I thought i’d try my hands on a game review, a la D, and see how it goes.
I’ve bought AIOn yesterday after watching quite a view videos as well as many reviews. I’ve heard just about only good things about it and the final push came when i was told that a bunch of my friends are playing it already. Apparently somebody forgot to mention that to ME… anyway…
AION is a MMORPG, if you haven’t heard of it yet. It’s about a divided world and you are super and what not, but i wasn’t really paying attention because i’m the kind of player that just wants to kill stuff… SO!
I was pretty much forced to go Asmodian, the darker side, due to all my friends playing there. It’s not that bad, but i kind of want to try the Elyos as well to see how it is.
First things first, character selection screen. Below you can see what it looks like.
Personally, i chose warrior because later on, i wanted to branch out towards Gladiator. Every class has a basic class and then branches out to two different ones. Warrior, for example, is Templar and Gladiator.
Second is one of the most dreaded things ever. Character customization. I just really can’t do it right, ever. And it takes me about 3 hours each time.
This is the basic character customization. To the left, you can switch through pre-made faces and bodies and to the right, you can adjust the basic settings.
Then, for the hardcore, you can go into the advanced menu with ungodly amounts of sliders that drive every sane person mad.
Before you create your character, you can check how he/she looks like in high level armor. Pretty neat if you ask me!
Now, i didn’t really take any screenshots of the beginner area and such, but that’s kinda of boring anyway.
In the beginning you do the usual kill and gather quests, but they are very streamlined and involving for some reason. It actually matters if you move around or not (Forward – Attack Power, Backwards – Parry/Block, Sideways – Dodge) even with NPCs. Talking about NPCs, it’s actually challenging to fight one. You pay attention to what’s going on.
Once you hit level 10, well, i guess it’s actually 9, then you do your ascension quest, you get your wings and can go to the main city.
The main city, Pandorum (i think… i wasn’t paying attention…) is huge. There is everything there from bank to auction house and whatelseomg.
There are a few nifty things in this game, including mobile trading posts players can set up:
What this allows you to do is sit there (AFK) and offer certain items to passersby’s. They are informed of what you offer by an automatic ’spam’. This is all done in /say, so you don’t crowd trade or just make everybody go apeshit.
Second is the gathering. You have a gathering skill that let’s you pick up ore, flowers, wood, food etc.. You are also not required to use tools, which makes it easier, in my opinion.
Ok, here is a picture of my character on her cloud (Yeah, that’s right, MY cloud.) so i can show you the itnerface.
You have your basic HP, Mana and XP bar, ofcourse.
First slow is your action buttons. What you can’t see, is that the skill i have bound to 3, is actually 3 skills ‘deep’. It’s a chain skill. You start out with one, then you press again for the next skill in line for the combo, then the third. Saves room and is pretty awesome at that.
On the row above it, you can see (under A+1) a shuper Speciul ability. This ability costs 2000 DP, which is the green bar down there, and is filled very slowly when killing mobs. It’s a sort of oh shit button or just rape face button. I like it. It makes you sparkle!
Then you ahve your map and assorted menu links to the right. What you can see to on the top right is the quest-watcher. Quests are very well explained in general, sometimes not, but you can track them as well as look on the map where in general the guys/mobs are. Makes things a lot more streamlined.
Now, i really quite enjoy this game so far. It looks good, plays well, is not really buggy (had a bug where everything was Korean, but that’s just for Europeans, apparently) and generally entertaining.
Things that i don’t really enjoy is the sometimes hardcore asian influences in mob design as well as voices. I mean yes, it kind of was my own fault for choosing a ’seductive’ voice, but having my character constantly scream as if she was a dominatrix in a dungeon does get kind of tiring.
The other major problem i have with it, is the controls. It appears very jagged. When running, then jumping and switching on the wings, i have to let go of W, then hit it again to get moving again. It’s kind of cumbersome. And it’s not only with flying. For some reason, when just looking around with the camera whilst running away, from a mob that i attacked without looking at it’s level, i all of a sudden turn around and head TOWARDS him. No idea why…
Overall, the game is really enjoyable and worth the money so far. Once i get into the Abyss where all the PvP and most PvE happens (at 25), i’ll make a new post to let everybody know how it is.