Ok folks here goes my unbiased review ....  I will begin by saying i enjoy Aion ... Damn there goes the unbiased portion of the review.  Like all my reviews, iam gonna just jump straight to points i find of interest.  One thing i love about Aion is the fact that your character feels very alive compared to most MMO's.  I don't know if its the emotes it does while not moving, but I have become attached to my chanter.    This game is not EvE or a game that claims to rewrite the way MMO's are made, though very few good games do this in any genre...MMO's are the only genre where people expect a genre changing game with every new release.  What is new, is a higher level of design that akins Final Fantasy. The MOBS are just awesome looking, You can go from beating cute monkey's and apes, dinosaurs, birds, worms, dragons to some wild creations that resemble a multitude of animals.  Add to that , the level design is also top notch...Atleast for my computer which is at full settings, i still get almost 100fps everywhere ,but the city where I get 70, so they did a good thing in regards to performance vs quality.   

For some this might be a negative, but I do not think this is a game for casual players...sure you can play and receive enjoyment, but if your one that wants max level and wants it quickly, you will be very disappointed to know Aion takes a long time to level.  Level 1-35ish is the easy levels, but ounce you get in the high 30's and 40's it can take a hardcore player 2 days to level, and maybe a week for casuals.  I find this to be a positive.  Games that rush you to max level without any feeling of accomplishment is one of the failures of the current MMO formula.  This game has the balls to say earn your level.  Yes there is grinding...but its fun!  I have a blast grabbing one or 2 budddies  and grinding.  Its actually better XP to group which is a little fresh from the solo quest fests we have been accustomed to recently.  There are quests...leveling 25+ is basically a combo of quests, and grinding ... so it breaks up the monotony.  When i solo i usually quests, when my friends come on we go grinding and we enjoy it.  

Crafting is my first area where i will say iam not a fan.  I like the fact you can gather anything, so gathering is pretty fun...Crafting is very benefical to your character and legion, but its a total bore fest.  you basically go AFK while crafting.  Its a huge Money sink and time sink...I only got to level 60 cooking and lost interest...but i will probable pick it up again soon.

Second area that kind sucks is it takes lineage 2 model of xp...you get the most xp if your fighting Mobs exactly your level...same when grouping, you get alot more xp for grouping and  mobs exactly your level.  This means you dont see any real increase in xp by fighting harder Mobs (unless they are higher dots which determines how hard the Mob is )  so its best to stay at your level.  With no level synch its easy for friends to fall behind or shoot ahead depending on play times.  I hope they will add a level synch soon.  

Flying and gliding are fun, I find as a melee it is tougher to fly and fight.  This game is not 1v1 pvp game.  Chanter vs Sin, Sin will almost always win.  This game is a group pvp game and does a real decent job at that.  There is alot of stuff to do that will keep you busy in AION for some time.  I cant wait to do Fire Temple tonight. It has its flaws , like boring crafting, no level synch, and outside of game like ques, rubberbanding, Insta crashes...but all that is covered up by fun for me.  

Suggestion : try the game, If your not a fan of themepark MMO's you wil probably not like it, if your casual and want things given to you you will probably not like it...but if you even moderately invest your life into MMO's Aion is worth a look.  

8/10 

nice job.

I have to disagree with one part. At least with a spirit master point of view. XP does scale the higher mobs you fight and it is a substantial difference in the amount of xp you get for mobs a couple levels higher than you.

Take for instance I am level 29. I get around 9k xp per kill fighting something level 29. Fighting level 32-33 stuff gives me 14k xp per kill. The difference in these is the time it takes to kill an even level mob vs a higher level mob. As a spirit master, it takes me about the same amount of time to kill the creatures at either even level or 3-4 levels above me. The difference though, is that it requires more mana vs the higher level mobs so there is more downtime with the higher level mobs than there is with even cons. I have found that even with the downtime, it is more beneficial for me to kill the level 32-33 mobs and rest more often than it is to try and fight the same level mobs and rest less. This of course also depends on the "amount" of mobs available in both areas. If there are tons of mobs that respawn quickly, then it can be more beneficial to go with even level mobs.

Now this is all solo. For me, if your going to do groups, you really want to go against higher level mobs simply because your xp takes a major hit when everyone has to split that 9k for the kill. If you have the right group make up, then higher level mobs are a must for group grinding.

I was told from a high level SM in my legion that you should be fighting mobs your level, its more efficient and better XP...as for the lineage model i also heard from someone so iam not sure if its 100% true...sorry i should have stated this. 

Originally posted by 4Renziks

 

Suggestion : try the game, If your not a fan of themepark MMO's you wil probably not like it, if your casual and want things given to you you will probably not like it...but if you even moderately invest your life into MMO's Aion is worth a look.  

