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Aion: The Tower of Eternity Steelbook Edition

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From: NCsoft
Category: Video Games

List Price: ~~$39.99~~
Buy Used: $6.89
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Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars

56 reviews
Sales Rank: 4191

Format: DVD-ROM
Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows XP
Genre: online_massively_multiplayer_games
ESRB: Teen
Media: DVD-ROM
Edition: Steelbook
Batteries Included: No
Age: 12 - 20 years
Operating System: Windows XP
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 0.1 x 0.1 x 0

MPN: 8043243
Model: NC00468
UPC: 875646000871
EAN: 0875646000468
ASIN: B000VL4J9Q

Publication Date: September 21, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

Features:

•	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.

Accessories:

2-Year Replacement Plan - Covers Electronic Items $50.00-$99.99

System Requirements:

	Minimum Specifications:	Recommended Specifications:
OS:	Windows XP/Vista
Processor:	Pentium 4 2.8GHz, AMD Athlon 2800	Pentium Dual Core, AMD Athlon 64 X2
RAM:	1GB RAM	2GB RAM
Video Card:	GeForce 6600, Radeon X1550	GeForce 7600, Radeon X2600
Sound Card:	DirectX 9.0c compatible
DVD-ROM:	Quad-speed (4x) DVD-ROM drive
Hard Drive Space:	30GB of free space or more
Other:	Internet connection, keyboard and mouse; Fee for online play

Product Description
With NCsoft Aion Software you can explore one of the most amazingly beautiful and detailed MMORPGs ever as you fight to save a vibrant world ripped asunder by a celestial war. Choose between two divine factions, the Asmodians or the Elyos, and save your people from an ancient evil that threatens to destroy everything in its path. Over 1500 story-driven quests lead you through a wondrous and expansive world like no other.

Customer Reviews:

Showing reviews 1-5 of 56

1 2 3 4 5 6 ...12 Next »

I was very let down July 12, 2010
Calintz
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

After all the hype people gave this game I was expecting the revolution of MMORPG games from it. I suppose that my expectations could be considered to high. This game is nothing more than an upgraded version of Lineage 2 meets World of warcraft. You have a WoW style quest system in a Lineage 2 style world and lore. Open world PvP which is not optional as well as a very steep grind. If you are the type who enjoys to quest for 10-12 hours to gain a single level then maybe you will be able to reach the level cap in this game. From my personal experience Aion has a much steeper grind than WoW so if you are looking for something more casual, or an upgrade to WoW I would say try other games first. This can be a fun game but only if you are willing to put in the huge massive amounts of time it will take you to level up your character.

Along with the terrible grind you also have a broken security system. In the 2 months that I played this game 3 people in my Legion were hacked and their accounts suspended. They did absolutely nothing wrong in fact I knew one person from another game who came with me to try this one. Ncsoft does a terrible job at keeping the game secure and your account can be compromised at any time. If you really want to try this game I would say wait until at least the end of 2010 if the game is still alive by then it should be more polished, refined, and the security issues should be a thing of the past.

1 out of 5 stars

There is no avoiding PvP in Aion June 21, 2010
Gregory Johnson (Roanoke, TX USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

Aion is a good looking game. Starting at around level 20, PvP will be forced on you. If you enjoy having your characters killed while you are questing 15 minutes from the rez point by the opposing faction who is 25 levels higher than you, play Aion.

5 out of 5 stars

a legitimate rival to WoW May 3, 2010
E. Banach (USA)
2 out of 4 found this review helpful

Though it's early in its history, this game does live up to most of the standards of the MMORPG, in my opinion. If you're still playing WoW or GW, and just looking for something different to see if those are worth quitting and starting something new, you may want to save your time and skip Aion. But if you've still got the craving for an mmo experience but it's just to painful to log on to that old level 80 or whatever, then Aion may be a breath of fresh air for you (it was for me).

I have been playing for a week now and I am at level 23 with my new Cleric ( the only healing class in the game, other than Chanters). The first impressions were pretty good. As an former WoW player I felt pretty much at home as far as the interface goes. I actually like the action bars a little better because they are already set up with keybinds for you. The graphics are also a very big selling point here. Everything in this world just looks very nice. Due to this though you will need a pretty up to date computer to enjoy it. I am playing on a very new laptop and havent had any major technical concerns but it can get choppy. If you're still running a machine that got you through 5 years of WoW, you will definitely make sure you look over the system requirements for this game.

The learning curve will be a little steep for new players however I did feel it is certainly not as user friendly as WoW. You will not be getting the instant gratification that WoW now offers, like lightspeed heirloom leveling and jumping into queued instances and battle grounds at level 15. Leveling in Aion will become a quite painfully slow process as you reach about level 20. Due to this fact, it really does reminds me of the early days of WoW, when leveling to 60 was an intensely long and tiring grind but altogether extremely rewarding. Though similar to WoW in a lot of ways you'll find that their approach to things like crafting items (alchemy, cooking, weaponsmithing, etc.) are quite different and interesting but definitely fun. You should also note that there are little to no pvp or instanced content until you get to level 30 or so. You will spend a good chunk of the grind to 50 doing TONS of quests and killing millions of monsters solo unless you have friends who play. Grouping is a lot of fun and there is a lot of role-play potential for this game.

Since UO i've been playing these mmo to death so I'm kind of leaning towards 3 out of 5 stars for the degree of fun. These games are cool but they do require a lot of your time and will keep you from doing things outside. If you want to get into that kind of thing again or for the first time, try this game out because it's a very respectable game in my opinion. The makers of this game have designed some very beautiful landscapes and very cool character designs. If it had come out the same time WoW did I'm sure there would be half as many of these negative reviews on here because a lot of these people seem like their still trapped in the nostalgia and love for world of Warcraft.

2 out of 5 stars

Has potential, but needs a LOT of work... April 13, 2010
Yu-jin Chia (Cupertino, CA USA)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful

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.

3 out of 5 stars

My Personal Aion Review March 1, 2010
Nathan Lee (Clarksville, TN USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful

Seems like it has great potential but it's still a new game so everything isn't really there yet. The designers I am sure are working hard to make this a wonderful game like the other major competitors but I still believe that World of Warcraft still reigns over the M.M.O.R.P.G. industry. Same price per month and better over all quality/variety/experience/fun. But I am still interested to see what the designers of Aion do to make this game better in the future. Don't take my word for it try it yourself (since it's my own experience), you may just love this game.

Showing reviews 1-5 of 56

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