you can buy training manuals from a trainer before you level and learn your new abilities as soon as you gain XP and level. You can set up your own personal shop at any location. Some people love this. I personally don’t use it often. All NPCs will talk to you and have animations and even move around from location to location. Some are hard to find. Some are only found during certain times of day or night.
Death, dying and time:
When you die you appear back at your obolisk. You lose a small amount of xp when you die but you can gain 2/3rds of it back by paying a soul healer. You cannot lose a level by dying. Buying back lost xp is optional, it does not have to be done. Any character can resurrect another in the game either vie spell (If there are a healer) or by using resurrection stones. There are even self resurrection stones available. If needed you can buy portable obelisks called kisks and bind to them temporarily so if you die you resurrect at your kisk instead of your permanent obolisk. This becomes vital when in enemy lands or during fortress sieges. Raiders often bring portable kisks with them so they can resurrect nearby. Time is accelerated in Aion and is a centralized part of the game. Many mobs and NPCs move around or are found at different times and locations. Some abilities can only be used during certain times as well.
Flight:
In Aion you can glide and fly. There is a difference which you will learn eventually. The first 30 levels or so very little flying is done. It’s mostly used later in the game (Where you spend most of your time in). The game really is 3D. They do limit where you can fly in the first part of the game but open it up later on. 3D combat adds a lot to the game. I love closing my wings and dropping like a rock to escape an enemy. Flight time management is extremely important and adds to the difficulty of PVP and questing in the abyss.
You are constantly trying to customize your gear to improve your flight speed and time you can spend in the air. #$%^&! Spirit Masters can force you out of the air 🙁 Ariel combat is often more about gaining an aerial advantage sometimes than fighting. Your characters stats change depending on if you are in the air or ground or even what direction you are moving.
Lore:
Those that get into the lore (I’m not one of them) like the lore in Aion. Aion does have a lot of lore behind the game but there are better games in this area (Lord of the rings). The Aion developers did a good job of adding long descriptive texts NPCs give you and there are tons of in game movies and cut scenes to keep you interested. Campaign quests really add to it. They have added lots of little things throughout the game to add to the lore. NCsoft says they hired well known top dollar fantasy writers to write the lore and quests in the game.
Music and sound:
Top notch. Really. You can turn on and off various aspects if you’d like but not normally needed. Really the game music and sound effects get an A+. There is no built in voice chat system. Most players use the normal vent, teamspeak, skype or yahoo.
Legions (Guilds or fellowships):
All standard stuff here. Guild sizes are limited (to 30 characters) but you can buy the right to expand the size of your legion up to 90 characters. When a guild gets to rank three you can design your own guild emblem which is shown on your characters cloak and on any fortress or artifacts you take. Legion commanders have all the standard controls over the legion like in any MMORPG.
Combat:
Combat is very fast paced compared to most on-line games. It’s not like you just spam the same buttons over and over like in some games. One really nice aspect is the chain skills. Basically some skills activate to open up others. Chain skills can have multiple branches and go very deep on some classes. You are constantly making choices in combat due to the chain skills. Chain skills become very nice after level 35 or so. Server lag tends to be very low. The hardware and ISP NCsoft uses is very good. They have been making on-line games for years so have it down right. The first few weeks the game was released the game was very poor in this category but it is extremely efficient and works well now. Characters statistics change as you move in various directions and if you are in the air or not. Combat is just plain and simply a lot of fun.
Chat system:
The chat system could use some work but is functional. You can turn on and off or create additional channels and chat windows and choose exactly what you want in each. They need to add the ability to adjust the transparency of the chat window (Promised to be added later). Hardest part of the chat system is remembering what buttons you press for each function when you are used to playing in a different game. You can right click a character name to get a drop down menu with options but they need to expand this out a lot more. You can link items and locations and there is a notepad in game that you can save links, texts and locations in. One thing of note, you cannot use any chat channels other than /s until you reach level 10. This is to prevent gold spammers from creating characters and sending annoying whispers to everyone with advertisements. Luckily level 10 can be reached in one game session easily.
Quest types:
There are three types of quests in Aion. Campaign quests, normal quests and crafting workorders. Campaign quests are given to you automatically as you go up in level and are more based around the game storyline. They almost always have in game cut scenes and have greater rewards. Normal quests are well normal. There are tons of different types of quests; repeat quests, escort quests, quests with multiple paths to choose from with different endings depending on what you do, time quests etc. Pretty much any type of quests you can think of from all the various MMORPGs out there you will find here. Workorders are crafting quests given out by the crafting trainers. You can have up to 30 regular quests in your queue at once and unlimited number of campaign and workorder quests. Quests can be shared and done in a group, solo or sometimes in raids (If a raid quest).
