Let me first say that I like the game and will miss it but for various reasons I am leaving.  I had a glad that made it to lvl 41.

What I loved about the game is the abyss from lvl 25+.  I did mostly solo and small group ganking and repeatable questing.  I really spent most of my time out there, enough that I was usually in the top 10 for weekly AP gains.  The nice thing about a soloer is that it's pretty easy to ignore zergs.  Also with the size of the abyss, you can pick and choose your battles.  The actually combat had enough strategy and skill involved to keep me interested.  Flying combat for melee is not as bad as they say.  It is difficult, but doable.  I warn you though, if you want to kill stuff, you must be a sin, ranger, gladiator, sorc, or SM.  Cleric and templars are great at staying alive but not killing.  Chanters are not exceptional at anything.

As far as fortress batttles go, they were a mixed bag.  Some were trivial, but every once in while there were epic battles.  That is, if your PC can handle it.  My PC was pretty borderline.

The PvE in this game is not very good.  As a gladiator, DPSing is extremely simple.  Other classes are a bit more engaging, but a common complaint is how little thought goes into DPSing in this game.

Group PvE is slow and mind-numbing.  There is typically litle variety, simply elite mob after elite mob.  They take a long time to kill.  They have annoying skills like bubbles and heals to slow down how you kill them.

Finally the community.  Overall, it is not very good.  I made friends to be sure, but the game is filled with unhappy people, ready to start fights, or QQ, or grief in some way.  I honestly think the amount of grinding in this game sucks some of the happiness out of you...

The game is just a bit too hardcore.  I saw enough of the game to have a glimpse of how endgame PvP will work.  THe best players will rely on high priced life crystals, high priced AP pots, and high priced DP food, along with moderately priced scrolls, foods, and regular pots.  If you don't play enough to keep supplied with these, you won't be able to keep up.

Up next for me for me possibly is the Lotro expansion.  A lot less hardcore, a lot more friendly, and with superior PvE.

Good review and I am heading back to Lotro for the far superior PvE as well. 

I'll be heading back to LotRO when the expansion comes out too. I had such high hopes for Aion...

Hmm cant agree here, Aion definately has great PvE too... e.g. the large instances like Steel Rake, Arch Lab etc. are really challenging - didnt you do them with 41 ?

A really fair review.

I am currently playing Aion however I know what you mean about 'hardcore'.

I also have Runes of Magic and La Tale that I regularly play, which breaks up the game styles for me.  As a console gamer would have a selection of single player games.

I have tried most MMO's on the market, yet LOTRO is still one I haven't bothered having a go with, perhaps I'll have a look into it, but for now my time is pleasently taken up by Aion, RoM and La Tale.

The pvp in this game is a joke because it's completly consumable dependent (you spend MILLIONS in consumables).

Originally posted by DukeDu

The pvp in this game is a joke because it's completly consumable dependent (you spend MILLIONS in consumables).

Ya... playing the game with items that's used in the game... such a joke *lawl

Maybe... you know... play the game the way its meant to be played? There's potions in other MMO's too...

To the OP - very good/solid review and very fair. Agree with a lot of what you have said.... I do really enjoy the PVE in Aion though but yes, LOTRO is much less hardcore and forgiving (also more polished PVE at this point). I can see why Aion isn't for everyone and good work at posting a fair/interesting review. A lot of your points are very true and valid... I don't see these as "bad" but valid none the less ;) Personally I don't feel its a grind and I feel the IN GAME community is very good - but this obviously varies server to server/faction to faction.... so I could be lucky on my server. :) I have a great group of friends and a fantastic legion. I honestly think having that makes or breaks the game.

Best of luck with LOTRO... I may dabble into the new xpac myself at some point but for now - Im really enjoying Aion so I don't see that changing for the time being :) 

considering pots have a cooldown sure you can spam them.................. Also nice review and many valid points. But to be honest the game is not more grindy than other mmo's. LOTRO has just as much of a grind getting endgame gear and grinding quests. Same with WoW. There all just different means to an end.

Also why in the world would you buy a PVP orientated game expecting it to have better PVE than a game that was designed around PVE.....

