I've played Beta 3 and 4 recently, as extensively as the client would allow me - which wasn't a whole lot of time in all honesty.  I managed to spend as much time trying to relog back in and maintaining my connection as well as putting up with insane lag.

But hey, it's BETA....right?

If this game had been released in 2001, I would have given it a 9/10.  Unfortunately, we are now in 2009.

It seems to me they have tried to aim the game at the 'WoW' crowd, and it feels dumbed down and assinine in it's presentation.  The anime cartoonish style, accompanied by huge mis-proportioned weapons adds credence to this comparison, and it is a typical Korean MMO with Blizzard overtones and gameplay.

I would imagine the game will run well on most reasonably up to date machines, due to the style of graphics and the fact there are next to no textures in the game.  Some of the scenery is 'nice', but lacks any sort of feature and in my opinion, is disappointing.  Characters look decent very close up, but as soon as any distance between them is engaged by zooming, the simplicity of the engine is highlighted and it just looks extremely 'average'.

This 'simplicity' will aid in mass PvP at a later stage, but in this day and age surely we should be expecting something a little better.  The gameplay itself is just stale.  It offers absolutely nothing new - except for flight - and the quests  couldn't be more boring, pointless and similar - if you like this concept you will be in your element.

For a game that is approaching it's first birthday in Korea, we in the West managed to get version 1.0 which has been obselete for months, and asked to test the localisation.  The performance was abysmal, and  probably the worst beta I have ever been involved in because of this one factor.  It has actually deteriorated in the two weeks since Beta 2, even though 2 more servers were added for the EU participants.  I played on both the new 'low' population servers provided, and the lag and rubberbanding was just laughable from a supposedly 'finished' product - their excuse of 'overloading' and 'stress testing' doesn't hold water because of the server I was playing on.  Is this annoyance due to 'Gameguard' anti-hax software?  I don't know.

Aion has a chance, due to the fact that the game is being aimed at folk who like this sort of casual junk.  I advise trying the proposed OB of this game or getting a free trial before parting with any cash.  I'll carry on waiting for something that has some innovation and thought behind it - if that ever arrives...

Scores 4/10 - Nothing new to see here, move along.

Thanks i appreciate your score. But i disagree with you because you are just repeating all the recycled stuff from forums since the beta opened for the masses.

We know nothing new to see here and still we won't move along because its one hell of a polished game and best lag free PVP experince i ever had. But still thanks for your stale review.

Originally posted by Getalife

We know nothing new to see here and still we won't move along because its one hell of a polished game and best lag free PVP experince i ever had. But still thanks for your stale review.

You come from 'WoW', right?

Originally posted by Kris.Kringle

Originally posted by Getalife

We know nothing new to see here and still we won't move along because its one hell of a polished game and best lag free PVP experince i ever had. But still thanks for your stale review.

 

You come from 'WoW', right?

No i come from DAOC and WAR. And PVP is the only reason why i play AION.

What lag ? i've played on 3 of the 4 servers at varying levels all weekend with none + you mention constant disconnects I would say the problem lies in your internet.

We are actually on 1.2 this weekend i believe.

Aion once you hit PVP is where it becomes more complex both target wise tactically and strategy as it should be IMO PVE for me is just a means to a end and if i can button bash my way there all the better.

Originally posted by thamighty213

What lag ? i've played on 3 of the 4 servers at varying levels all weekend with none + you mention constant disconnects I would say the problem lies in your internet.

 

We are actually on 1.2 this weekend i believe.

 

Aion once you hit PVP is where it becomes more complex both target wise tactically and strategy as it should be IMO PVE for me is just a means to a end and if i can button bash my way there all the better.

 

Ah, so the bulging sticky thread on disconnects and lag on the CB forum is just a figment of my imagination?

Silly me.

Originally posted by Kris.Kringle

Originally posted by thamighty213

What lag ? i've played on 3 of the 4 servers at varying levels all weekend with none + you mention constant disconnects I would say the problem lies in your internet.

 

We are actually on 1.2 this weekend i believe.

 

Aion once you hit PVP is where it becomes more complex both target wise tactically and strategy as it should be IMO PVE for me is just a means to a end and if i can button bash my way there all the better.

 

 

Ah, so the bulging sticky thread on disconnects and lag on the CB forum is just a figment of my imagination?

Silly me.

Thousands of players are playing AION and not everyone is having the same problem. Doesn't mean the game on the WHOLE is bad. My guild for example has 25 players and none of us disconnected even once.

