I never really thought that Aion was an ugly game, just a boring one.

Originally posted by jawali

Originally posted by Kanuvani

Originally posted by jerkbeast

One question. Do all of your toons of one faction still start in the same place? If yes I will not try it again, but if you made unique starting areas I will play again.

 

Still only 1 starting zone per side.

 

how many zones do you need for 2 raCES?

When you have a strictly class-based MMO, where people are likely to start brand-new alts to play new classes... it's kinda nice to have options, so you're not seeing the same... exact... areas.... doing the same... exact.... quests.... over and over.

More variety is better.

To go along with your high school analogy, Aion is like the really hot cheerleader in class. Very pretty, yes, but awfully dull, dumb, and boring at the core.

When there's a project to do, it procrastinates and turns it in late (have to wait 3-6 months for them to 'translate' patches into the Western market).

I wouldn't grade it an 8.0 (a B on the grade), but more a 6 or 7 (a C). The game barely does enough to get a passing grade.

I always kind of liked the enviorment though the colors were to washed out for me, I like richer darker looking games, but the deal breaker was the cloths and armor, they are so over the top ridiculously fruity, with everyone standing around posing I just couldnt take it.  Im pretty sure nothing has changed in that area.

Been reading your comments people..and in all honesty,judging by what is said here,you seem to be missing something very crucial..

This was a game conceptualised and designed so as to primarily draw a huge chunk of their Lin2 fanbase, which is what they depended on to get their initial subscriptions from, along with (hopefully) a healthy number of the WoW (or insert clone) gaming populace..now to me,unless you sit down and think how such a 'marriage' could be reality wise,you won't get near the point. You can't fuss about it being a gear-based game (Mayadeva i think your name was), not when you came from Lin2, or about the clothing/gear looking "fruity" (i forget your name,sorry)..just as the other 'half'' should not complain about the levelling been linear..And am only refering to posts from this very thread,and see where we are already :) It is alright to say i,insert name,hated it oh so vewy much,in which case you are entitled the lack of any serious consideration,and quite another to name issues affecting the gameplay as intended. And if we stick to that..it didn't reaaaaally have that huge number of bugs..no,it didn't. It didn't even have as many bots as folks whine about,least not in comparison with previous NCsoft games (aka Lin2?).

Yes they progressed the story and content very slow,yes nothing was (don't know about now) perfect,true..but we have all played far worse,and for far longer..what killed it was their marrying two opposite types of gameplays. Just my opinion.

I gave up on AION when i hit miragents on my lvl 50 char only a few months after release.. Wasn't much content besides dredgion + Dork Poeta.. And then the max exodus as more people hit 50 and released miragents wasn't worth it.. I went from a full legion (#3 on our server) of 100+ players to it having to close down because so many members quit logging in (includeing our legion leader.)

I eventually joined up with the #1 legion on fregion and continued to play for a bit.. We had the world bosses on lock down.. Was fun but after fort raids died the content was just way to light to continue playing.. Not to mention i failed miragents like 6 times so i was pissed.. My buddy on my friends list offered me $200 for my character, since i told him i was jus gonna quit and no longer log.. So i took the $200 and ran lol (later the acnt got banned for "account sharing" or some shit ncsoft made up.)

 Still , i had a very enjoyable experience.. No other MMO has given me the feel that AION has, but i'am afriad that was because it was "all new" and i was experienceing it on launch day.. I don't know if i'd enjoy it as much if i went back, but i probably will end going back to use it to fill the gap until SWT

Originally posted by Illyssia

I think, Bill, you need to let those NCsoft scales fall from your eyes as Aion is DirectX 9 so for 2011 it isn't visually amazing. What I think is that you may be gaming on a mid-range PC as it is favourable to WoW Cataclysm in terms of visuals, but WoW is a very old game. 

 

Anyway, I think we all know that Aion wasn't a game to Western tastes on launch, and while it may have improved it still offers quite a dated mmo game to players, and gimmicks such as wings on the player gets tiresome fast.

