This is 4RenZiks, and i thought i would write a short review, thoughts, bold predictions, snippets, and  grievances of AION open beta.  We begin on a happy Monday where i get my code, but had the horrible pest that is lameguard stop me from playing until Thursday when i finally said screw the shenanigans and did the unthinkable, uninstalled my virus protection.  This worked but this brings me to my 1st grievance...GAMEGUARD!  Weather this does anything to hackers is beyond my knowledge, but what this little piece of software does is piss off firewalls and even more so regular gamers like myself who just want to have a good time. 

Now when you finally get over Gameguard issues if you have any, if you dont consider yourself lucky....you get into the game, which looks sweet.  This is one of the most vibrant MMO's i played.  I love the heat wave effect, the armor looks shiny ( i played templar ), the enemies are varied and alot of npc's look like they where taken right out of a Final Fantasy world.  Some stuff has low texture but i think this is to compromise mass pvp in later levels.  

The sound is beyond awesome and one of the better points of the game, i actually liked playing with the game sound on and tho it will get old after awhile, I am still gonna enjoy if my first time through.  One of the better soundtracks out there....but with that said, grievance #2 CHARACTER VOICES! .... there is only 4 you can choose from and its pick your poison, they are all pretty bad and they mumble weird stuff from time to time.  I hope this is something they fix by adding a slew of new voices to choose from i mean the character creator is awesome why so little choices on voices?

Speaking of character creation, easily the best fantasy themed MMO character creator...blows other games out of the water and is another major selling point in this game.   Only game that gives you more options in CoX/CO.

Combat is fairly standard issue with the variation of interesting combo moves which work as tiers.  There is also a DP bar that fills up very slowly where you can use big moves, i think this bar takes to long to fill...but maybe it changes later.  The melee combat reminded me a bit of Ragnorak Online.  

Character evolution comes by way of stigmas which i have yet to experience along with the standard armor upgrades which comes steady, i like the armor progression alot in this game...its a mix of FFIX and WoW ( i had to mention it at some point =) )   You also get manastones that can be socketed that work very similiar to gemming in WoW.

This brings me to grievance #3 FLIGHT! so far i think flight has been over hyped in this game....this is merely subjective opinion but i feel flight to be too restrictive....i like it , but i think adding mounts would be cool along with flight... this game would be awesome with mount combat too =)...but i wont judge a game for something its not. As i was flying i would randomly hit walls and scream at my comp..why cant i fly here! and to start you get like 1min of fly time.  While fun, this is not why i will be buying AION. 

Random things i like - Characters feel very alive!  You can open your private store...i love this entrepreneurship aspect of the game.  I love the MOBs. Sounds = lovely!  The death system seems very well done...you lose XP but you can buy most of it back (if not all please confirm)  and you run real slow for 30 secs....I like that it cost money to bind your location...they make clever uses for money.  The travel system is good with teleporters implemented well.  There didnt seem like alot of loading screens, very similiar to WoW.

Bold Predictions - I think this game will do really well and will give WoW a run for thier money....The game is better than WoW imo and should be a natural transition for WoW PvPers.  I have not done any endgame, but it looks promising.  The game is fun at level 15...the really game kicks in at 25.  There are 3 factions, and DAOC knows best 3 factions is the only way to do RvR...even tho one of them is NPC.  I think this will end up with atleast 6million subs when its all said and done...AION is looking like it shaping up to be one of the best theme park MMO's so hop on for the ride, it shoule be a blast.

I agree with most of what you said. I think having only 1 minute of flight time is a good thing as it makes sure you won't be flying all the time. 1 minute is long enough for travel time and it recharges quite fast.

I don't think adding mounts is a good idea as it would simply replace flying. flight would only be used for hard to reach destinations.

I think the Death penalty is annoying and unnecessary. The death penalty increases overtime and it can easily take up to 2 minutes for it to wear off. This means you're not able to do anything for 2 minutes as your character moves like a slug and it's just a waste of time.

Kudo's for a good review to u

I forgot to mention the quest system, typical theme park style quest system...but i do like is that mobs actually give decent xp an easy mob might give 1k xp but a tougher mob will give like 3k, so mob grinding looks like an option.  Iam still on the fence about flight, i just like mounts and i just dont think flying is that exciting, maybe ill wait until i get into the abyss to fully judge, see ya all live! 

Originally posted by Gameloading

I think the Death penalty is annoying and unnecessary. The death penalty increases overtime and it can easily take up to 2 minutes for it to wear off. This means you're not able to do anything for 2 minutes as your character moves like a slug and it's just a waste of time.