I agree with you, this game is very pretty to look at but the gameplay is just so boring.

They could not have been more basic with the spells/abilities.  This was the thing that really killed the game for me.  There is NOTHING new here, the most basic/generic fantasy classes, with just the most basic spells and abilities.  Things you have used a billion times before in other games.  

It may just be me, but I dont really care what an ability looks like the thousandth times I use it, I would rather have more interesting effects to play with.  As a Priest I have a heal, a heal over time, 2 buffs, a nuke, and a damage over time spell.  Nothing interesting to do here.  I tried some of the other classes, and the most interesting thing they got was "has a 35% chance to stun" LOL.  How could any developer think this is a good idea.  Randow low chances for special effects on an attack that is just a small % damage increase.

I hate to be a drama queen but everyone needs to stop buying and supporting every new game (especially mmo) that comes out.  NCSoft is a good company usually, City of Heroes and Guild Wars are 2 of the most innovative games out there.  But I feel like Aion is  a HUGE mistake.  Aerial combat is not enough to be the major selling point of a game.  FLYFF has had this and it is a free to play.  Not to mention the abilities in FLYFF are even more interesting.  

---

Originally posted by thamighty213
What lag ? i've played on 3 of the 4 servers at varying levels all weekend with none + you mention constant disconnects I would say the problem lies in your internet.
 
We are actually on 1.2 this weekend i believe.
 
Aion once you hit PVP is where it becomes more complex both target wise tactically and strategy as it should be IMO PVE for me is just a means to a end and if i can button bash my way there all the better.
 

---

I personally had no issue with the lag, but I do agree with the OP's opinion on the graphics and gameplay. I wasn't really blown away by the graphics, like everyone is claiming. If anything, I just upgraded my vid card and have been seeing a MASSIVE difference playing EQ2 with textures on and shadows on. Now THAT game can push some nice graphics. Takes a bit of tweaking though.

Cool story bro.

Sometimes I feel lime i'm living on different planet.

"lag and rubberbanding was just laughable"

"The performance was abysmal, and probably the worst beta I have ever been involved in because of this one factor"

I had no problem whatsoever with performance of lag whole weekend.

Am I lying, or is it a miracle? /shrug

Btw "Nothing new to see here, move along" yea right, move to where huh? Sure a lot of great choices around. /facepalm
 

Originally posted by Getalife

Originally posted by Kris.Kringle

Originally posted by thamighty213

What lag ? i've played on 3 of the 4 servers at varying levels all weekend with none + you mention constant disconnects I would say the problem lies in your internet.

 

We are actually on 1.2 this weekend i believe.

 

Aion once you hit PVP is where it becomes more complex both target wise tactically and strategy as it should be IMO PVE for me is just a means to a end and if i can button bash my way there all the better.

 

 

Ah, so the bulging sticky thread on disconnects and lag on the CB forum is just a figment of my imagination?

Silly me.

Thousands of players are playing AION and not everyone is having the same problem. Doesn't mean the game on the WHOLE is bad. My guild for example has 25 players and none of us disconnected even once.

yep 40 of our guys are in and no issues either wasnt hearing any reports of it IG either "Vocal minority" :) na sos to hear some are having issues though I played on Chinese retail for a few month and experienced that everyday and it really skewed my impressions of Aion.

Why all new MMO's calling WoW copies?  But nobody matters that WoW is EQ copy.

Sorry for my English.

Originally posted by saturn1234

I agree with you, this game is very pretty to look at but the gameplay is just so boring.

 

They could not have been more basic with the spells/abilities.  This was the thing that really killed the game for me.  There is NOTHING new here, the most basic/generic fantasy classes, with just the most basic spells and abilities.  Things you have used a billion times before in other games.  

It may just be me, but I dont really care what an ability looks like the thousandth times I use it, I would rather have more interesting effects to play with.  As a Priest I have a heal, a heal over time, 2 buffs, a nuke, and a damage over time spell.  Nothing interesting to do here.  I tried some of the other classes, and the most interesting thing they got was "has a 35% chance to stun" LOL.  How could any developer think this is a good idea.  Randow low chances for special effects on an attack that is just a small % damage increase.

 

I hate to be a drama queen but everyone needs to stop buying and supporting every new game (especially mmo) that comes out.  NCSoft is a good company usually, City of Heroes and Guild Wars are 2 of the most innovative games out there.  But I feel like Aion is  a HUGE mistake.  Aerial combat is not enough to be the major selling point of a game.  FLYFF has had this and it is a free to play.  Not to mention the abilities in FLYFF are even more interesting.  