 

Just a comment on dx9. I'm still using it, i don't feel there is much of a justifiable difference in going to dx10, in fact most of the visials for dx10 i would turn off anyway. DX9 still has plenty of bang. I turn off Bloom and HD lighting in my games still, i don't think it looks that great.

Aion is a much different game then it was at launch. For those who didn't like the grindy feel at launch may very well think it is a completely different game at this point. It is worth a try if you are bored with other MMOs.

Agree with Bill on most points the music and general sound effects where decent the pets and combat grunts where downright annoying. 

I suppose for a first time player and not knowing ways and means the grind can still seem lengthy but with a bit of chat to players or a forum post or 2 you could easily make 55 in under 2 month with fairly casual play.

Not sure what Bill refers to with regards to tedious travel though aside 1 or 2 dungeons Lepharists and Lannok which are a bit of a trek from the nearest flight transporter then nothing is tedious sure some areas take 1 or 2 flights to get to but where is the problem with this flights are a great way to take in the stunning world of atreia from above.

Aion is still visually stunning from a character perspective although some areas general world textures dont look quite as glossy as they did in 09.

As others have mentioned its major let down certainly for me is replayability not only does it only have 1 journey per race but that journey the starter areas are near identical and then every bit of content is shared dont go to play another race expecting different dungeons and a different journey as its practically a carbon copy of each other.

Far too much emphasis is placed on gear > skill and it has been dumbed down considerably to a PVE fest losing much of its original appeal,  if Aion had stuck to its guns as a PVPVE game and removed some of the gear > skill then I have no doubt it would be thriving as the modern day players DAOC sadly that potential was lost within its first 12 months when it chose to focus on PVE and the care bears rather than simply balance out PVP a bit so all could enjoy it including those without the time to grind gear for months.

Aion was always an amazing game but had many carebears. I personally grew up playing EQ and Silkroad, Silkroad Online being my first MMORPG, and this game isnt a grind compared to those two. I personally like grinding, thats what a vast music library/podcasts are for. Hitting 50 wasnt to bad, just played when I got home from college and hit 50 in a months time. Great PVP, Great PVP Rewards, Awesome Instances, and full fledged DX11 ellegance... this game was a remarkable one... and one I still gladly sub to.

Great Re Review... the game deserves it for all the devs hard work.

By slow progression in Cons u mean grind the hell of yuor ass? meh didnt know that aion needs re-review cuz its solid like every other korean grinder... to kill your ass grinding.... if you are not a bot ofc.

Did they ever fix the lag/crashes in large PvP encounters? like sieges. It was one of the reasons i left, plus the grind after 40 was unbearable and boring. These are the the two main issues i had.

Originally posted by supbro

Did they ever fix the lag/crashes in large PvP encounters? like sieges. It was one of the reasons i left, plus the grind after 40 was unbearable and boring. These are the the two main issues i had.

The game is still unplayable for me with any large number of players on my screen.  This was evident during a recent GM event where we had to save Juliet from some Balaur guy.  The chat was filled with "OMG LAG" so it wasn't just me.  I have to shift-f12 (reduce all characters to nameplates only) to even play. This is sad because in other games I haven't had that issue.  Even in RIFT open beta, I've had over a hundrered players on my screen without one bit of lag.

Also, there is still a ton of rubberbanding. I'm running and *blink*...I'm back 10 feet.  Or I'll jump off a hill and start to glide and instantly be back on the hill.  I can't jump and glide again because it set off my wing cooldown.  This happens alot.

Aion is still the best looking game I've played.  Once they implement player housing/mounts I'll resub and give it another go, tech problems aside.

Oh, and leveling: it's less grindy, but still a bit of a chore.  http://na.aiononline.com/livestatus/server/?serverID=2 As you can see, on my server, Israphel, only 3% of the overall characters are actually over level 46.  I could be wrong, but I don't think this is typical for a game that's been out as long as Aion has.

