PVP:Yes | Distribution:Download | Retail Price:n/a | Pay Type:Free | Monthly Fee:n/a
Desktop Client | System Req:
| Out of date info? Let us know!
Aion Review: Assault Balaurea Re-Review - Edit
8
| Pros |
 Beautiful Visuals Difficult and rewarding dungeons Multi-functional pets Solo Dungeons ease leveling pains |
| Cons |
 Annoying sound effects Slow progression Tedious travel |
When Aion came out in 2009, it was supposed to rock the foundations of the MMO world. I mean, what new hyped released in the genre isn’t these days? But Aion found itself falling short of greatness in the West not because it wasn’t a polished and well-made game, but because it’s pacing and mechanics catered more towards the Eastern market. Over the course of the twelve-plus months since it launched NCsoft has been toiling away vigorously, with the western and eastern studios trying earnestly to make the game what it needs to be to draw more North American and European gamers. I’ve been playing the title now for a while, and feel it’s safe to suggest that Aion is much closer now to the game NCsoft needs it to be than it was at launch. It’s polished, pretty, and content complete with a much smoother progression that will please most Western gamers looking for an Eastern-influenced fantasy MMO that comes without the mindless mob-grind. Still it does rely a little heavily on repeatable quests to fill in gaps, but new solo dungeons help spice things up quite a bit. By and large Aion of today is a much better game than it was at launch, but it still won’t be a title to attract the masses.
Oh So Pretty
Aion was and still is one of the prettiest games on the market, in my eyes. I’m not even a big fan of Anime-centric art, but there’s little denying that the character and scenery design in Aion is of the highest quality. It scales pretty wonderfully too. I have a rather shoddy laptop with little in the way of graphical horsepower, and even it can play the game on lower settings. Sure it looks worse, but it’s a testament to the scalability of the engine that it plays at all. Still, to best appreciate Aion’s visuals, you’ll want to be running on a system that allows high settings. From the spell effects to the little critters that little the landscape and the big bads that rove the countryside, everything seems to fit in the world of Atreia.
)
A Cacophony of Pets
Where the visuals are stunning in one way, the sound I find stunning in an altogether different fashion. As in: if I was wearing headphones when I first entered one of the capital cities, my skull probably would have exploded and my brain would have oozed out of my ear canals. It’s not that the sound effects are bad, or the music off-putting. It’s the combat effects and the chattering of the game’s many new pets that made it absolutely necessary for me to turn down the in-game sound after a while.
My wife heard so many grunts, yells, and hoo-ahs coming from my office that she was pretty sure I was up to something I shouldn’t be. Luckily both hands were on my desk when she popped her head in. It’s a shame really, because the music in Aion is phenomenal and perfectly epic sounding. It’s just the ambient noises that will wind up making you pop a few aspirin unless you tone it down a bit.
)
A-Dungeon Crawling We Will Go
When Aion was launched in 2009, the real focus seemed to be on the game’s intriguing promise of PvPvE. But for my own time spent in the game, it seems that today the PvP takes a back seat to the dungeon crawling aspects. As mentioned briefly before, there are several new solo dungeons at different level sections that are specifically intended to help bridge the content gaps that players noticed before Balaurea. You might be saying to yourself, “Boring. Dungeons should be for groups!” But for what it’s worth the solo dungeons are actually quite rich in content and loot for solo players and really do help keep you away from grinding repeatable quests to level up. For my own time spent in Aion, I really valued being able to log in and run these solo dungeons when I only had a little bit of time and didn’t want to spend it all running around. Because one thing that hasn’t changed in Aion is that most quests have an odd sense that you as a player must really want to spend half an hour running from point A to point B just to turn in a kill-quest. Flying doesn’t help much, and I found myself wishing early on that the timer on flight was long gone.
)
At the level cap Balaurea has also added a ton of new dungeon content for players to advance through, and they are most definitely difficult and arduous experiences. I had the opportunity to run a few dungeons with some of the development team, and even with the folks who wrote the community guides to said dungeons we found ourselves wiping if we didn’t work in harmony. Needless to say, players who are sick of the “easy” games will find a home in Aion’s dungeon content. Recent patches have made it so that the game’s best gear is much more likely to drop, and while this has kind of skewed the economy a bit, I won’t complain. I’d rather the auctions be a little out of whack, than spend hours in dungeons with no reward.
