Hey all, its been several days now and some players are still having a tough time getting into the game. As such, I thought I would put down a comprehensive review of Aion while NCsoft figures out their server issues.

Although I write this Aion is technically ‘in beta’ ..the real fact is the game is out and available to the public to purchase and play. Open Beta has become as much of a marketing ploy as it is a stress test. As such, players are trying to make a decision as to whether or not this game is right for them (and spending ~$50). It is my hope that this review will help you with this decision. I will update and revise the review constantly through open beta as I expect many things will change. Make no doubt, I spend as much time revising my reviews and keeping them up to date as i did writing them to begin with.
 

The Aion Review: "A highly Polished game for the little Korean in all of us"

I worked hard to make it unbiased, fairly comprehensive and fun to read. Focusing on being straightforward as possible.

However I would really like your input. Aspects I overlooked (and I know there are some), things you liked or didn't like, spelling mistakes, or any errors Ive made. I don't mind if you post how much you hate the review, just be constructive as to how I can improve. I actually encourage people to point out what they didn't like or don't agree with and why. Sometimes the harshest of critiques are the most useful.

Thanks all!

How do you combine "unbiased"and "Little Korean" in a single review?

Very well done in my opinion.  I agree with it for the most part and you put it together quite nicely.

Very well done. You hit the good and the bad and I believe it to be as unbiased as possible. Any new player to Aion or someone who is looking at the game could read that review and get a good feel for the game overall. Really well done.

 very well done <_< keep it up

"Polished" and all the servers are unplayabe....are you kidding me. The game is even blue screening Windows.

Some things you label as asian are not asian in my opinion, music deffinetly differs from that of perfect world, for example, is more chillout, and if you go to the abyss, it sounds like an stocholm's rave lol.

Pretty decent review, one thing to consider, the 3 extra slots in the stigma screen are high grade stigmas, not godstones, godstones are socketed into weapons and they add different debuffs to your weapon.

check terhix.com/stigma/ for reference about Aion's skill customization.

Thanks Eph, I made that correction. I knew Id make some slip-ups after writing 8 pages :)

As for use of the terms "unbiased"and "Little Korean" ...I think if you read the review, you will understand why I phrased it that way.

i will read the review a little later but i read the summery.

seem s like you like the game :D

will you continue playing into retail?

Hey Sgt,

Yea, I make it a point to play all games through the first month of release (Many longer..the lone exception being Darkfall). The first month is where you see a lot of changes and can get a good idea for the trajectory of the game.

Lag is obviously a problem for the first days of open beta, it was also an issue in the latter closed betas #5 and #6. As I mention in the review, if they dont fix this the game may go down in flames (forum flames).

If you are having lag issues, R click the AION button in the NCsoft Log screen and select repair.

That seems to have rectified the problem on my system. The lag is not a game guard issue.

Originally posted by Czzarre

Lag is obviously a problem for the first days of open beta, it was also an issue in the latter closed betas #5 and #6. As I mention in the review, if they dont fix this the game may go down in flames (forum flames).

If you are having lag issues, R click the AION button in the NCsoft Log screen and select repair.

That seems to have rectified the problem on my system. The lag is not a game guard issue.

Thats really a key point. Many think it is.

Originally posted by Hepisodic

Originally posted by Czzarre

Lag is obviously a problem for the first days of open beta, it was also an issue in the latter closed betas #5 and #6. As I mention in the review, if they dont fix this the game may go down in flames (forum flames).

If you are having lag issues, R click the AION button in the NCsoft Log screen and select repair.

That seems to have rectified the problem on my system. The lag is not a game guard issue.

 

Thats really a key point. Many think it is.

First, just as a minor addition.  You can PvP in the Arena starting level 10.  I spent an hour in there the other day doing just that (there is a level 10 quest that has you enter the arena and not really know what it is).  Usually you get a gank in on some level 10 guy because he doesn't know better.  Well, 2 min after killing him he is back looking for revenge and the real fun begins.

Second, GameGuard is the issue.  The repair option simple redownloads the GameGuard items and maybe some Aion stuff.  I fixed the bulk of my lag by removing the GameGuard folder in the Aion directory.

