Credentials

Games Played: WoW, EQ2, EQ, AO, VG, AoC, WAR, RO, FFXI, CoH/CoV, Ryzom,
CoS, LoTRO and many free to play games.

Maximum Level Attained in Aion: 30

Visual/Aural Appeal

Graphics (Awesome):

Some of the best character models of any MMO to date. Textures
can be bland, however.

Visual Character Customization (Awesome):

One of the best to date; on par with AoC’s.

Performance (Good):

2 gb ram, 2 ghz processor, 256 MB card, 15-60 fps depending on player density.

Audio (Good):

Ambient music is good quality; some combat music might be too anime-like.

Visual Content (Average):

There is not much visual diversity in the world of Aion; the variation among armor and even weapons is mostly based off of their quality (white, green, blue, orange).

Game Play

Content (Poor):

About half of WoW’s vanilla quest content as can be verified through aionarmory.com and wowhead.com. Few races, but about the same number of raids/dungeons total in vanilla WoW. However, it must be stated that most begin at 40+, so there is not much for the 1-30 player to see in terms of dungeon content.

Exploration (Horrible):

Although there are three degrees of freedom, the zones are generally very confined and linear. Swimming is not possible and landmass is much smaller than that of other popular games.

Immersion (Awful):

The story is not well written and seems tacked on. There is not much attention to detail when compared to other games and there is little to accommodate RP (i.e. lack of RP items).

Combat (Good):

Additional cool down in the form of animation, but generally fluid. Some classes are trivial to play, while others are more complex; those that are more complex (sorcerer, spiritmaster) are nearly WoW templates (mage, warlock). CC is present and plays a major role; twitch is not much of a factor for most classes, except for a couple. Generally there are a lot of buttons to push.

Character Skill Customization (Awful):

Can only select from a small pool of skills and requirements usually constrain to a couple choices. Choices do not influence class play style.

Crafting (Average):

Take basic crafting, add more randomness, add quests and you have Aion crafting.

Player vs. Player (Subjective):

Good rewards and significant disparity between PvE/PvP items in the form of PvP damage bonuses. Rifts are few and randomly allow access to SOME PvE areas of the opposing faction. Most PvP confined to Abyss, which is a large area with different tiers that has PvE advancement and fortress sieges. Consumables play a MAJOR role.

Character Advancement Pace (Poor):

There will be gaps while leveling where the quests run dry (only repeatable ones remain). New skills are gained every 3 levels or so.

Brief and to the point. Thanks!

Originally posted by //\\//\\oo

Credentials

 

Games Played: WoW, EQ2, EQ, AO, VG, AoC, WAR, RO, FFXI, CoH/CoV, Ryzom,
CoS, LoTRO and many free to play games.

 

Maximum Level Attained in Aion: 30

---

 

The resume doesn't really convince me. Just because you have played all those games doesn't mean that your opinion is going to be better than someone else's?

What matters most is if you can assess what Aion is suposed to be doing and is it doing it well? Can it be compared to other games of similar type and if so how does it compare?

I've played far more games than that and would never think to put my game resume down so that others can feel that I have more to say on the subject.

Your review is ok in my opinion. Some of the things are non-issues and shouldn't have been mentioned. I mean, swimming? Really? There really is no reason to swim. As the head dev said, they aren't going to put swimming in until it actually matters. Heck, LOTRO has far more areas where one could swim and it doesn't have that.

Originally posted by Sovrath

---

 

 

The resume doesn't really convince me. Just because you have played all those games doesn't mean that your opinion is going to be better than someone else's?

What matters most is if you can assess what Aion is suposed to be doing and is it doing it well? Can it be compared to other games of similar type and if so how does it compare?

I've played far more games than that and would never think to put my game resume down so that others can feel that I have more to say on the subject.

Your review is ok in my opinion. Some of the things are non-issues and shouldn't have been mentioned. I mean, swimming? Really? There really is no reason to swim. As the head dev said, they aren't going to put swimming in until it actually matters. Heck, LOTRO has far more areas where one could swim and it doesn't have that.

 

 

 

 What, you want my education too? If that's the case, then let's compare and go right to dick size while we're at it! 

  Xfire, aionarmory.

  I don't give a shit.