A Virtual Petting Zoo
One of the coolest new features of Aion is the helpful pets that the team has added to the game. You can buy or earn most of these in-game, and others are available through the Aion website for real world money, but all of them are useful. Some will turn loot into items for your use, while others will fight alongside you, and some are glorified extra storage space. But they’re damnably cute critters, and collection-aholics will no doubt salivate over owning every single one. I’m actually pretty intrigued to see where NCsoft takes this system in the future. The idea that in-game pets could be more than just for looks or the helpful friends of certain classes is pretty unique. I hope that the fun of these little guys goes into some other areas, maybe even being an additional way to spec out one’s character in the future.
)
Elyos and Asmodians Still Player-Hate
Though I personally feel the atmosphere of the game these days has shifted towards PvE content, that doesn’t mean Aion is light on PvP things to do. With Balaurea NCsoft has added two brand new fortresses for players to fight over, and in the few times I experienced these fights it was both hectic and fun. I just got the feeling that with the focus on PvE-attainable gear and dungeon progression NCsoft’s focus lies in a different direction these days. Maybe I’m wrong, and this is just a result of the expansion fleshing out the PvE content, but there’s little denying on my server at least that players spent the bulk of their time inside of instances.
The Difference A Year (and a little more) Makes
Back on September 7th of 2010, Assault on Balaurea launched as a massive free expansion to Aion. Its aim was to give more life to the high level experience, as well as flatten out the curve and grind that turned off many western gamers shortly after the title’s original launch. A host of other features came bundled in and recent patches have further addressed many issues players once found off-putting. The result is an Aion of today that is much more approachable by western gaming standards. It’s a traditionally molded fantasy MMORPG with an Eastern artistic flare, and if you haven’t yet tried the game now would be a great time to do so.
)
Just remember that some arbitrary score a reviewer applies to a game doesn’t mean everything or even anything. Hell, even I realize that most of my scores on this site lately have been in the 8.0 range. I’m like MMORPG’s own Peter Travers. But it’s really just my best guess at what “grade” Aion should get these days, were it a high school student. I don’t know if I’d put it on honor roll, but I sure as heck wouldn’t be holding it back or sticking it in detention. If you left the title previously because the gameplay just wasn’t your thing, don’t expect Assault on Balaurea to change your mind. Aion still plays largely the same, albeit with a much smoother content progression and a lot more things to do besides grind on mobs. Its solo combat is a little slower-paced that most will be used to, perhaps more methodical would be the best word. But in groups and in group content, Aion truly shines. In short, it’s a solid game with a lot to offer, but players averse to a long trip to the end game will probably be turned off.
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 turned lvl 50 and entered the expansion for the first time and you can really see the Hard work the the dev team have put in since the original release. I have a high- end pc and gpu and the graphics are amazing with the cry engine really delivering the goods. There is no lag, no dc and a generally mature following to the game.
The new graphics patch is almost here and then Aion will be the best looking mmo.
Aion is by far the best Epic PVP out there and once you have done a siege you will never look back. Nothing in wow, rift, war or dcuo even comes close. And i play almost all new mmos just to make up my own mind about the games.
Aion has so many amazing character customisation (not talking char creation ) features and depth that it amazes me that other mmos arent copying them left right and center. A strong char in wow is kinda the same as any other on the server but in Aion you can make an absolute monster. From armsfusion to enchanting, no other mmo comes close.
Aion assualt on balauria is probably the only mmo where you can instantly team up with 200-500 other players and wreak absulote chaos and destruction open hundreds of other real players. If you never played Aion you will never know Epic pvp.
He spoke of the games design, which has fairly little to do with the DX version. Good art direction can do much for for the visual appeal of a game than tech specs.
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.
I just find strange your con and pros,
dungeons are hardly difficult anymore, maybe beshmundir temple on hard mode, but even so the most difficult is the last boss, but people use a res loci thing who make it pretty easy.
its not slow to lvl, hiting lvl cap in 2 months (I start november 2009) and I old my lvl for 1 week on 45 to finish some spy quests.
sounds are not boring, well save for the pets, but most of the time its good, the music is also good, I don't need to run a CD over the music from the game
Anyone who says aions gfx are bad must need their head testing.. the only place it falls short is on some ground textures. The character and model (PC or NPC) design is some of the best around.