Originally posted by LordDevil

Hmm cant agree here, Aion definately has great PvE too... e.g. the large instances like Steel Rake, Arch Lab etc. are really challenging - didnt you do them with 41 ?

Instances are only part of the PvE content in a MMO. How many times can you do the same instance before it's not so fun anymore?

Well, I guess you need to ask a WoW player that question, eh? :-p

But seriously.. PvE = questing, mob grinding, crafting, instances, etc. etc... Saying "it has a few great large instances" isn't really a defense of PvE as a whole, it's just a part of it... And that's the case in *any* MMO, not just Aion.
 

I agree with most of what u said , although i still enjoy playing Aion and will stick to it for a while.

Numerous bots , low drop rates in instances , and tons of xp to next level will make many move on to the next one.

Hopefully the patch will not take that long and some of that will change to the better.

Good luck with Lotro , i play it from time to time too , it is a nice game.

Originally posted by LordDevil

Hmm cant agree here, Aion definately has great PvE too... e.g. the large instances like Steel Rake, Arch Lab etc. are really challenging - didnt you do them with 41 ?

I never got to do Steel Rake or Alquima... I did MM a couple times, 1 good group 1 bad group.  But I refused to do it again out of boredom.  Some of the group stuff is definitely challenging, but I feel too often it's simply from bad pulls, patrols, and AoE damage.  Even some of the challenging raid bosses are fairly predictable.  They are pie until 50%, then they start doing AoE damage, reflective damage, AoE sleeps...  I'm sure the most interesting fights come at lvl 50, but for the time it takes to do the group stuff and get to the bosses it wasn't worth it for me.

Originally posted by raven222

I agree with most of what u said , although i still enjoy playing Aion and will stick to it for a while.

Numerous bots , low drop rates in instances , and tons of xp to next level will make many move on to the next one.

Hopefully the patch will not take that long and some of that will change to the better.

Good luck with Lotro , i play it from time to time too , it is a nice game.

Yeah the bot problem was absolutely disgusting...  It's not clear how bad it is until you go through a rift and see all the rank 9s either ignoring you or pulling you with taunts LOL.  Went rifting once and got about 60 kills and about 50 of them were bot kills :(

 This review told me more about Aion than any article i`ve read so far. Thanks!

Originally posted by Frostbite05

considering pots have a cooldown sure you can spam them.................. Also nice review and many valid points. But to be honest the game is not more grindy than other mmo's. LOTRO has just as much of a grind getting endgame gear and grinding quests. Same with WoW. There all just different means to an end.

Also why in the world would you buy a PVP orientated game expecting it to have better PVE than a game that was designed around PVE.....

I wish I could agree with this.... but.......

Pots have a 30s cooldown, shared between mana and health, separate for healing (status removal) and separate for flight potions.  Fights don't generally end in 30s, and in fact I've had fights last upwards of 5mins+ as a cleric.  That's 3 separate potions every 30s that can be used.

The game is grindy.  Moreso than most.  I'm referring of course to leveling.  "End-game" generally ends the same way for any game with some form of grind taking precedent over constantly seeing the "fresh" content you saw while leveling.  In Aion it's quite exaggerated by the level curve, and the lack of exp rewards from quests.

I really, really dread my own response to your last statement.  This game has about as much "PVP orientation" as LOTRO.  The trouble is accessibility.  As a lower level player, finding and going through rifts can be a hardcore pain in the ass.  If you don't get a rift that's friendly to your level (near mobs much higher than you/ports you to areas much higher than your level) you're going to have a hell of a time.  You can try to manage your way to and through a higher rift all day, but the result is generally one of pain, as soon as you hit the other side and get decimated by players far higher than you.  Nevermind trying to move towards players near your level - the guards of the areas will surely destroy your ass if you even so much as breathe in their general direction, and given that there's no choke points left unguarded, you won't get by them.  So you didn't get the rift you wanted?  Wait 2 hours, and hope you get lucky.  I won't even bother getting into the time needed to actually sniff the rifts out to begin with (general lack of assistance from general chat, massively spread out locations for rift spawns taking 30mins+ to check each unless you get lucky, even with 30% run scrolls).