Another way to reduce the lag is to disable the general chat channels by customizing your chat tab.  The GameGuard fix dropped me from 1000ms+ spikes to about 400ms with some spikes.  The chat fix dropped me down to 150-250ms with 350ms spikes.

Originally posted by Czzarre

 

The Aion Review: "A highly Polished game for the little Korean in all of us"

 

All true.  Good job, I leave my Aion reviews to you for the coming weeks.

Originally posted by Czzarre

 

Goodness sucks!
Like DAOC and WAR, Aion will be very population dependent. The fairness and enjoyment will matter less on class balance and more on population balance. From observations in closed beta, open beta and countless polls, it seems pretty obvious that Asmodian will outnumber Elyos when the game is released. My guess is Asmodian will be up 3:2 in player population ..perhaps even 2:1. This will be disastrous on servers where this occurs.

 

Nice review. Just 1 point: Aion auto balances the faction population. Once too many are enrolled on 1 side you can't create a new character on that side until both sides are correctly balanced again.

Just try to create an asmodean on some of the high pop servers in the beta, you will often get the message that you can't roll on that side.

As for the lag, I don't get any lag in the open beta, didn't get any lag in the closed beta (playing on the US servers from Europe) and didn't get any lag during the several months I was playing on the Chinese servers (from Europe) -> considering the distance I think this is quite impressive.

So to me, people having lag problems are more subject to their internet route latency problems than the servers. -> people going through the same bottlenecks on the net (depending on their location, ISP backbones used) will obviously get the same lag while some other players don't get the lag....

Better then Guild Wars and Warhammer?

Originally posted by tro44_1

Better then Guild Wars and Warhammer?

yes allot better than warhammer (IMO) and Guild wars is not an mmorpg so you cant really compare them imo...both great games

Originally posted by tro44_1

Better then Guild Wars and Warhammer?

Completely different game than Guild Wars, can't really compare the two.

It has some similarities to Warhammer but I don't think a proper comparison can be made until the end game of Aion really arrives.

I liked the review - it pointed out quite a few things that have bugged me in the beta and some things I can look forward to.

One thing I have trouble with though is relying on a player base (and server population) to manage the end-game content.  I've seen too many games fall because of that aspect.  The hardcorers stick around, but soon there's no one to fight.  I remember in Warhammer on my server Chaos heavily outnumbered Alliance and won the majority of battles.  Because of this Alliance players started leaving.. eventually some Chaos players started leveling Alliance to balance the playing field, but either gave up or... whatever.  Chaos players ended up leaving because they had no one to fight.

So.. Unbalanced server population = one side leaves = the other side leaves = servers combine... but the disease is still there and ultimately the game flops.
 

I really hope it doesn't come to that in Aion.

Originally posted by vive

So.. Unbalanced server population = one side leaves = the other side leaves = servers combine... but the disease is still there and ultimately the game flops.
 

I really hope it doesn't come to that in Aion. 

Aion has ingame balancing mechanics.

The 3rd "AI" race, the Balaur, will come out by themselves. Sometimes they come to attack you and/or your fortress, sometimes to help the opposing race attack you or take over your fortress, and sometimes to help you attack them.

I think this is the best balancing system you can have in a faction based game.

If you look at it overall (at least after playing the Asian retail game), often the game will make it so that the attacking faction wins (this is probably done so that fortresses change hands more often). In anyway, it seems much easier to attack than to defend, even if your faction seems more populated.

And then, as said above, the game also automatically limits the number of new players who can enroll on each side, depending on population.

Originally posted by BigMango

Originally posted by Czzarre

 

Goodness sucks!
Like DAOC and WAR, Aion will be very population dependent. The fairness and enjoyment will matter less on class balance and more on population balance. From observations in closed beta, open beta and countless polls, it seems pretty obvious that Asmodian will outnumber Elyos when the game is released. My guess is Asmodian will be up 3:2 in player population ..perhaps even 2:1. This will be disastrous on servers where this occurs.

 

 

Nice review. Just 1 point: Aion auto balances the faction population. Once too many are enrolled on 1 side you can't create a new character on that side until both sides are correctly balanced again.

Just try to create an asmodean on some of the high pop servers in the beta, you will often get the message that you can't roll on that side.

