Aion Revisited: Levels 1 - 20 Review [PC]

25 Sep 2009 at 17:50:22 by Bill Vaughan
Systems used to review this title: (PC, MMO)

I took quite a thorough look at the early levels of Aion over the course of several weeks during its closed beta test, now I'm back to see how the live version of the game holds up. Are there any massive changes, is there any advice for new players and just how bad were those queues?

It's fairly clear from my previews that I enjoyed Aion, lets not beat around the bush. The game is aesthetically pleasing, so players from older games like WoW or EverQuest will be taken aback by its beauty, and I found plenty of things to do to keep me busy and to keep my character progressing. The world is somewhat linear, the zones don't flow into each other, they're actually completely separate, and travelling between them means teleportation, but this is done well and doesn't break immersion at all. The profession system is simple and rewards players with worthwhile items from early on.

Combine this with a flashy chain skilled combat system and, of course, the flying, and you've got yourself a pretty good all-round MMO. The experience kept me wanting more and I looked forward to each of my play sessions. I was actually a bit disappointed when the CBT ended and I mentally waved goodbye my main character, a modest level 16 Elyos. So it was with a mixture of emotions, the excitement of playing Aion again but with some reluctance to go through 16 levels of the same content all over again, that I began from scratch on the live servers this week.

I know it's terribly boring of me, and possibly a bit sad, but I took great pains to create the exact same character. After giving each class a brief spin on the beta, I'd picked out a Warrior as my favourite so, once the class selection was done with, I began the tremendously long and picky process of character customisation.

It's a credit to NCSoft and the customisation feature to see how hard it was to actually make a character that looked the same as my previous one. Even with a screenshot to guide me, it took an age to get anywhere close, by my standards anyway.

Some time later, I entered Atreia and set off in the now-familiar Poeta, the Elyos starter zone. Armed with my knowledge from the beta, I was able to get through this zone a lot quicker and I reached fresh challenges in no time.

Last week, NCsoft declared that a shiny brand new build of the game would be launching worldwide simultaneously with the western launch of the game, so I was curious to see if there were any glaring differences from my time in the beta. Apart from the finishing touches, such as voice-overs for all cut-scenes and some quests, I didn't really notice any in these early levels. Oh, there were some new character customisation options, which reflected western styles more. I'm all for more of those.

In terms of gameplay, I'd say that nothing has changed from the beta version in the first couple of zones. However, one big difference was the in-game community. I have to assume that it was mostly serious die-hard fans or us jaded journalists who were inhabiting the beta servers, because I can honestly say that I rarely saw a single person speak in the general chat channel during the beta, let alone speak to me or invite me to join a group. Oh how things have changed. I'll use a term most of you will be familiar with; Barrens Chat.

Call me immature, but I find it somewhat amusing to watch these discussions go on. It seems that to the Aion community on my server, it's a crime to have played WoW, although let's face it, the vast majority of players are likely to have done. I would guess that to be the case, simply by the number of WoW references that are constantly made. To sample a few; in answer to the question of the Auction House location, someone replied “Ironforge”, I have seen directions to Dalaran requested twice, along with the location of Mankrik's Wife. 

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