"Oh but there's the abyss!"  Good luck.  Pre-30, flying is a practice in futility.  Fighting a 60s timer even with MAJOR flight pots (48s every 60s) means you're bound to crash and burn more often than not.  Sure there's rings, but the time you'll get away from them will hardly be what you need to end a fight before someone jets away.  Post-30, the odds of finding fair fights is slim to none.  By fair fights, I mean ones where you'll actually be doing anything other than dominating your opponent, or running from them.  When you can kill opponents, it's likely you'll get a decent number of abyss points, but when considering the time taken to get those, you'll quickly realize how much better off you are to simply go grind fortress guards.

At the high end, there's the dredgion which can lend itself to some interesting fights...unless there's a spiritmaster present.  6v6 in the PvPvE scenario of the game are ended with one single 1.5s cast from an SM - Fear Shriek.  In Aion, fear is not broken by damage, and can only be dispelled by a cleric.  I'd love to go into why, but this spell is almost impossible to avoid, and given any form of CC/heal backup, the SM will succeed in their mission to fear the other team.  While your team (or theirs) runs around in fear, targets will be selectively picked off, and the loss of even a single player is a huge one in terms of group vs. group.  Nevermind if someone gets feared into the mobs.  So your team roflstomps or gets roflstomped in dredgeion.  Enjoy the cooldown timer!  Yup, you gotta wait hours to go again.

Outside of dredgion?  Go to the abyss and farm lowbies for 1 AP per kill (it takes hundreds of thousands to buy single pieces of the higher end gear), or farm guards where you and your group will either be ganked, or gank another group.  These skirmishes are generally brief, and once over are absolute - the winning team stays, the other gives up.  So much for good PVP.  Also, GL stomaching the tens of thousands of mobs you'll need to scrounge up one decent piece of "PVP" gear.  I'd comment on fortresses, but my experiences there include crashing, freezing, or mindlessly watching a zerg go un-opposed at a giant PVE boss.  No strategy involved whatsoever.

Rifting is a far bigger joke once you're 50.  A choice of 3 rifts in the entire game (connecting only two zones) gives you extremely limited options, and the open rifting zones max out for mid-40s in terms of PVE content save a few spots.  This leaves you easy pickings in terms of PVP fights, generally seeing your group steamroll over single players, duos, or small groups.  Of course, that's if you locate a rift or are even fortunate enough to have one spawn.  The rifts work on a 2 hour cycle, opening fresh ones every 2 hours.  Sometimes, no rifts pop at all.  Sometimes, rifts only pop to the opposing side, or vice-versa.

What does that wall of text mean?  PVP game my ass.  Watered down tank-n-spank PVE more like.  PVE that will take you and your group hours to grind through.  PVE that will make you cry if your group screws up, and cry harder when you blast through it with precision for the 30th time to still see little more than coin or manastones (if you're lucky) from the bosses that can otherwise drop the loot you desperately crave having been starved of it for so long.  Drop rates in this game are a joke.  I don't expect a boss to automatically drop me loot because I graced the instance with my presence.  However, a little pat on the back for effort in the way of some gear upgrades from time to time would be well appreciated.  Leveling almost exclusively in instances and outdoor dungeons (I skipped quests, as a choice - unless they gave good rewards), my cleric hit 50 with a majority of green gear, with a few scant blues obtained either through quest rewards, with a piece or two that were sub-par stats for my class, but were better than the godawful piece I already wore.