Game content, world size, tech support:
Game world is fairly large and completely filled with content. Doubtful you will run out of things to do all the way up to max level (50) and beyond. Game is fairly well balanced between quests, crafting, gathering and pvp. Not too much of any one thing and if you get tired of one you can easily do something else. The game is not very grindy or repetitive. NCsoft has already added lots of new quests and content in just the first several months and has several large expansion packs to be added this year. The first couple months Aion had a huge bot and gold spammer problem but they have since gotten it under control. The bots and gold spammers are almost never seen any more. NCsoft is currently in the process of replacing their website and forums as they are pretty lousy. The forums outright suck actually. They do have a wiki right on their website and there are other utility websites with game databases and such out there as well. They promise the new website should be up and running March/April 2010. Tech support is very helpful and quick but their hours are limited. Luckily you don’t need them too much but this is one area they could improve upon. What tech support they have is A+, it’s just not open very often.
Misc:
Aion has servers in various languages and is world wide. Group size is 6. Raid size is 24. Aion is a channel based game. If any one area gets too many players playing in it, the game automatically creates a duplicate channel of the area so it is not over crowded. If you group with others, you must be in the same channel.
The Aion world is extensive and well done. The client and server software are not buggy at all and NCsoft seems to be adding stuff to the game already constantly. Patching the game is done automatically in the background and does not take long even with large patches. Servers seem to be populated and balanced well (They control this). Over all the game looks really good and plays even better. It truly is one of the next generation of MMORPGs. If you have played one of the older games like wow, warhammer, starcraft, lotro or guildwars, you will feel pretty comfortable upgrading to Aion. It really is an upgrade. If you have never played this type of game before, it is a good game to start with as they really made it easy to get into. Aion is subscription based and very well worth the money.
Pros:
Great gameplay. It’s just plain fun.
Tons of content and well balanced between the various things to do.
PVP, combat system crafting and questing system is very well done.
Graphics rock. Game looks new and is easy to get around in.
Cons:
You have to be real picky to find much. They need longer tech support hours. They need a new website and forums. Chat system could use a bit of work but overall not much bad.
Great game overall. I’ve pretty much played all the MMORPGs out there and this one is easily the best of the bunch.
Review by David Siska-salkin for Aion: The Tower of Eternity Collector Edition
Rating:
First off – the graphics are amazing. The graphics engine supports visually stunning landscapes and both the player and non-player characters are crafted with loving care and attention to detail (if you buy this definitely look closely at the monsters you are fighting, the level of detail on each is impressive). Along with this you have such things as fluid cloth animation, physics for hair that moves and depending on wind and movement. What is nice is that this is a very efficient graphics engine as well, and though many people will eventually be bogged down in a large pvp battle, a recent moderate system will run this game with all settings on maximum easily. Don’t look too closely though. Circles are actually octagons, the landscape looks like EverQuest from 1990. There’s no such thing as “rounded” straight angles and lines on the landscape, everywhere. Oh, and though the armor is amazing, both in design and graphical quality, it is of a sort of anime nature, so the women aren’t wearing much and the guys look like mechs. Since the Armor is actually separate models than your character and not just skins it both looks far more impressive than most games (and the pieces match, unlike the clown gear of WoW) and it also suffers from the straight line effect. Triangular breasts and square pants are in store if you don’t zoom out after making your initial observations.
But graphics aren’t everything, no matter how much the graphics and the customization of character and even equipment might appeal, there needs to be something else. Aion got a couple of things spot on – the skill chains are an interesting way to add some complexity to the normal one-two-three of many games. Note that depending on your class and situation this just means a one-two-two-two-three button press i.e. because of the way the skill chain works, it many times simply activates, the player clicks through, and you move on to your next skill or skill chain.
Crafting is another big point in this game – if you can gather one type of material, you can gather all similar types (i.e. metals, foods, fibers, ect. form one skill) which makes it much more interesting and easy to skill up gathering skills and to support multiple professions. Each character has the ability to master two trade skills and another to a lesser degree. The items made from this process are very useful and often times better than the items that (very rarely) drop in the game. Anyone who enjoys this aspect of games might find Aion a nice home. Also, you do gain experience from tradeskills and gathering, so while it is not a viable way to level, you don’t completely give up gaining levels when you tradeskill.