8/10 

 

The score isn't unreasonable, but I'd suggest 7/10 myself. It has some flaws and the linearity of the game and the increasing need to grind to progress weaken it a lot for me. Also there isn't really anything new here, this isn't the next generation of mmorpg that will change our perception of the genre and I didn't find it immersive. Long-term too I think players will react to it in a similar way to WAR, I don't think Western players really want a PvP heavy game, more a PvE heavy game that allow you to dip into PvP as much or as little as you want. Also, very long server queues at launch are really bad, players paid for head-starts and they wasted their money if they couldn't log in and play easily. Hard-core is always a straw dog in mmo discussion, a game is either good or it isn't.  

Originally posted by Illyssia

The score isn't unreasonable, but I'd suggest 7/10 myself. It has some flaws and the linearity of the game and the increasing need to grind to progress weaken it a lot for me. Also there isn't really anything new here, this isn't the next generation of mmorpg that will change our perception of the genre and I didn't find it immersive. Long-term too I think players will react to it in a similar way to WAR, I don't think Western players really want a PvP heavy game, more a PvE heavy game that allow you to dip into PvP as much or as little as you want. Also, very long server queues at launch are really bad, players paid for head-starts and they wasted their money if they couldn't log in and play easily. Hard-core is always a straw dog in mmo discussion, a game is either good or it isn't.  

I'm with you on the score.  i'd go 7/10 myself too maybe even 6/10 but it's a fun 6 to me.  It definitely has some flaws but it's nothing game breaking and I think it's things that will be ironed out in some updates.  Even though this game went through beta they have to release it into the wild so to speak and monitor how it is played and make changes accordingly.  This can take time.  I think, however, you miss the point of MMO's.  I cant think of one MMO i've played over the dozens i've played, that grinding wasn't required.  I do agree that the western world typically likes PvE but i find the PvP aspect fun which is coming from a guy who absolutely hates PvP.  And by hate i mean i HATE it.  I never liked it in any games as it just seemed boring as crap.  But i like that in the PvP zones you have to watch your back a little and pay attention.  And if you're in their zone the same goes.  I had one guy fly in and try to jump me just as 4 other friendlies were coming in and suddenly it went from ganking me to him getting pounded into the earth.  That sold me on PvP fast.  How a situation can turn in an instant.  The queues were annoying as hell.  No doubt but i've not run into a queue in days and they've gotten shorter.  The connection problems are getting fewer and further between too and again, it just takes time to iron out the bugs and details.

[quote]This game has the balls to say earn your level[/quote] Heartily agree, and about time too.

I think your review is spot on and refelcts my experience of Aion. It will not take over as my main MMO (LOTRO) but I jump on it most nights and have done a couple fo 12 hour sessions. It is different enough in it's only little way that I think I will keep coming back to it.

Originally posted by 4Renziks

I was told from a high level SM in my legion that you should be fighting mobs your level, its more efficient and better XP...as for the lineage model i also heard from someone so iam not sure if its 100% true...sorry i should have stated this. 

That is his opinion. My opinion is you get better xp from the mobs a few levels higher. Again though it is situational. If you got tons of mobs your level around you, your going to have less downtime. But if you only have a small spawn point that your camping, then the higher level mobs are going to be more efficient.

Either your facts are off or your lying. Grouped exp is NOT better than solo. Aion penalizes you for grouping just like any other game but worse. Let say your getting 10k exp for killing a mob solo. Then you group with one friend, you might think you would receive 5k exp right? Wrong you get like 4200. So not only to they divide the exp among the group they reduce it before they do so.

So no Group exp is NOT "better" like you say.

Originally posted by Caligulug

Either your facts are off or your lying. Grouped exp is NOT better than solo. Aion penalizes you for grouping just like any other game but worse. Let say your getting 10k exp for killing a mob solo. Then you group with one friend, you might think you would receive 5k exp right? Wrong you get like 4200. So not only to they divide the exp among the group they reduce it before they do so.

 

So no Group exp is NOT "better" like you say.

Well, if you're killing regular mobs it's worse, but most often groups are out to grind elites which more than make up for the shared experience. Even if you're just grouping with your buddy, experience may still be faster than solo just because of the different leveling speeds each class has; a cleric grouped with an assassin will be getting xp a lot faster than if the cleric was just leveling alone.

On a side note, I'm not sure if you tried to come off as hostile in your post, but the general tone was rude and just fishing to start an argument. In the future, try to avoid such a tone if you want to be taken seriously.

I not sure if its right to score a mmo before seeing raiding ... In the end, questing gonna be small part of the game, u not gonna quest all the time if u not planning only having useless high lvl characters ofc ... Although, thx for the review :)