In all?  I got to 50.  Far quicker than most.  I bothered because I actually really loved the mechanics and landscape of this game right out of the gate.  It runs silky smooth (outside of fortresses), it looks great, and as a healer the game is constantly testing your timing, speed, and ability to cope with rapidly changing situations.  I find it greatly satisfying to get such a comment as my templar buddy recently telling me that he didn't even know X mob silenced in Draupnir Cave (very common mob, spread through the entire instance) because I missed a run with him and his cleric was so slow that he spent half the run silenced or other forms of status that all but shut him down.  I've thoroughly enjoyed the very very small handful of PVP fights I've been involved with that weren't as I described above.  I'd LOVE to stick it out and continue playing Aion if there was actually a point, but sadly right now there isn't.  The PVE lends almost no satisfaction anymore due to lack of drops.  Dark Poeta is cool and all, but good runs will still take you 2.5-3hrs.  It's intense and spamming consumables is key, meaning you'll quickly burn through your wealth of farmed materials in no time.  Your reward?  No loot on bosses, or junk.  End of the day, I'd almost not mind the idea of farming that place until the end of time with the possibility of never seeing a full set of gear, if only the PVP were worthwhile enough for the effort to gear up for it.  However, it's not.  More 50s won't change this.  More PVE dungeons won't fix it.  Maybe if they instituted some sort of scenario or BG system such as WAR or WoW, it'd be more fun.

Oh well, so much for that...

Meanwhile, even an alt loaded with blues/golds bought from the broker - all purchased and leveled with the intent of solely focusing on PVP - sits waiting for decent rifts, or getting through a rift and farming bots 15 levels higher than it (alt is 26 now, and I can kill bots that are 40+ when I'm forced into the high level rifts) and feels utterly pointless.  I can't even foster up the motivation to log in and bother right now because I know I'll end up backstabbing bots all night until some random 50 romps along and smashes my little alt's ass in 1-2 shots, at which point I'll pop from my kisk and do it some more, all so I can gear it up to... what?  Kill more bots with the occasional player mixed in.  Gimme a break.

P.S. Excuse the Wall.  TL;DR Don't bother w/Aion - short-lived bursts of fun.  Also, would've made my own thread, but why add another when this one's here?

Fair review.  It's hard to argue against your points because I slowly am getting to where you are at.  It's pretty sad to be honest...I thought i'd be playing this game for much longer than I actually will.  2 months...possibly give it a third in hopes of something to happen...who knows.

---

Originally posted by Zorndorf
Now ... If all of you would explain me why mmorpg.com gave it "the best ever" score of 8.7 on ... mmorpg.com?
With such follow up editorials as ... links to fan websites that stated the game would hold on to 70% of its player base.
Just a hint of HOW this industry has become the ONE WAY race to  take YOUR (subs) money and run mentality Blizzard stumbled upon.... by accident.
In seeing this, I do think we should question these media "share holders".
What did they think? That people are just sheep that want to give 15 dollars each month for ANYTHING.
Apparently the BIG lie of 3.5 M Asian subscriptions worked for very few weeks.
-----> A lesson : don't believe the crap put out on mmorpg.com.
They don't "help" the industry, they cripple it.
 
 

---

The problem is that reviewers think more like developers than actual players of these same-old-same-old games.

Developer - "Hey, we'll put this in! Great!"

Reviewer - "Hey, the game has this! Great!"

It's a consequence of the genre becoming completely formulaic that games are being reviewed in this way. Look at all the positive Aion reviews, they could just as well be copied off the press releases without actually playing the game.

The most important feature of an MMO is immersion, a quality completely lacking in today's Cut'N'Paste MMOs.

 double post

Originally posted by areb

Let me first say that I like the game and will miss it but for various reasons I am leaving.  I had a glad that made it to lvl 41.

What I loved about the game is the abyss from lvl 25+.  I did mostly solo and small group ganking and repeatable questing.  I really spent most of my time out there, enough that I was usually in the top 10 for weekly AP gains.  The nice thing about a soloer is that it's pretty easy to ignore zergs.  Also with the size of the abyss, you can pick and choose your battles.  The actually combat had enough strategy and skill involved to keep me interested.  Flying combat for melee is not as bad as they say.  It is difficult, but doable.  I warn you though, if you want to kill stuff, you must be a sin, ranger, gladiator, sorc, or SM.  Cleric and templars are great at staying alive but not killing.  Chanters are not exceptional at anything.

As far as fortress batttles go, they were a mixed bag.  Some were trivial, but every once in while there were epic battles.  That is, if your PC can handle it.  My PC was pretty borderline.

The PvE in this game is not very good.  As a gladiator, DPSing is extremely simple.  Other classes are a bit more engaging, but a common complaint is how little thought goes into DPSing in this game.