So why the low rating? Because, after having played it for several weeks I can see why people in many reviews talk about a “lack of content”. The fact of the matter is that the game space and world is fairly small. You won’t notice this until you’re at least level 30, but it becomes quite apparent after that. There are limited areas to quest at any level, limited places to get loot or drops, ect. The first instance you have access to is at level 25 with a 18 hour lockout time. Did I mention you’ll probably leave with one to two green drops that you can sell for relatively little money? No loot unless you’re really, really lucky. You can’t come back here after level 28 either. While instances getter better past this point, it’s nothing many players of MMOs will be used to.
Quests also practically stop after level 26, at least as a means of gaining gear or experience. By the time you complete most quests you will have better gear than the rewards and usually killing one to two mobs will equal the quest experience reward. Of course, the quests usually are simply “kill 25 of ___” … and many of these quests are repeatable, over a hundred times. So you can make what people call “grinding” a little more rewarding, even though running back to the quest giver to turn in and reacquire the quest is probably a waste of killing/experience time. If you buy this game with the WoW game mechanic and theory in mind – you’re going to be severely disappointed within your first couple of days playing.
There is no escape from pvp. And pvp in this game means being killed while doing the above mentioned grinding. If you don’t mind this, it’s the game for you. If you want to level up and do it to other people, buy it! But for many this will become a massive source of frustration and annoyance. When it takes you 8 hours of killing individual mobs to level up, and you have two places to do this in, when a higher level player decides you’re not going to use that area, it’s game over for the day. Seriously, you *will* be killed, over and over again while trying to level up. You will not even have a chance to fight back either since even if the person is you’re level (which they won’t be) they have come prepared to pvp, so better gear, potions, scrolls ect are at their disposal to ensure that you die and they escape.
***Parents*** If you are considering this game for a child be aware that after level 10 the player enters the one and only channel that connects the entire server together – LFG. This channel is used for chat, selling of goods, and people actually looking for groups. This chat is most times, if not always, littered with racism, sexism (extreme), graphic sexual content, vulgarity, and plenty of complaining, whining and arguing. Since this is the only channel to effectively look for a group in, you’re pretty much subject to this no matter what. You will have to read it, you will be exposed to it.
The player base is really an issue, since this is an MMO it’s all about the collective experience and a game that is based (aside from all that grinding) on social activity and interaction. I’ve found most people to be reasonable and many times interesting once you get a legion or a group, but a very large portion of the people that still actually play this game are generally speaking very self involved, unhelpful, aggressive and rude. If you’ve played World of Warcraft in an Alliance battleground…this is the same thing, all the time, and much, much worse.
I don’t really want to say don’t buy this game, because I really like a lot of the aspects of it, and I’d like to see the community grow ( and mature) so that the game can continue to develop and expand into a more finished title. At the same time, if you have a tight budget, and realize that this game means continuing to pay each month that you play it, I don’t want anyone else to buy it like me, to at first think -“what are all these reviews on various websites and especially the game website about? This is great” It’s not. Period. The game is Korean made, and there will not be two versions for a North American audience with different tastes. The game has been out for a year prior to it’s North America release, so anyone that says it is a new game is confused. The game has been in a released format for over a year.
Unless you really love “ganking” (getting killed while minding your own business by a player) “grinding” (standing around killing the same things over and over and over again for hours if not days) and a less than supportive or involved community of teens at each other’s throats I’d highly recommend that you find a different means of occupying your time.
If your immediate response to this review, that states as clearly as I can some of the most important aspects of the game that a prospective buyer/player might have, is “stop whinging” “QQ” and whatever else you use to describe someone who is dissatisfied or unimpressed with a product, then this is the game for you. You will fit into the community immediately, and probably enjoy the game.
Review by Mark Long for Aion: The Tower of Eternity Collector Edition
Rating:
I had preordered the game so I was able to play in the closed beta events as well as the open beta and headstart event. I have played EQ and City of Heros, and I was really looking forward to Aion as I ultimately love a fantasy type setting.
What I like:
The graphics are amazing, the first glimpse of the floating city of Sanctum is breathtaking. I also love the character models. They are very customizable, and everyone should be able to make a toon to please them. Game play also seems to be a lot of fun. I tend to be more of a solo, casual player, and so far I haven’t had trouble with that game play style. Now, not every class is going to have it as easy and be as quick. Also, I haven’t played a character past level 17 so I cannot comment on the higher end game or the PVP aspect.