  Some people like to swim and almost every game on the market has swimming in one form or another. Maybe there's a reason for that? 

Originally posted by Sovrath

Originally posted by //\\//\\oo

Credentials

 

Games Played: WoW, EQ2, EQ, AO, VG, AoC, WAR, RO, FFXI, CoH/CoV, Ryzom,
CoS, LoTRO and many free to play games.

 

Maximum Level Attained in Aion: 30

---

 

 

The resume doesn't really convince me. Just because you have played all those games doesn't mean that your opinion is going to be better than someone else's?

What matters most is if you can assess what Aion is suposed to be doing and is it doing it well? Can it be compared to other games of similar type and if so how does it compare?

I've played far more games than that and would never think to put my game resume down so that others can feel that I have more to say on the subject.

Your review is ok in my opinion. Some of the things are non-issues and shouldn't have been mentioned. I mean, swimming? Really? There really is no reason to swim. As the head dev said, they aren't going to put swimming in until it actually matters. Heck, LOTRO has far more areas where one could swim and it doesn't have that.

 

 

 

Actually the lack of swimming does matter. In PVP you can knock a person into water by various means and cause them to drown. And I don't play the game.

Mostly agree with your review aside from the two awfuls...I'd make them poor.

Immersion isn't great by any means but for me that has to do with the linear path in early levels and the standard, "kill 10 wolves," quests.  I felt the story is above average compared to other MMOs and the first 10 level "tutorial" was a nice character background for a MMO as well.  Personally I would have liked the world to open up more after those ten levels into the RvR kinda like L2 but they make you continue in the linear path...Still, it could have been much worse.

Character Skill Customization would be poor as well since it is so generic.  Each class has their own skills with no customizable stats to raise as you level.  It is extremely basic but it has been done worse before.  Sigma stones also offer limited customization.

Originally posted by Sovrath

Originally posted by //\\//\\oo

Credentials

 

Games Played: WoW, EQ2, EQ, AO, VG, AoC, WAR, RO, FFXI, CoH/CoV, Ryzom,
CoS, LoTRO and many free to play games.

 

Maximum Level Attained in Aion: 30

---

 

 

Your review is ok in my opinion. Some of the things are non-issues and shouldn't have been mentioned. I mean, swimming? Really? There really is no reason to swim. As the head dev said, they aren't going to put swimming in until it actually matters. Heck, LOTRO has far more areas where one could swim and it doesn't have that.

 

 

 

Actually, the swimming thing is super annoying. I know that Aion developers used water a a boundary but it only serves to cheapen the feel of the game.

For example, the other day I was crossing a bridge and looked down and to the left and saw what looked like shipwrecks in the distance. Being the inquisitive sort that I am, I jumped off the bridge and glided down to where they were. Which brings me to another annoying thing, I glided down because I have wings but can't actually fly outside of the town. I know, I know, flight limit is used so that people don't bypass the content. Which is complete bullcrap, if you ask me because there is a simple way around that problem: if your game is going to have flight, implement flying content, and I don't mean farming Aether nodes (which is actually what I'm doing as I type this). Anyway,  I digress.

After I glided down to those cool looking shipwrecks, guess what happened? I drowned. My bad ass Warlo... err I mean Spiritmaster, Legendary Hunter and Protector of Altgard can't even float on water...

For me, this is basically another nail in the coffin as far as this game goes. Don't get me wrong, I like the game, I really do but the bad things outweigh the good.

Originally posted by //\\//\\oo
  Some people like to swim and almost every game on the market has swimming in one form or another. Maybe there's a reason for that? 

 

The lack of swimming did bum me out.  It kills the immersion when you can't do something as an adult superhero that any 6 year old can do irl.  Just saying.

Excellent review. Addresses all the points as to why I am still reluctant to try this game even though I have been looking forward to it for almost 2 years now. NO SWIMMING? That is just crazy. I hope it isn't because they didn't want to design the underwater environments and creatures. Oh well, if it eventually proves to be worth the money, I will shell it out. Which is probably soon...