Group PvE is slow and mind-numbing.  There is typically litle variety, simply elite mob after elite mob.  They take a long time to kill.  They have annoying skills like bubbles and heals to slow down how you kill them.

Finally the community.  Overall, it is not very good.  I made friends to be sure, but the game is filled with unhappy people, ready to start fights, or QQ, or grief in some way.  I honestly think the amount of grinding in this game sucks some of the happiness out of you...

The game is just a bit too hardcore.  I saw enough of the game to have a glimpse of how endgame PvP will work.  THe best players will rely on high priced life crystals, high priced AP pots, and high priced DP food, along with moderately priced scrolls, foods, and regular pots.  If you don't play enough to keep supplied with these, you won't be able to keep up.

Up next for me for me possibly is the Lotro expansion.  A lot less hardcore, a lot more friendly, and with superior PvE.

the money spent in aion on consumables and soul healing and such does end up being a lot, but with the next update they are increasing monetary quest rewards and loot drops so .. hopefully well see some of the time sink in farming kinah relieved ..

as far as the grind .. NOTHING is as long as lotro that i have ever played ...you grind to 65 ( Som update ) then you have to max all of your traits THEN max out legendary items and gear as well as MAX the relics inside them .. and THEN farm the same dungeon or two for months for the end game gear... and unlike aion there is no alternative .. the crafted gear isnt great for 1v1 .. and the pvp gear is nonexistent .. and with updates creating emphasis on different traits like what MOM did for SOA build guardians and champions you have to grind all of your traits out to be safe

although im mid 30's in AION and have not yet seen end game PVE .. mid level pve in aion seems a lot more meaningful gear wise and making money wise than lotro .. and since people seem to be engaging pvp in this game mid level .. it makes farming gear more important and fun for pvp ... not to mention so far i have genuinely had much more fun in mid level pve in aion than lotro

lotro i can say the only real fun pve i had was end game raids .. which .. on the smaller servers it seems only a select few guilds get to enjoy.. the crafting in lotro always seemed dumbed down to me as well

the  end game pve in lotro does require some nice group effort ( which to be honest is the ONLY thing i really liked about lotro PVE ) the fact each member in the group or raid has specific duties to perform and people had to pull together as one in places like the rift. watcher and dn .. but again i found a lackluster nature to the bosses ( none of them ever impressed me with graphics or intensity )

if there werent landmarks from the books/movies in lotro i think more people would have agreed, but to be honest this is more a personal taste matter... to me the lotro world seemed muddy and drab and slow , at times depressing ( garth agarwen, the lost forest ( or whatever south of bree ) and places like that actually made me feel ill

i dont like the pet master classes in either game, lotro they are lackluster boring pets, and in aion they look like stupid pokemon ... they never for me hit the fun level i had with a conjurer in eq2 and my golem

the legendary system was cool at first untill you realize it itself is a grind , and to compete in 1v1 you really need particular legacies, ( and character traits for that matter) slotted and leveled.. this created a clone atmosphere were you didnt have leeway to experiement since anything but the popular build for its class was inefficient

what i like about aion is .. unlike lotro is has several layers to its pvp .. there are rifts where nine out of ten times you will face lowbies such as yourself ( until the people you gank or kill whine loud enough to convince high leveled people to go down there and protect them ) and although you will get ganked sometimes, the abyss itself indirectly directs higher level players into its upper layers .. and really only the gankers hang out in the lower levels .. whom can be negated by putting a group together to wipe em...

in lotro you need to be max level or close to max level in order to survive  before you pvp since you most of the time cannot evade the zergs and they make it a RULE OF THUMB to go after lower level players first .. but most go out max level or only one or two levels under .. in fact most wont go out  to pvp in lotro untill MAX geared AND max leveled  .. and in lotro you cannot escape the zerg unless you are a stealth class... which is not to say i dont love zerg vs zerg crazyness but, its refreshing in aion to have such a larger pvp field that the battles on one side of the map can be completely different than the zerg vs zerg battle on the other side ...

