Location: Home » Online Games » Aion: The Tower of Eternity Collector Edition

Aion: The Tower of Eternity Collector Edition

Other Views:

From: NCSoft
Category: Video Games

Buy New: $97.98

New (6) Used (5) from $49.99

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

33 reviews
Sales Rank: 9484

Format: DVD-ROM
Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows XP
Genre: online_massively_multiplayer_games
ESRB: Teen
Media: DVD-ROM
Edition: Collector
Batteries Included: No
Age: 12 - 20 years
Operating System: Windows XP
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 10.7 x 7.7 x 2

Model: NC00482
UPC: 875646000482
EAN: 0875646000482
ASIN: B000VL6OWG

Release Date: September 22, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

Features:

•	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.

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

Customer Reviews:

Showing reviews 1-5 of 33

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next »

AION is a more mature MMO April 10, 2010
Sarah L. Brake
0 out of 1 found this review helpful

I played WoW for years, I had an 80 DK, 80 Hunter, 80 Pally, and started to find that it was very easy and I was no longer being immersed in it's world and lore. I found crafting to be fairly simple and leveling extremely easy. For me, part of the joy is enjoying the ride along the way of obtaining max level. If there are restrictions to how fast and easy you can do these things, you enjoy the little steps in the whole process more and Aion does this with a world that pulverizes WoW. The graphics are top notch, and the game play is fairly similar to WoW. If you miss the joy of the fantasy element of MMO's that seems lost in the ones you are playing, then I highly suggest Aion. It is the best out there.

5 out of 5 stars

Great game! Lots and lots of fun! February 24, 2010
David Manvell
10 out of 11 found this review helpful

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.

2 out of 5 stars

Visually Stunning Dream February 17, 2010
David Siska-salkin (CO, USA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

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.

4 out of 5 stars

Awesome Kung-Fu Comedy! February 6, 2010
B. Osenton (Redding, Ca, USA)
This game is great if you love to pvp and grind grind GRIND for your levels! Very different from WoW, no option for pve is a downside and there are a lot of 'bots' and 'hacking' going in this game but you wont get hacked if you dont visit unknown sites! The graphics are by far the most beautiful of any GAME out there, the character customization is unique to this game you can change EVERY ATTRIBUTE to what YOU want it to be! This game is PvPvE which means that it is a PVP game with some PVE just to level up in the world of Aion. The main thing of this game is pvp, end game is pvp. Get to level 50 and pvp your heart out while you do it!

4 out of 5 stars

A Feast for the Eyes! December 23, 2009
Johnathan Mcilvride (Canada)
Aion is a magnificent feast for the eyes and ears! The Tower of Eternity Collector Edition just goes to further your enjoyment of the game itself. It is an absolutely great game with unique concepts of pvp and pve, as well as a wonderful mixture of several famous past MMO's.

It all starts with a more than unique storyline that's fairly well laid out, adding of course, a twist and turn here and there. Expect to spend some time on the character customization screen, as it goes far more in depth with detail than any other game to date. Once past that you'll be quickly loaded into the world of Atreia where you'll start in one of the smaller zones to do your starting quests which will inevitably take you to level 10; where the game really begins.

The first thing you'll notice once in the game is the detail in your character. Unlike many games which provide a nice cinematic style graphic to your character during it's customization, then dumb it down when in actual game play. NCSoft has gone above and beyond to provide you with the same detail and design as you saw in the amazing customization and selection screens. Next you'll be hit by the graphics and how wonderful they've done not just with the detail but the blending of colors as well as the layout of terrain. Though unable to swim in the initial release of the game, the water looks spectacular and the landscapes are beautiful. Running on max graphics will take quite a toll out of your machine but will provide you with a more than expected treat for the eyes.

Of course with the detail and quality of the game comes the requirement of a machine capable to run it. One of Aion's biggest problems doesn't rest so much in a direct focus to users with a high end gaming rig. But that the virtual memory needed for it's extensive detail has left one third of the population on the game crashing at various points of game play. Even myself with a brand new I7 rig running on dual GTX285's have had repeated crashes in high populated areas of the game, such as it's main focus, fortress raids.

However setting aside the difficulties the game developers are having with making this game stable for everyone. The best thing it brings is in fact to users with low end computer models. The difference between running on minimum graphics and maximum graphics in this game seems to be less punishable than other games such as Lord of the Rings Online or World of Warcraft. Testing the differences in levels the visual appearance of the game doesn't seem to alter much. On lowest settings the scenery takes a small hit on small details that would be noticeable on higher settings, and the terrain view distance just decreases making it run much smoother. Overall I was rather impressed by the remaining visual effect.

The best thing the game offers, alongside the graphics, would be the balance in the pve and pvp system. Being majorly quest oriented with a slight grind aspect every now and then, it also carries a pvp experience based system that raises rank and allows you better rewards and titles. Much like World of Warcraft did in the old days when there would be 12 hour AV matches. As a player this along with a sound balance of classes and the versatility of being able to play pvp or pve in an open world concept was what made the game sell.

In summary, being a major gamer since a young age and seeing just about every product released for PC and the Playstation platforms. I rank this game five stars for fun, quality, unique concept, and a splendid blend of other popular game ideas. Sadly drop a star because of the problems with stability, and you have an overall ranking of four stars. I have no doubt with time and experience the dev's of NCSoft will find solutions to their problems and bring this game back to a closing five stars. I would personally recommend Aion for game of the year, 2009; and possibly best MMORPG on the current market.

Showing reviews 1-5 of 33

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next »