Tried the Soul Healer NPC yet?

flight time is short at lvl20+ but later (with a fully pro pilot set up in gear+pots) you can stay up for 5-10 min's depending on your gear and pot crafting / abyss pots.

My total flight time at lvl25 was 1 min 6 sec's but i was still able to use that time to fly / glide and land in the middle of a group of asmodians and reak havoc.

In order to extend your flight time you can alternate between powered flight and glide and back again (gliding uses less flight time).

Originally posted by 4Renziks

This is 4RenZiks, and i thought i would write a short review, thoughts, bold predictions, snippets, and  grievances of AION open beta.  We begin on a happy Monday where i get my code, but had the horrible pest that is lameguard stop me from playing until Thursday when i finally said screw the shenanigans and did the unthinkable, uninstalled my virus protection.  This worked but this brings me to my 1st grievance...GAMEGUARD!  Weather this does anything to hackers is beyond my knowledge, but what this little piece of software does is piss off firewalls and even more so regular gamers like myself who just want to have a good time. 

 

Now when you finally get over Gameguard issues if you have any, if you dont consider yourself lucky....you get into the game, which looks sweet.  This is one of the most vibrant MMO's i played.  I love the heat wave effect, the armor looks shiny ( i played templar ), the enemies are varied and alot of npc's look like they where taken right out of a Final Fantasy world.  Some stuff has low texture but i think this is to compromise mass pvp in later levels.  

 

The sound is beyond awesome and one of the better points of the game, i actually liked playing with the game sound on and tho it will get old after awhile, I am still gonna enjoy if my first time through.  One of the better soundtracks out there....but with that said, grievance #2 CHARACTER VOICES! .... there is only 4 you can choose from and its pick your poison, they are all pretty bad and they mumble weird stuff from time to time.  I hope this is something they fix by adding a slew of new voices to choose from i mean the character creator is awesome why so little choices on voices?

 

Speaking of character creation, easily the best fantasy themed MMO character creator...blows other games out of the water and is another major selling point in this game.   Only game that gives you more options in CoX/CO.

 

Combat is fairly standard issue with the variation of interesting combo moves which work as tiers.  There is also a DP bar that fills up very slowly where you can use big moves, i think this bar takes to long to fill...but maybe it changes later.  The melee combat reminded me a bit of Ragnorak Online.  

 

Character evolution comes by way of stigmas which i have yet to experience along with the standard armor upgrades which comes steady, i like the armor progression alot in this game...its a mix of FFIX and WoW ( i had to mention it at some point =) )   You also get manastones that can be socketed that work very similiar to gemming in WoW.

 

 

This brings me to grievance #3 FLIGHT! so far i think flight has been over hyped in this game....this is merely subjective opinion but i feel flight to be too restrictive....i like it , but i think adding mounts would be cool along with flight... this game would be awesome with mount combat too =)...but i wont judge a game for something its not. As i was flying i would randomly hit walls and scream at my comp..why cant i fly here! and to start you get like 1min of fly time.  While fun, this is not why i will be buying AION. 

 

Random things i like - Characters feel very alive!  You can open your private store...i love this entrepreneurship aspect of the game.  I love the MOBs. Sounds = lovely!  The death system seems very well done...you lose XP but you can buy most of it back (if not all please confirm)  and you run real slow for 30 secs....I like that it cost money to bind your location...they make clever uses for money.  The travel system is good with teleporters implemented well.  There didnt seem like alot of loading screens, very similiar to WoW.

Bold Predictions - I think this game will do really well and will give WoW a run for thier money....The game is better than WoW imo and should be a natural transition for WoW PvPers.  I have not done any endgame, but it looks promising.  The game is fun at level 15...the really game kicks in at 25.  There are 3 factions, and DAOC knows best 3 factions is the only way to do RvR...even tho one of them is NPC.  I think this will end up with atleast 6million subs when its all said and done...AION is looking like it shaping up to be one of the best theme park MMO's so hop on for the ride, it shoule be a blast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I thought this would be a short review, but it seems as if it was a good one.

Mounts have already been confirmed as well as Legion housing,and yes flying at the start of the game is restrictive but @ 25 you should forget all about it.

Good review, i just wanted to say, that my opinion is that flight is good as it is, and mounts are a void now, and i HOPE they still a void, because if they put mounts in,...then that will remove the spirit of flying, since sometimes in PvP ( i mean riffing now) the one who glides the better, becomes the winner heh =P

As for the dead penalty, its rly bad, but i love it the way it is :D and u allways have soul healer which will heal for a lil bunch o coins, so it no big deal rly.