256 MB card wow! ... surprised you can run anything, shit i may have an extra 512 laying around here somewhere o_O

I glanced at the review, all I saw was that it was full of arrogance. We don't care what games you've played. Prove your worth by fairly discussing all aspects of the game and how it does against the rest of the genre, comment on what you don't like but can respect, (give the game credit for its worth even if you don't like it). It doesn't take much to list a bunch of MMO's you have tried for less than a month. I could tell you that I have tried over 20 different MMO's, but then again, who would give a damn? Read my sig, my games list is there like a big ePEEN. 

Oh wait, no its not.

Originally posted by Goob

I glanced at the review, all I saw was that it was full of arrogance. We don't care what games you've played. Prove your worth by fairly discussing all aspects of the game and how it does against the rest of the genre, comment on what you don't like but can respect, (give the game credit for its worth even if you don't like it). It doesn't take much to list a bunch of MMO's you have tried for less than a month. I could tell you that I have tried over 20 different MMO's, but then again, who would give a damn? Read my sig, my games list is there like a big ePEEN. 

Oh wait, no its not.

Then.. why not skip that part and read the review?

Originally posted by Goob

I glanced at the review, all I saw was that it was full of arrogance. We don't care what games you've played. Prove your worth by fairly discussing all aspects of the game and how it does against the rest of the genre, comment on what you don't like but can respect, (give the game credit for its worth even if you don't like it). It doesn't take much to list a bunch of MMO's you have tried for less than a month. I could tell you that I have tried over 20 different MMO's, but then again, who would give a damn? Read my sig, my games list is there like a big ePEEN. 

Oh wait, no its not.

I think that you missed the point of why the title has "No Bullshit" in it. He basically stated the facts as he sees them without sugarcoating them with empty words.

Edit: by the way, in the time between my first post in this topic and this post, i went from 45 to 49 in Aether gathering. Go me!

Originally posted by //\\//\\oo

Originally posted by Sovrath

---

 

 

The resume doesn't really convince me. Just because you have played all those games doesn't mean that your opinion is going to be better than someone else's?

What matters most is if you can assess what Aion is suposed to be doing and is it doing it well? Can it be compared to other games of similar type and if so how does it compare?

I've played far more games than that and would never think to put my game resume down so that others can feel that I have more to say on the subject.

Your review is ok in my opinion. Some of the things are non-issues and shouldn't have been mentioned. I mean, swimming? Really? There really is no reason to swim. As the head dev said, they aren't going to put swimming in until it actually matters. Heck, LOTRO has far more areas where one could swim and it doesn't have that.

 

 

 

 What, you want my education too? If that's the case, then let's compare and go right to dick size while we're at it! 

  Xfire, aionarmory.

  I don't give a shit.

  Some people like to swim and almost every game on the market has swimming in one form or another. Maybe there's a reason for that? 

 

 

No what I'm saying is none of that should matter. Just reasonable arguments for your point.

I believe I said this:

The resume doesn't really convince me. Just because you have played all those games doesn't mean that your opinion is going to be better than someone else's?

I would rather see compelling arguments over "I've played some games and therefore my opinion matters"

I believe I stated that. Goob seems to share my opinion.

And as far as swimming, currently it doesn't matter. Yes that's right. It doesn't Because as far as I can see, there is very limited water in Aion. Not enough to make any difference whether they put it in.

The abyss has no water that I can see and the only place with a decent amount is around the second area that the players go to. No pvp there.

I assure you I read the review (lol). I was just saying that upon a glance, thats how I saw it. I still read the whole thing, it still felt arrogant. I was just speaking like that for dramatic effect, I apologize for not being clear. 

My beef, besides the first section which is just laughable, was that he can so easily say aspects of the game are  AWFUL.

The fact that I disagree with him on some of his points is irrelevant. It's just frustrating to see so many decent works of game development get thrashed to nothing by people with who don't like them. This and the painfully rude 6.9 that FE got today..... Cman guys, think of the devs working their asses off to get make these games as best as they can. We need be more respectful. I noticed he used the word "Poor" elsewhere, which in my opinion would've sufficed in these other sections that he found to be rather abysmal.

You want to see some AWFUL immersion in a game? Go play minesweeper.

Overall the MMO is not groundbreaking; however, the Fighting-while-flying does leave me wanting more.

There is one deal breaking caveat to the promise of this MMO: A memory leak that is wreaking havoc with higher end machines for the most part ( but some of my friends with lesser machines have also had DCs) in the large scale pvp in the Abyss.