 

 

Because 10 levels in every other game you have every skill going i suggest you look here http://powerwiki.na.aiononline.com/aion/Cleric+Skills you can even search any other class there (I know wonderous isn't it) and see what they hold also.

You are arguing with someone who would recomend FLYFF over Aion. FIY.

As the other posters above, I had absolutely no lag and 0 disconnects, playing form Europe on the US servers.

I have also been playing from Europe on the Chinese servers for a couple months, and I also had no lag and no disconnects. I think this is pretty impressive, especially considering the number of players this game manages to get on the screen.

So OP, you should rather laugh at your ISP or your internet route; there is obviously a bottleneck somewhere between your PC and the Aion datacenter.

As for the rest of your post, Aion manages to get several hundreds of players on the screen with no lag. What do you want? PVE zones limited to max 48 players like AoC, and castle sieges with 48 vs 48 max?

There was lag and rubberbanding throughout the weekend for me. But its still a better game than anything in say the last 6 yrs.  There is nothing new in any of the new MMOs as its all rehashed ideas of other ones. The game is fun and is polished unlike anything since WOW released.  You came, you saw and you trolled effectively enough.

I'm really only considering playing the game because my brother and two best friends intend to play it. Otherwise I would write it off as another typical linear fantasy MMO.

There was a server that lagged and they took it down, at least i read about it, but everyone I know that plays never had any issues with lag.

I played a decent amount of time on the chinese servers and Im from Europe and the game went smooth without any issues.

Seriously from all the MMOs I played nothing was so lag free as Aion even in certain zones with hundreds of people around.

My PC is 3 years old and runs Aion perfectly, they really made wonders with the Farcry engine for this game.

Not even WoW in crowded areas worked so nicely and WoW graphics and details cant even compare to Aions.

The game seems great and runs greatj, only problem with Aion is the botting that NCsoft has a bad history in dealing with.

If they can handle botting the game will be a success for sure.

Mmm bashing the performance and stability of Aion, and the "simplicity" of the client? Riiiiiight.

Apart from the fact that performance and stability are stellar even on 1.0 (we're getting 1.5 in NA/EU, if you give a damn anyway), and that Aion has the BEST Graphics/Performance ratio on the market, complaining about the "simplicity" (what??) of the client is laughable.

And of course adding the one obvious and well known "issue" with Aion, which is linear questing in the early levels. Very unpredictable. Sorry, but:
 

So they aimed for the 2001 WOW crowd?

*ponder*

Must not be a very big target audience.

Anarchy Online and maybe DAoC came out around 2001.. and SWG was 2003.   So I'm trying to really relate how this game could be a "nice game for 2001" and I just can't do it.

If you said 2004.. maybe.  I mean at least WoW and EQ2 came out in 2004.

People don't like games that is cool.  I don't really like level/class based games so I can relate.  I just can't relate to the title of the thread...

I also agree in some aspects with the OPs opinion. Its a very one sided and negative perspective on the game, but he does touch a lot of key elements where the game could use some work. 

You lost me at "next to no textures". Aion has faults, but one of them is most definitely not its graphics. When everyone else comes to the same conclusion about something, do you think maybe it might be you? That's not to be rude, I mean perhaps your graphics card or options in the game need tweaking. Aion has incredibly realistic graphics and textures, especially for avatars and armor. I will grant you, the landscape feels like it comes from an older game (I give them '05-ish), but personally I never notice the ground I'm running on anyway unless it's lagging me. Nine times out of ten, the first time I log into a game I go into options and turn off trees/grass/water if able.

As for game version, a bit of research would tell you that topic has already been discussed at length. You are TESTING an older client, mostly for the sake of stress-testing servers and localization, while they continue localizing the 1.5 (newest) content. This is why the game is officially launching in September, instead of tomorrow. It will be launched at a version as close to recent as possible, which polishes the game even more and adds loads of things to do.

As for aiming for the WoW crowd, I fully agree with you. But I never minded WoW mechanics, so it doesn't bother me. Quest, level, be social, alt, etc....some people are into it, some are not. Not everything appeals to everyone, that is to be expected. Just be honest about it, instead of beefing up your critique with nonsense.

OP Sounds like a raging ex WoW player.

Really tired of threads like this one, why can't people ever be objective?

The only reason he'd post this is to try to incite negative responces, which is essentially trolling.

This topic is pointless.

edit: Nevermind. Laughing-Man is right.