I only reached lv24, is my max ever, i played as a ranger, and has for a ranger, true fun started for me after lv19, im not sure about other classes. Im not saying that under lv 19 its boring, because its rly quite impressive the game its so atractive allrdy from lv1+.

Th game is rly great. See ya on Live.

Nice review on regards to death penalty this works fine when questing but found it a little hard when doing Krall Elite quest as if you die , you can be rezzed by a fellow player ie: cleric or chanter but you stillhave the death penalty effect so how do you get back to full speed in instances ?? .

Originally posted by me33ie

Nice review on regards to death penalty this works fine when questing but found it a little hard when doing Krall Elite quest as if you die , you can be rezzed by a fellow player ie: cleric or chanter but you stillhave the death penalty effect so how do you get back to full speed in instances ?? .

You don't so don't die in instances. But.......

BTW: there is a little trick you can use for every instance so that if you die and someone rezz's you , you lose no exp.

There are fire torches at each entrance of the cave leading to the next room. If you jump on the torches and take damage from the fire you will not lose exp if you die in that room,  You got to repeat the process in every room you go into.

Originally posted by tuzalov

Mounts have already been confirmed as well as Legion housing,and yes flying at the start of the game is restrictive but @ 25 you should forget all about it.

Link?

Nice review, I agree on everythign you say, plus you explain it very well, wish I could write that clearly and to the point. Very much agree on the flight too.

You didn't mention anything about crafting/gathering.

It's very well done. You get character exp from doing professions and items you manufacture are worth the effort. And every item you craft can be disassembled into enchantment fragments. With said fragments you can enchant your gear to give better protection or make better damage. Very well thought idea.

nice review and I agree with what you said. People who are tired of WoW will at least try Aion I think.

Pretty much sums it up for me. I went in NOT liking Aion at all. The mentallyty of me playing an "Anime Korean Grindfest" was set in stone. I wasnt goin to like it! and that was that.

After the 30 minutes, I was hooked. Its a WoW clone to me, but one thats well done.

Oh, and i got the Collectors Edition now.....man, was I wrong.

 Dax.

"...its a mix of FFIX and WoW"

OP don't compare aion with ffxi cause have nothing in common, compare it to wow all day cause thats the game that aion copied.

No, there's no natural transition from WoW's PvP to Aion PvP.
WoW's PvP is about coordonation in a team where all players got high personal skill to complete in a ladder arena setup.
Aion's PvP is about large scale PvP and tactical playing with fortresses.
These are 2 different types of PvP enjoyed by different people.

Sorry i said transition for wow pvpers i meant progression, i wrote the review in like 5mins....anyone who thinks this is a WoW clone has not play mmorpg's for or narrow minded....this is a theme park game, alll theme park game has some aspects of WoW, EQ and what not...its why they call it a genre, but i have explained this too many times and no one will get this point.  I havent dont much crafting but i did do alot of gathering and nothing great, just standard...i like that you can gather anything tho.  I am a diehard FFIX fan, it was my first MMO....this game reminds me alot of that game that i enjoyed - the group dynamics, which from what i hear is done well..WoW was alot of peoples 1st MMO, i hear alot of people say it reminds them of WoW. ...L2 was your love , i heard people say it reminds them of L2...EQ? This is why it will succeed imo, its a game for all to enjoy, pvpers/rp/customizing freaks/PvE....there just isnt alot of sand in the box...but thats a whole different sub genre.  

Originally posted by Gameloading

I agree with most of what you said. I think having only 1 minute of flight time is a good thing as it makes sure you won't be flying all the time. 1 minute is long enough for travel time and it recharges quite fast.

I don't think adding mounts is a good idea as it would simply replace flying. flight would only be used for hard to reach destinations.

I think the Death penalty is annoying and unnecessary. The death penalty increases overtime and it can easily take up to 2 minutes for it to wear off. This means you're not able to do anything for 2 minutes as your character moves like a slug and it's just a waste of time.

Does it make you try to avoid dying?  Then it's working as intended...

You DIED, there should be a penalty.  I find it disappointing that all it takes is an insignificant amout of kinah to get the lost xp back.

well from the previous games ive played, FFIX being the worst penalty (but i liked it) to WoW/WaR/AoC/CO it seems to be in the middle area, kind of like CoX (which is another game with a good death penalty)