Originally posted by Ozmodan

Originally posted by Illyssia

I think, Bill, you need to let those NCsoft scales fall from your eyes as Aion is DirectX 9 so for 2011 it isn't visually amazing. What I think is that you may be gaming on a mid-range PC as it is favourable to WoW Cataclysm in terms of visuals, but WoW is a very old game. 

 

Anyway, I think we all know that Aion wasn't a game to Western tastes on launch, and while it may have improved it still offers quite a dated mmo game to players, and gimmicks such as wings on the player gets tiresome fast.

I really get tired of this DX9 criticism, when you get down to it, even DX11 is not that much of a change.  Sure you can spice up the effects somewhat, but most of the games that claim to use DX10 & DX11 rarely use them to the full effect.  So yeah, compared to the competition the graphics effects are still really good.  Anyway graphics are a minor point for most of us, gameplay is what sells games.

  Probably you are also tired of that old PC you are in actuality playing games with DirectX 9. Actually there are huge advatages to using X11 in state-of--the-art games. Not too just is poor development in 2011, for example Bioware have let it  be kown they plan to patch it into SW:TOR...and it is in their 2011 major titles apart from that, many leading developers use this for superb graphics in games, not too is subpar... I am not getting into an argument over technical details, Bill simply judges games relative to Cataclysm and I guess as a lot of others in this thread do too. For a judgment of the possibilities see the link below...it really is better... http://blogs.amd.com/play/2009/06/02/why-we-should-get-excited-about-directx-11/

I liked Aion a lot, but the grind made me cry. It would have been nice to be able to fly a bit longer too.

I played Aion to about level 25 with several characters . To experience the RVR. That WAS what this game was supposed to be all about.The RVR I experienced was some of the worst I have ever seen.So I left and I have heard nothing that suggests it's signifigantly improved.Aion is just another "pretty face" in a universe of "pretty faces".

Thank you for the re-review! I had been wondering how Aion was faring since its launch when I participated in the beta and could not run the game cause of some anti hacking thingy that would boot me from the game after roughly 5 minutes. A couple months later I played a trial after learning they completely removed the program that would not let me play only to find the trial was for 5 or so hours max so i got about lvl 5 i think and then right in the middle of poking some creature BAM i was booted. So while brief my time in the game was decent but  with no friends playing the game IRL which is typically the case when I sub to an MMO I really never gave it a second look. (also many months later I found out an ex of mine and her current lover was playing Aion and that didn't really make me want to play either LOL). Now upon learning from your article as well as hearing from other sources that the game is slightly more approachable and solo friendly I just might give it another chance!!!!

sooooo the only thing new here is simply the vanity pet system that other games have had for years before this one was launched?

is flying still limited to certain areas?

is flying still limited by fatigue?

do you still have to go to an all pvp area to get ganked over and over while trying to progress in both level and item badge grinding?

is every fight with every mob still an epic fight ie lasting more then 30 seconds?

are abilities on say the monk class still not monk-like?

if the answer is yes to any of these questions and you love pvp, i'd suggest you save your money for GW2. 

Originally posted by Szasz

Thank you for the re-review! I had been wondering how Aion was faring since its launch when I participated in the beta and could not run the game cause of some anti hacking thingy that would boot me from the game after roughly 5 minutes. A couple months later I played a trial after learning they completely removed the program that would not let me play only to find the trial was for 5 or so hours max so i got about lvl 5 i think and then right in the middle of poking some creature BAM i was booted. So while brief my time in the game was decent but  with no friends playing the game IRL which is typically the case when I sub to an MMO I really never gave it a second look. (also many months later I found out an ex of mine and her current lover was playing Aion and that didn't really make me want to play either LOL). Now upon learning from your article as well as hearing from other sources that the game is slightly more approachable and solo friendly I just might give it another chance!!!!

 It would take a heck of a lot more than slightly for me to even consider going back to that game, especially in light of TOR and GW2 coming out.

What is it with the Re-Review's and Post Mortem's? Are we going to get these just after GW2 and SWTOR comes out as well?