Aion has very good graphics, but the story and setup of the world are very drab and make it a chore to want to play.
I want this game back now... Wait... Ill just go re download it and patch it lol
Aion is one of the most beautiful world I played in. Is a game rich of contents, characters are amazing, leveling up is quite smooth- But has a couple of big issues in gameplay. One is the PVP system that is a gankfest, encouraging bullism. The other is the RNG system that affects crafting and drops. Is a gear based game, so beware.
Core mechanics are still broken. MMORPG can give it a great review, but I played it for 16 months and was a huge fan. Lack of a local developement team is killing the game plain and simple.
You can argue with me if you like, but it is still broken.
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.
I don't think they have or plan on fixing the linear leveling this game offers. Pass.
Still only 1 starting zone per side.
Spelled Review wrong on the front page picture (Re-Reviw is what you put)
how many zones do you need for 2 raCES?
I 100% disagree with your cons. They really make no sense. I have played this game for a very long time. Your 'cons' are nor justified or make any sense. Your cons don't exist in the game nowadays. The only reason why this MMO is not bigger than it should be is because the players will not go back because of how the game was launched. It is a great MMO.
Well, I'm glad someone noticed that Reviw is not a real world (in this dimension).
I've let the guys know about this. Thanks!
"but because it’s pacing and mechanics catered more towards the Eastern market."
Yes..
That and the assumption on the devs part that itwas ok to leave goldspammer garbage litter the game world, because "asians are ok with it".
I never really thought that Aion was an ugly game, just a boring one.
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
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.
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.
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.
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?
When an MMO changes, matures, ages enough they deserve to be re-reviewed. So when GW2 is old enough it'll see the same treatment, and SWTOR as well. If you mean, will we be doing SWG or GW1 re-reviews? That all depends. SWG was reviewed in 2009, and I'm not sure it needs another pass just yet. GW1 was different, because we basically had several different games under the same branding. So in short: yes, when necessary.
Can someone answer a quick question for a release players that didn't last long:
Is Aether gathering still a matter of "Fly up, gather for a bit, fly down, sit and wait a tedious amount of time for flight charge to refill, repeat....?"
Played this game for a while got to say its a great game, its a good WOW alternative. i do hope they will not ruin it by others making some private servers.
Just reactivated my account last week and the answer to you question is yes. Kind of makes sence though when you consider the only reason you are allowed to fly in a particular area is due to the presence of aether.
Well the game was just alright when I was playing it. Now that I started playing WoW though I seem to be progressing much faster and getting more out of my very limited playtime with wow. Also there seems to be a lot more variety and things to do in that game...
So for me Aion was awesome looking but I am so busy in grad school that unless I can get a lot done in 6-8 hours a week of playtime that mmo just won't fit my schedule. I wish I had the time of a high school or Jr college student again. :(
Aion was/is a good game for the post part. Graphics, combat and customization, they have done a lot of interesting things with it. Even with it being grindier than other games I still thought it was alright. The problem was that it didn't pull off its features well. The game has a big focus on PvP but the system, like most others of the time, couldn't actually support the player population getting involved in Abyss PvP. You had to lower your graphics down all the way and turn of player graphics so all you'd see are floating name tags just so you could eek out some decent FPS to play in Sieges. On the other hand, there wasn't a lot of PvE towards the top of the game to keep you going since it was a game focusing a lot on the PvP aspect. Things seem like their pretty much the same still, though lower populations have helped in one way but that doesn't make a good game, and some new duengons are nice.
Well, after reading this I might just play Aion again. Even though Aion has left a bad taste in my mouth from their other games that I use to play, I still always think about Aion and get this urge to play it again. I always liked the visuals and the character models and animations are some of the best I have seen in MMOs.
So thank you for doing this review, I just might take a look at the game again when I get home from work today. And I have not played since Beta, lol.
Every time this thread resurfaces on Recent Forum posts, I read the title as "Auto Assault blah blah blah" and, for a brief moment, I get excited. Then I realize it really says Aion and isn't followed by "New PvE Only Servers" and I get unhappy in the pants.
Okay, I have a MAJOR pet peeve with your re-review. You said in your introduction "By and large Aion of today is a much better game than it was at launch"
Note that your final re-review score is 8.0, whereas the initial review of the game was 8.7. WTF? Either your current score is incorrect or the previous score was too generous. I'm going to assume the previous score was way too generous.