What I am not so keen on:
The game, at least in the beginning, is extremely linear. While the story and quests are very interesting, the fact that everyone is doing the exact same thing can cause some trouble. Also, I’m not sure how people will like going through the same storyline every time they create a new character. I will be curious to see how this is tweaked as the game matures. I also have concerns about the PVP aspect; I’m not a fan of PvP, and have not yet experienced that aspect of the game, but I’m hoping that there will be enough content with PvE that I can avoid the PvP if I want. Kill stealing can also be a problem, but not one I have encounted significantly so far.
All in all I have thoroughly enjoyed the game and will be playing for a while to come.
Review by Christopher G. Harlow for Aion: The Tower of Eternity Collector Edition
Rating:
First some background – I’ve been involved in a moderate number of MMO games in the past (City of Heroes / Villains for a couple of years, World of Warcraft (WoW) for 4+ years, dabbled in Warhammer Online, Lord of the Rings Online, Champions Online (CO), and a few other lesser known games). So this is not a review for the hardcore, but more for a casual, semi-serious player. I’ve played Aion since open beta and have moderate level (30+) characters for both factions.
Character Creation – Somewhere between WoW and CO. A reasonable number of controls including overall size (you’ll see some characters that are very short – usually for PvP reasons), a couple of dozen face and body part combinations with reasonable adjustments that can be made. Not nearly as customizable as CO, but for me that works well since character creation is a smaller part of the game to me.
Introduction into the Game – As an experienced player, this may turn you off a bit, but as a new player, the help system is very nice including screen shots and animations as appropriate. If you take the time to look over the help as it is offered, you will get a very good understanding of the controls and the environment you are in. The starter zones (only one for each faction) have a reasonable variety of missions including collecting items, killing, looting, and traveling. The storyline is a bit light for the first zone that will carry you to level 10 (a couple of hours), but picks up fairly well afterwards.
Capital Cities – There is only one capital city for each faction. I personally like the Asmodian capital better (Pandora), but they are well organized with crafting all centered in one area (so if you decide to have multiple professions, you don’t need to travel all over capital cities or across a continent to continue), all trainers are in one area, and storage and auction house system together. The cities are well rendered.
Classes – There are only 4 classes that each branch into 2 specialties. I think this actually works very well since the roles of each class are well defined. If you need a serious healer, you need a cleric…simple as that. No need to argue about whether healing variant A, B, C or D is sufficient or not. You have the Plate wearing Warrior classes (Templar – tank, Gladiator – melee dps), the Chain wearing Priest classes (Cleric – healer, Chanter – dps/buff), the Leather wearing Scout classes (Assassin – melee dps, Hunter – ranged dps), and the Cloth wearing Mage classes (Sorcerer – magic dps/cc, Spiritmaster – magic dps/pets). Each class is fairly well balanced; and I’m very pleased that my cleric (healer) is able to do things solo with no real issue unlike some other games.
Flying – Once you reach level 10, you get your wings. You are limited in what areas you can use them (very restrictive in the PvE areas), but are available in the most important area (Abyss). Flying is actually pretty easy to pick up (game defaults to ‘R’ and ‘F’ keys to control climbing and falling)…especially if you use your mouse to steer (right-click to turn in any direction). You are limited to 60 seconds initially, but will find additional items and potions that can extend that time significantly.
Continuing Zones – The zones after you hit level 10 are limited in number, but are pretty large zones with a lot of variety throughout. Unlike some other games, you won’t find yourself running for long periods of time to get somewhere…most quests involve activities that you can walk to within a minute of where you got the quest. You don’t have a mount, but you aren’t going overly far most of the time anyways, so the lack of mount currently (NCSoft is apparently looking at adding mounts soon) is not that big of a problem. There are some areas with elites that will require you to team up with other people in the game.
Campaigns – In addition to moderately generic quests, there are campaigns that have a reasonably strong story line. About 1/2 the time, each step of a campaign contains a nice cutscene. Completely a campaign usually results in a nice reward. Regardless of class, the reward is something useful due to the nature of the reward (e.g. potion that extends flight time) or due to choices (e.g. choice of gear type that fits your character).
Instances – You won’t run into your first instance until level 25. The instances I’ve been in so far are relatively short, with several interesting bosses. You will want to have a balanced team (up to 6 people) including dps, cc, tank and healer. This gives everyone a roll, and if you develop other characters, a chance to do something different even though you’ve been in that instance before. The instance can be challenging if you don’t understand the things that your character can, and probably should, be doing.
