Ahh I know, I haven't posted in a long time :( But I'm taking the opportunity now since I got to try out a bit of Aion this weekend :)

Ever since I made my blog and set it up, my header image and Avatar have been some of the concept art for Aion: Tower of Eternity. It's one of those games that many have been looking forward to since FOREVER cause it looks so AWESOME and OMG they have FLYING!! NCSoft makes pretty games and this is no exception.

I got the opportunity to play through a friend with a beta account who is on trip this weekend, I hope hes having a safe trip and all, and credit to him letting my bf and i try it out <3

So first things first: My character is only level 10 at the time I am writing this. My review is based only on the beginning of the game and does not reflect on any endgame that could be amazingly awesomesauce. Also I have currently only completed the Asmodian zone, haven't seen it from Elyos perspective yet.

Overview & Experience

As soon as you login, there are several servers to choose from, and the character customization is very easy to play with and understand. There are a multitude of options - you can change your characters height, width, eye size & shapes, and pick from a variety of colors. There's really a lot more to it, a full guide can be found at their powerwiki here! There are many attractive options and styles for both races and genders, so it shouldn't be too hard to find something everyone can enjoy looking at. :)

Something else I really enjoyed about the creation process is you can preview your character without armor, with beginner armor, and also with advanced armor. Sometimes you might make a game character that might not suit the "look" you were trying to achieve when you start getting new gear, so i found it really refreshing to be able to see my character in different armor looks. However any type of "zoom in" effect is only on the face and you cant zoom in anywhere else on the body.

When you first enter the game, you watch a video that briefs you on your goal, race, and introduces you to the world for the first time. Apparently your character had fainted, and you wake up with your superior a bit worried. No matter, he's ready to start you off on your first few quests anyway! Kill off some annoying pests and the like.

The quests send you quickly to the next spot where you complete a few more quests, and then you are sent off to the first town - which houses your class trainers and various merchants. The impression my boyfriend got was that they had you travel a lot very early - Need to walk a lot within a short amount of time. It's really not a very far distance, but you don't really get acquainted with the first two spots you discover before you need to progress, leaving most of those Spriggs in the dust. But the area beyond the first village is really very beautiful! So I guess it works itself out.



Now you can really get into the game with a lot of quests to deal with inside and outside town. You can also buy your class Skill Manuals and carry them with you - because who wants to get back to town just to train anyway? Also you will start to notice several questlines that are separated from other quests in your quest window. There are "Campaign" quests and "Standard" quests. Campaign progresses your own character's 'story', Standard are just the basic quests that make you somebody's bitch.

When it comes to figuring out quests, it's really not too hard. However there were some dropped quests that were a bit vague - but it forced me to find out an interesting feature. Blue text in the quest and dialogue windows are clickable - brings up an extra window that has a "Locate" button that will mark off your map with the place, person, or mob you need to find. I honestly wish I knew about it sooner, I had a hell of a time trying to find the Daru Spring!

Eventually you move on to another questing area after a major "vision" of character's future is revealed. This is one of several cut scenes that you see in your travels, and honestly one of the only useful ones. (I'll get more into that later.) Eventually you meet an NPC, Munin who is actually a Daeva which was exiled. So he cant really help you from his prison... but he does give a lot of useful advice about dealing with other Daeva, oh - and he's kinda hungry too can you get him something to eat? Kinda stops him from ranting about the bitterness of his life.

When you hit level 9 you gain the quest "Ascension" which begins the final adventure to become a Daeva. You must grab "Cards of Fate" from those who are loyal to Munin, and bring them back to him. He does some abracadabra with the cards, and the earlier vision you experienced makes a sequel. After the scene, you may choose the next path of your class (Every beginning class branches off into 2 separate classes) and start your new life as an awakened Daeva. You may now enter the city of Pandaemonium and have your Ceremony where you are now recognized as a warrior for the Asmodians.

The next quest hub is a Fortress where you can fly freely for the first time. (There are many areas where you cant Fly when you first get your wings) You get a quest that you can complete while flying, and you really start to learn how to manage flight time and getting into the gist of the game.

Various Thoughts

From the start of the game, it's nailed into your head that being a Daeva and a guardian of the Asmodians is the highest honor. You WANT to fight the Elyos, you WANT to be awesome enough to fight in the Abyss, you WANT to be a guardian of your people. When you sprout your wings during your ceremony, it's like the skies have opened for you. They cheer, they love you! Despite you still being a noob anyway. And yet all the NPCs sense you will face a lot of hardship, your road will not be easy. I guess life would be easier if you would stick to being a Raider! What the hell were you thinking?! This all was okay, but it seemed a bit redundant. Hell, only Munin seems to know that living with the other Daeva is tiresome and not really worth the effort. The way he talked, it seemed to hint that you might eventually become loyal to either an Archon or some other Nobility? I have no idea, just speculating on my side.