I'll tell you what the problem is....go and look at the review scores you give almost all MMOs on this website, they are mostly 7.5-8.5, with a rare MMO coming in lower than 7.5. In essence, 8.0 would be "average" if scored on a curve. I know I've posted on other threads about the poor scoring of MMO ratings, and I think you guys/gals need to re-think how you do ratings. I mean, your first paragraph saying it's better than it was at launch and then giving it a lower score than you did at launch review pretty much summarizes the issues. And please, don't tell me the standards are now different just one year later. I will admit the difficulty in getting a "full" review done in an MMO in a relatively short period of time (and the need to move on to review the next big MMO), as end-game content tends to be very important for MMOs. Still, as a paid professional, that's par for the course in the job.
On the other hand, I do applaud you going back and reviewing a somewhat popular MMO game. I just wish the review scores had a greater variance so I could truly tell what MMO you like and what MMO you don't. Right now with all the scores bunched together, it is hard to tell.
Finally, I did play AION at launch and it was a good game, but the grindfest was unbelievable and like a lot of PvP end-games with just 2 factions (NPCs don't count, regardless of what NCSoft says) the losing side eventually quit and the server population dropped dramatically. I have since sworn off MMO games with 2-faction PvP for end-game content. Waiting on GW2 for 3-way server fights.
It may not make up for the disparity, but I did not write the first review. I understand why you're like, "wait, what the hell?" But to be honest, I do think the previous score was way too generous. The other goal of these re-reviews, and reviews in general, isn't about the score. It's about taking a look at how the game's changed. And Aion, whether or not it's the game for you or anyone else, has changed and improved enough to deserve the "B" grade it received here.
For future reference on how I review things, I tend to rate them based on a mix of their technical accuity combined with the actual fun of the game. Hence while DCUO is a more flawed technical game, it still ranked an 8 with me due to its inherent fun factor. Make sense?
I do understand your confusion, but it's not a matter of us trying to be too centrist. It's just a matter of opinion. I personally hate numerical scores for reviews. I'd much prefer a "buy it, try it, avoid it" type of system, but by and large the public love scores so we do what we can within that system and we can't please everyone. I look at it like school grade scales. 7 is a C, 8 is a B, and 9+ is an A. Anything below that is very close to a fail or worse.
Been at start ... wanted to post something ... but then realized is not worth. Word "Aion" is no longer in my vocabulary and never will be again, even if they change name, company, ... whatever.
Based on this article, decided to give Aion a try. Went to web site and 'free trial' link. Despite having "United States of America" in my NCSoft master account, I got a Europe trial instead of a No. America trial. WTH? (Changing "region" value in Aion launcher does not correct this problem.)
So, I'm trying Aion out, but with the fear that if I upgrade to a full account, I will be stuck on European servers.
My score? Hmm. Not an 8.
Good re-review. Pretty much sums up Aion. Its a Korean game, so its grindy. All Korean games are. Its a fun game, especially played with friends.
Dax
I played Aion at the Start and was forced to leave the game 6 months later as all my friend list became offline and 50+ ppl guild became offline as well. After 1.9, I restarted with couple of friends but left the game after 2.2.
My initial "joy" of the game was the PvP part only. I'm no grinder and I don't like its PvE content. I played many MMO (AOC,WOW,RIFT,TERA,SWG, etc) and by comparison Aion's PvE is a drag and not fun. The quests are mostly still "time-wasters" and there's "no fun" in them at all.
Gearing is also a little bit illogical. With its current curve, in order to be competitive you're forced to gear 30 level PvP items to your 50 level toon and then do mindless PvE dungeon to get PvP gear. That's the part, I hated most actually: doing PvE to get PvP gear. This is still the main problem of the game as the BEST PvE grinders BECOME the BEST PvPers because GEAR = WIN.
lol..a re-review of a game that the reviewer has said "improved a lot"
therefore, drops its rating from an 8.7 to an 8.0. This is classic "MMORPG.com" You guys really need to get your all together..together. Regardless who reviewed the game prior, we view your reviews as a single entity.
Speak for yourself.
I've been gaming long enough to know each reviewer is its own unique snowflake with its own opinions on what it likes and dislikes. There is no such thing as a unbiased review.
The last person could give the game a 10 and this guy could have scored it a 4 and thats fine.