Abyss – This is the central focus of the game. NCSoft has labeled the game as PvPvE. While questing in the Abyss, you can be attacked by the other faction (this can occur in some other zones as well) which adds an interesting dynamic. The classes are balanced enough that you will not be one-shotted (unless the other faction includes a very high level character which is not to their benefit) or stun-locked to death (potions to avoid some of this are relatively cheap).
Crafting – Rather than making an explicit limit like some games, you can pick up as many crafting professions as you can afford. The problem is, you probably can’t afford more than 2 professions initially. So if you decide to farm enough Kinah at level 50, you could have all professions. As you level, keeping your profession relative to your level (10 points for every level 10 and above) actually allows you to craft level appropriate gear. Rather than have you gather tons of materials and use those materials to level your skill, Aion has a work order system that lets you spend some money to level your skill and gain some rewards in the process (additional materials or designs). This saves your gathered material for actually making useful items for yourself (or to sell at the trade broker – Aion’s auction house). I’ve had no issues keeping my skill level up appropriate to my character’s level.
Interface – The interface comes packed with plenty of options. Not quite to the level that you can get with WoW add-ons, but pretty close overall. There are some add-ons from WoW I kind of miss, but I think NCSoft did a very good job putting in the majority of options that casual to serious (but probably not full hard-core) players are looking for.
Customization – The primary method of customization in the game begins in the 20s with the use of Stigmas. You will get a quest to understand the use of stigmas as well as a standard (for your class) stigma. Additional stigmas drop throughout the game and eventually you’ll be able to equip 8 of them. The stigmas act as additional powers, so every stigma is another spell that you can cast. You can exchange stigmas fairly easily, but do have to have stigma shards (obtained by questing in the Abyss mostly). Additional customization comes in the form of manastones, enhancements, and godstones. Manastones are basic buffs to your stats (defensive and offensive), enhancement stones can be applied to weapons (for damage boost) or armor (for defensive boosts). Godstones have more unique properties. By the time you get to 50, you can have a very different character from the person next to you.
Overall – This is an enjoyable game that hearkens back to the better days of WoW (the easiest to compare to). It’s not particularly innovative (neither was or is WoW who continues to steal ideas from other MMOs), but what it does do, it does very nicely. The graphics are a nice step up from WoW(but doesn’t stress the video card as hard as you’d expect), the environment has some nice backgrounds, the mobs are some interesting and different designs, and the PvP is pretty well balanced. I’ve found the game to be a reasonable challenge so far (which is a very, very nice change from how WoW is currently set for easy mode). The options available on the interface are actually very good without any add-ons (could always use a few more options). The biggest struggle the game seems to have today are the bots. NCSoft is taking steps, and we’ll see if they go far enough (of course, anything short of instantaneous action results in complaints from the masses).
If you are looking for a decent MMORPG with a bit of challenge and some PvP action, this is a good game to try out. If you are annoyed by challenge or PvP, I wouldn’t recommend this game for you. The penalties are not steep (pretty much non-existent if you die in PvP), but I know some people take dying pretty harsh.
Review by Christopher Deweese for Aion: The Tower of Eternity Collector Edition
Rating:
The Aion Collector’s Edition has been a pleasant, if not completely original experience. Opening the box revealed some nice trinkets (e.g. a figurine and some maps), but it contained nothing I simply couldn’t live without. Because I preordered I was able to partake in the closed and open betas. Having done so, I got a good feel for the character customization and PvE elements. Since launch, I’ve found the action to be pretty typical for an MMORPG.
If you’ve played World of Warcraft, chances are you’re already pretty familiar with what goes on in Aion. I’ve also played Tabula Rasa and Guild Wars. Aion just doesn’t have much on any other MMO. The only things that distinguish it from the others is the fantastic graphics and limited flight ability. That’s about it. I must say that the time I’ve spent on Aion has been fun. I’ve enjoyed the cut scenes, quests, and story line. The character customization has also been one of the best I’ve seen.
Unfortunately, Aion has experienced all kinds of lag and gold spammers and bots. It’s more annoying than crippling, so I tolerate it. That’s not really a deal breaker for me. I’ve had success with logging on and staying logged on, so the game is pretty stable. Only some mild glitches here and there will cause the image to stutter. Again, not a deal breaker.
I really like the back story. The Elyos and Asmodians are both rich in heritage and culture. Personally, I prefer the Asmodians. They’re a tortured, dark race filled with resentment and anger. Their eyes glow red during combat. Creepy.
My advice is if you’re getting sick of WoW, you might try Aion. It’s nothing earth-shattering. I wouldn’t bother with the Collector’s Edition unless you really like figurines. That’s probably the most interesting part of this edition.