Whereas, large scale pvp is a cornerstone of how the pvp zone of the Abyss works. So if you like to group up and defend your forts in large scale pvp with your Legion/Alliance, this common crash-to-desktop issue, which has been heavily speculated to be a serious memory leak, is one negative aspect of this MMO for which I cannot get around.

I can cut em slack on gold farmers, botters, small Interface snags, etc, but excessive CTDs in anything that comes close to a good size battle in the PvP zone is a deal breaker.

Just a heads-up to any potential subscribers...the bestter then rig you have the more this CTD will affect you in AION.

Hopefully they fix this memory leak but that leads to the next problem: There is no communication from the Dev team on this issue, no sticky letter to players, no forum admins saying the "the devs are aware and working hard to fix", no in game messages saying "Players we are aware of the CTDs" etc etc. Just /silence. This is a bad sign imo.

Originally posted by Goob

I assure you I read the review (lol). I was just saying that upon a glance, thats how I saw it. I still read the whole thing, it still felt arrogant. I was just speaking like that for dramatic effect, I apologize for not being clear. 

My beef, besides the first section which is just laughable, was that he can so easily say aspects of the game are  AWFUL.

The fact that I disagree with him on some of his points is irrelevant. It's just frustrating to see so many decent works of game development get thrashed to nothing by people with who don't like them. This and the painfully rude 6.9 that FE got today..... Cman guys, think of the devs working their asses off to get make these games as best as they can. We need be more respectful. I noticed he used the word "Poor" elsewhere, which in my opinion would've sufficed in these other sections that he found to be rather abysmal.

You want to see some AWFUL immersion in a game? Go play minesweeper.

I'll tell you one thing that I found AWFUL. Certain ground and mountain textures. I've spent a lot of time looking for a fan made high-res texture pack, which I know exists but was taken down because it's not supported by NCSoft. I've found 2D mushrooms on trees to be quite AWFUL as well. I've also found animations which freeze my caster in place to be somewhat AWFUL. Another thing I found AWFUL is the fact that the camera snaps back behind my character as soon as I let go. It's really annoying and it's fast enough to get someone dizzy. The AWFUL part is that you can't change the settings.

EDIT: but the most AWFULEST (I don't think that it's a word) thing about Aion is the community itself. It's much, much, much worse than WoW.

Credentials were added to show that I have a basis of comparison as comparisons are made relative to other games in the review. 

@ Sovrath

It's a no bullshit review devoid of flowery, poignant drivel that otherwise clouds facts. It's a GAME; there's nothing compelling to be said about a VIDEO GAME. If you want to engage in debate try it in a different forum. I did my best to limit the subjective.

 @ Goob

LOL QQ MOAR UR AWFUL LOL 

Straight and to the point.   Good review over all - I mean in the no BS that you said you'd give.   I wish it had a little more emphasis on and info on those parts of the game you liked and those you disliked and then maybe give some suggestions onb what NCSoft might do to fix them.     Good review though - well done.  :)

Originally posted by //\\//\\oo

Credentials were added to show that I have a basis of comparison as comparisons are made relative to other games in the review. 

@ Sovrath

It's a no bullshit review devoid of flowery, poignant drivel that otherwise clouds facts. It's a GAME; there's nothing compelling to be said about a VIDEO GAME. If you want to engage in debate try it in a different forum. I did my best to limit the subjective.

 @ Goob

LOL QQ MOAR UR AWFUL LOL 

 

 

 

Im not even sure why Im bothering but anyways...

I've played even more MMO's than you, all the way back to the UO days... ya that's right... my epeen is This |----------------------------| big! Does anyone care (I should think not...)

Sorvath's whole point was it doesn't mean a difference at all what games you have played or anyone has played. Do you know why? Because I can make an exact same review as you, post a thread about how awesome Aion is...give it a really good "score".... only it will put it into a completely different context for people reading.  Instead of "awful" - I can say its "brilliant" and there will be a bunch of people agree/disagreeing with me depending on what side of the fence you are on. Are you following at all? It doesnt make ANY difference what games I / or you have played, the ONLY thing that matters is the people who play it and like it will continue to do so, and the people who hate it should just STFU and stop talking about it. You have obviously quit - so why are you still discussing it?