 

As for the lag, I don't get any lag in the open beta, didn't get any lag in the closed beta (playing on the US servers from Europe) and didn't get any lag during the several months I was playing on the Chinese servers (from Europe) -> considering the distance I think this is quite impressive.

So to me, people having lag problems are more subject to their internet route latency problems than the servers. -> people going through the same bottlenecks on the net (depending on their location, ISP backbones used) will obviously get the same lag while some other players don't get the lag....

 

 

 

Thanks guys. indeed I well know about the Auto server lockouts for population. The problem is...It just never seemed to work in numerous MMOs where they did similar things. No matter the enticements, players moved to servers where they found themselves at an advantage. If asmodian is locked out on one server, players go to others where Asmodian isnt locked out. Also, if there is  a sense that one side is under populated, players tend to leave to servers where they are in the majority.

I hope I'm wrong. If NCSoft works diligently to balance populations ...this game will fly and fly high for PvP players.

Originally posted by Czzarre

The problem is...It just never seemed to work in numerous MMOs where they did similar things. No matter the enticements, players moved to servers where they found themselves at an advantage. If asmodian is locked out on one server, players go to others where Asmodian isnt locked out. Also, if there is  a sense that one side is under populated, players tend to leave to servers where they are in the majority.

I hope I'm wrong. If NCSoft works diligently to balance populations ...this game will fly and fly high for PvP players.

Yes I see where you are coming form.

But don't forget the 3rd AI race, the Balaur (check above post). I think the auto lock out + the 3rd race balances it out pretty nicely.

That said, I have seen 1 problem on the Asian severs: If the other guilds and faction fail to organize themselves properly 1 guild can grow so big and strong that it can rule the whole server and take control of the Abyss.

I don't know if NCsoft was able to find a workaround for this as I am not playing there anymore; we'll see how this pans out.

Good Points.

I doubt the NPC race will ever truly achieve the same complexity and challenge as facing off against other players. Right now they are powerful but the game is young. As for mega guilds, I kind of expect them on every game I play. As with servers, many players tend to migrate toward power.

Originally posted by Czzarre

Good Points.

I doubt the NPC race will ever truly achieve the same complexity and challenge as facing off against other players. Right now they are powerful but the game is young. As for mega guilds, I kind of expect them on every game I play. As with servers, many players tend to migrate toward power.

Mega guilds are a really big problem for me -- I don't know if you've played EVE Online, but after downtime was when new things spawned.  Mega guilds had people in place ready to farm the best spots with their best ships right off the bat.  Smaller corporations/alliances didn't stand a chance.  We could get there first, but we'd never get to the end first.  You can't compete against something that has so many people playing, has so many timezones covered and has so much money in the game that they can't be touched.

In the end Mega guilds really are just large farming operations.  The gold eventually gets sold one way or another.  I know many of the large Alliance's in EVE were funded by purchasing toons with ISK (Eve money) -- which was traded for game-time cards (costing money irl) and reselling them at a higher price (this was allowable through character sales on the EVE forums).  Basically the alliances could give their members free game-time cards with the isk they made purchasing characters with game-time cards and selling them for more game-time cards than they originally did -- and having extra money in the end.

I guess.. just hope there isn't a Mega guild on your server?

Originally posted by BigMango

Originally posted by vive

So.. Unbalanced server population = one side leaves = the other side leaves = servers combine... but the disease is still there and ultimately the game flops.
 

I really hope it doesn't come to that in Aion. 

 

Aion has ingame balancing mechanics.

The 3rd "AI" race, the Balaur, will come out by themselves. Sometimes they come to attack you and/or your fortress, sometimes to help the opposing race attack you or take over your fortress, and sometimes to help you attack them.

I think this is the best balancing system you can have in a faction based game.

If you look at it overall (at least after playing the Asian retail game), often the game will make it so that the attacking faction wins (this is probably done so that fortresses change hands more often). In anyway, it seems much easier to attack than to defend, even if your faction seems more populated.

And then, as said above, the game also automatically limits the number of new players who can enroll on each side, depending on population.

 

This.

I wish people would find out a bit more about the game before talking balance issues and the game will fail because of it.  The Balaur take care of any imbalance in the abyss, along with NCSoft monitoring faction numbers.