in lotro you alwaysget sucked into the zerg fighting eventually

lotro's pvp community is mostly carebear min/maxer types not quick thinking seat of your pants pvp'ers, they tend to take the sides of whiners who cry about getting ganked, have rules set up to banish anyone who disrupts 1v1's and silly conformist rules like that which really slow down pvp and take any and all quick thinking survival skills out of the game .. they want to sit facing each other .. breaking each others LOS spamming 2 or 3 attacks and cry when someone tries to knock them into high gear survival mode

pvp in lotro CAN be  fun though.. especially leading raids and pitting your mind against another raid leader ( which is where i found my niche in lotro )..but after a while the limited nature of the ettenmoores map might bore some people ( i played for two years so i was able to deal with the small map better than most ) not to mention the fights always seem to center around TA , and the lack of static factions in lotro make it so the pvp is not as meaningful ..

 i consider pvp in lotro to be inferior not only because of the limited nature of monsters but because the UI seemed slow and the character animations/skill effects lackluster, playing melee in lotro partcularly is very lackluster , towards the end of my playtime it wasnt uncommon for me to be leading almost entirely tactical based pvp raids ( RK, Loremaster, minstrels )

for me in aion pvp and 1v1 has been a blast .. i enjoy the flashy animations and spell effects and the streamlined quick pace of its UI, and melee although having the same inherent difficulties in pvp as lotro and other games is quick paced and flashy enough to be a blast and they really pushed the bar with their sick melee classes.. .. in AION players can actually pull enemy players to them with their tank pulls ( like IJ ) making tanks imperative for pvp groups, making lotros stance of leaving all aggro and tanking skills useless in the moors kind of obsolete and old fashioned

lotro might have kept me as a player IF they introduced rewards for pvping other than rank ( which some of the high ranked players farm with dual accounts or farm friends making it meaningless ) and introduced new maps for pvp and even more importantly decent gear in pvp.. but they didnt , or somehow spiced up their PVE to really put you in awe over skills used and the power of enemy bosses ..

things ( like even the rift bosses ) always seemed forced guys like zurm and barz and just enlarged versions of smaller trolls seen all throughout Carn dum and angmar .. the only  two original looking bosses were thorog and thaurlach ... and the dragon in Phantasy star online imho was more impressive and and awe inspiring presence than thorog ...

the lotro pvp game is not for hardcore fly by the seat of you pants pvp players, but more for patient end game gear loving min/maxers...which is fine to each their own, but i like the intensity aion brings

all this being said regarding the lotro and aion comparison there are things i dont like about aion as well ( well one thing in particular .. the "gambling" system as i call it regarding enchantment stones and manastones ... you shouldnt have to buy items only to have a % chance of them working ... and with sucess buffing yoour armor and weapons .. this gives too much power to the guy buyers who can afford to spend millions trying to enchant their weapons to +10 but other than that .. so far aion is fun ... yes the bots worry me .. and yes i have heard rumours of hacks but im hoping NCsoft takes care of those buttheads
 

Yep....leaving the game also. The grind in this game is just absolutely horrible. I have grinded and grinded and grinded just to finish out a level or get bumped up 1....yes 1 level. I have been playing mmos and yes this has to be one of the worst grindfests available. Sorry, it is what it is. Not to mention the obvious lack of any kind of a GM presence in the game is odd. The chat box when u sign in still says "thank you for pre order and enjoy the headstart time.

Neuro, from your wall of text I  presume that you lack Tolkien Lore information. Especially about Old Forrest. That's why you maybe didn't find epic book story attractive, one of main parts of LOTRO pve.

Player  doesn't need to grind in Lotro all the way to lvl 65; if you define grind as killing lots of mobs to gain level. You can do quest until max level in LOTRO. You have so much quests that you can decide for several paths to level (except parts in Eregion and early parts in Moria). That alone gives LOTRO PVE replayability value.

You can find grinding in every MMORPG, but you expressed it as it was in LOTRO worst part. Which is not.

I can buy that PVP in Aion is better then in LOTRO which I agree because of AION has real PVP rewards, more areas, wings etc.. But defenately not PVE.

As for bosses atleast in LOTRO  boss encounters force players to behave different then just rush in and gang and spank.

And your comments on crafted gear, traits, deeds are biased and not completely true.