Aion is a traditional fantasy MMORPG created by NCsoft that somewhat-recently became free-to-play. The game has a high emphasis on PvP combat with factions. You must join either the angel-ish "Elyos" or the demon-ish "Asmodians", when you first start the game, and you can not create a character of the opposite faction you join. PvP isn't really available from the start, though, and it's more of an end-game thing. You're also given the ability to fly but, since this isn't FlyFF, flying doesn't really serve much purpose besides being a little faster and looking cool, and you can't stay in the air indefinitely. Mostly just running around and killing almost-defenseless animals. Let's look at the right and wrong...
RIGHT
Well, first off, the graphics for this game are pretty smooth. I'm not much of a graphics guy, though, so not much more to say on this matter. Pretty nice graphics, with pretty nice animations.
This game has an unusually nice customization aspect. There are 4 different classes, all can be played either male or female, and while there are technically only two races (one that's basically normal humans, and the other one that has giant claws and an amazing amount of back hair), you can change the look and size of your character substantially. You can make your character a big-headed imp, a dwarf, a really huge guy, etc.
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| For example, I seem to have made Ganondorf. |
The world is expansive, the player-base is large, and there is an almost infinite amount of things to do. Kill things? Yep. Kill players? Of course. Level ups? As always. Instances and dungeons are also available, together with a list of achievements. All of which would take you an ungodly amount of time to complete. ALL of them. This is where we get into the...
This game has a ridiculously slow movement speed, further emphasized by the fact that I made a really huge guy as my character. Since all character movement speeds are the same, my character's legs just move very slowly, which makes me notice exactly how slowly I'm going. It will take you a long time just to reach every destination you're told to go to and, since you're a hero, you're told to go to places that are at least halfway across the continent all the time.
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| I will travel to the ends of this world to solve your stupid insignificant problems! |
Skill attacks when fighting aren't flashy or impressive, but do feature a cool Chain system, where certain skills can't be used until other skills are. This creates nice combos in a type of game where that's usually not a factor. Though this is kind of a double-edged sword, as it's basically a guideline for skill usage. As if you weren't smart enough to...
Oh, wait. The makers of Aion don't expect you to bother yourself with things like skills and stats, and most of that stuff is done automatically for you. You have to buy skills from a merchant when you've leveled enough to be able to buy them, but besides that there is nothing you have to worry about except equipment. Stats are done automatically, and skills level up automatically. Neither skill nor stat points exist for you to dole out, making this game seem more than a little noob-friendly.
Overall, this game has the same problems most MMORPGs have, in that it's incredibly freaking boring. Since these games always have high player bases, I assume the game must get much more exciting at higher levels, but I would have to trudge through the beginner game to get there. It's not worth it.
2.5 out of 5
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