There are various 5 second cut scenes that might show you a mob or a little bit of an area you need to travel to for a specific quest. I actually found these pretty annoying and useless. They don't really show you much more than a mob or item for a few seconds before you can even absorb exactly where it is, and it's usually accompanied with only one line of text. It's kinda nice-looking, flashy, but really unnecessary.

After fighting for short awhile, I started getting these drops called Manastones. They seemed to give bonus stats somehow. I was confused, especially since they drop so often, just how the hell do they work? Can I resocket something? What do I do with all the useless ones I find? I really hate when there's game functionality and it's not explained with a simple quest or dialogue. I mean - no, it's not hard to figure out at all, but it still peeves me. :/ The only Manastone NPC in the first village only talks about removing the stones, and not much else. (For those curious, they work like a gem you can socket into your gear, which most pieces have a slot for them.)

I liked their idea of a bag system though. You have a "Cube" which is "bigger on the inside than it is outside"! It's a bit more logical than carrying 15 backpacks on your character, and you can easily Upgrade your cube through an NPC. I didn't have a lot of bag troubles for awhile, not til I was about level 7. I only upgraded my Cube once, and not too many grey items drop.

The currency in the game is called Kinah, and its pretty easy to come by. So easy that buying and upgrading things can easily cost almost 500-1,000 each even by level 5! The first flight path available costs 192 each way. It's easy to come by, and easy to spend. Everything costs kinah, including healing your "Soul Sickness" that happens after death and resurrect at the obelisk. Saving to a new Obelisk costs kinah as well. It's pretty overwhelming at first, but when I saw I had over 10k by the time I was a Daeva, it didn't seem so bad. I bought all the vendor gear when I was able to, but it's probably okay to just work off quest upgrades.

The combat system is pretty basic, easy to learn. Combat UI is easy on the eyes, the spell casting bar is probably my favorite - I really love the rune-looking texture. One nice thing they have is Chain Skills - When you use one skill, another skill becomes available immediately after. At first I hotkeyed the extra skill but there is no need - the original skill's button become the new one and lights up to show its available! I thought this was nice, makes it easier to free up keys for other things.
However, just like with manastones there is no explanation of your chain skills anywhere. As someone who honestly hasn't read up that much about the game prior to playing it, I randomly found the "Chains" screen in my skill window that shows you a skill tree dictating what can chain to what. I know people might not like tutorial quests, but I like learning about what a game has different than other games.

The game is absolutely breathtaking! I love the style, textures, and various colors. It's all very realistic and simply gorgeous. The zones are easy on the eyes so far, and the world is alive! Taking a Flight is really an experience, as you take on this transparent bird form to travel. Also, the UI is very fitting for the game and easy to understand. (Although I have read about it's shortcomings when it comes to parties/raids and healing, though I can't speak from experience.)



Music - I love the music a lot. In fact, when you move into various areas the music actually changes and suits that particular area. Even the combat music changes and evolves depending where you are. They suit the scenery very well! *However* the combat music is tied in with your character in its battle/combat stance. This annoyed me all the time, as in order to listen back to the zone music, you need to sheath your weapon/turn off combat stance. I'm not sure why this does not happen automatically - I guess it makes sense if you're simply grinding. However when I was done with an area and started moving to the next I was very confused at first why my combat music kept going.

Conclusion

I like Aion, but I don't love Aion. It's prettylicious and I enjoyed playing, but I'm not sure how endgame is yet, or if I would get bored long-term. I haven't met any elite mobs or bosses or can describe how it is in the Abyss (which is at level 25). So far, the only named mob I had come across I had to fight for his spawn over other groups and players, and when I did get him, I got mobbed by 2 patrols and couldn't survive. :(

Also, I know I've said this a few times already: But I wish there were more tutorial/game information type quests/dialogue! I haven't encountered any and although it's not hard to figure out, I feel sorry for those that may not understand how things work and will eventually spam the chat window for help figuring things out. I know there is an extensive PowerWiki online, but I don't feel it should be necessary to alt tab out of the game to look up stuff. Also wish I could learn more about my stats in my character window when I mouse over them; I wasn't aware that Accuracy didn't do anything for my magic spell hit (Knowledge does that!). But the map system, especially the transparent map is really nice.

Otherwise, I really do need more time and levels with the game to figure out how much I will enjoy it. There was some things I loved, and others I hated. I know this kind of review might be premature, as I might hit level Awesome and be amazed at the Skills and the Challenges. I do think it has a lot of potential, and I can't wait to see what kind of content it will have in the future.

I just wasn't very impressed with it at first glance though.