Aion
So, these are my thoughts and highlights of Aion thus far. I wanted to do a more professional styled review for fun, but I gave up on that after a week. I was afraid it would be too boring to read, and hopefully this isn't boring either. :S
Aion gives you the choice of two races (Elyos and Asmodians) and only one race per server. At first this might seem disappointing, but it doesn't really matter since it's basically the same on either side. (Maybe it's to prevent people who liken themselves to spies or something, idk.) There is a third race, but they are an AI race who attack both the Elyos and Asmodians. (My brother said it was to balance the power a bit.) You can only create 8 characters across all servers. This was a bit of a disappointment, but given how much fun it is to create characters it's really probably for the best.
Customization
Aion's customization of characters is way more fun than it should be because one can spend at least an hour easily messing around with it. They give you basic options for those less inclined to spend hours, as well as advanced options (pictured below). Under the basic options you can pick a face template to start with, tattoo decorations, scars, freckles, hair style (which there are many of), and colouring for skin, lips, eyes, and hair. Your skin colour pallet will depend on which race you choose to play (Elyos' skin is more human with the exception of deep and dark red, while the Asmodians have cooler colours such as purple, blue, green, and a yellowish green).
The body customization allows you to change the height of your character (from giantly tall to really tiny) and body type. Basically you can make your character overweight or really thin, you can change the length of their limbs which can lead to some interesting body shapes, and you can also play around with the proportion like one player pictured below did:
You also have the choice between 4 types of voices for each gender. I highly recommend not using the female youthful voice. It can get really annoying fast when you're fighting and I am very much regretting giving it to two of my current characters. >_<
These are all characters I have made, but they no longer exist. I'm basically sharing them to give some idea of what one can do, even though they're not grossly exaggerated. I made them with the intention of keeping them.
I don't know how high leveled you have to be, but you will be able to change the colour of your armor. This is wonderful because you will not have to worry about your character being stuck in a "clown suite". I'm hoping you can change your armor to any colour on a colour pallet because that would be awesome.
Classes:
You will get to choose from 4 classes, all of which branch off into two choices:
Environment (starting area)
One of the fun things about Aion is that your character seems more aware of their environment, for example whether or not they are standing on land or in the water. When they are stationary in the water long enough they will start to play with it a little. In the Elyos starting area you will experience the weather changing. If you have the background music turned off you will start to hear the rumbling of thunder and when you look up you'll notice that dark clouds are gathering overhead just before it rains.
When your character is stationary they react to the rain and pull a giant lily pad out of their butt. (I'm not sure if something similar happens with the Asmodians since it doesn't rain in their starting area.)
I love how the guys hold theirs, as if they're trying to be all cool and tough.
And sometimes it's also a good to take a bath. ;P
Actually Revol here is sitting because your character is able to gain back health and mana faster when they're sitting instead of standing. This is great for saving up on your health and mana elixirs for when you really need them.
Fighting/Playing the Game
Leveling so far hasn't been difficult (from 1-10) and your skills are gained by purchasing skill books from your profession trainer. What is awesome about this is that you can purchase these at any time (provided that you have enough slots to keep them in and the money), so, if you are about to level up, but have to go travel a ways to do some quests you can buy the ones you need, do your quests and level up, and then you can learn the skills for that level without running or spending money to travel all the way back to the trainer.
When your character dies there is no running back to your dead body. Either you get resurrected within 30 mins by someone or you have to start from the last obelisk you last binded to (any major posts/villages/towns have them). You also lose a very small amount of XP every time you die. I haven't really noticed it, so, I really don't think it's enough to worry about. There is grinding from level 1-10. Grinding is something I'm used to in WoW and I didn't find it much different in Aion.
After any kill the player who has done the biggest damage is the one who will get the XP. Apparently this can be helpful for power leveling with someone who has a higher leveled character helping you out, but this also seems to make some people XP greedy. I tried helping out someone who I thought needed help (as I do in WoW from time to time) and they told me to go away and come back when they're done in the area. -_- Of course I stayed and continued on with my quest instead of leaving the area and just ignored them. But ever since the only time I've helped someone is when I'm on my priest/cleric or after I've checked to see how close to death they are. This kind of etiquette can suck because if you're in a pinch people aren't likely to help you out. :/ (Or at least it's been my experience thus far. I have had some nice people help me though.)
With your attacks you get to perform chain attacks as well (when you get a little higher than level 1 that is). I'm not sure how much this matters compared to if it was a separate action, but my brother seems to think it's awesome. I think though that one of my chain actions for my warriors allows them to perform two things at one time, but I'm not entirely sure about that. If it is true then there is something really awesome about chain attacks.
At level 10 you get your wings that will be used to help aid you in traveling, although in the beginning you can't fly very far with them. Having the wings defeats the purpose of needing a mount to travel on. You also leave the starting area and travel to the major city. I haven't ventured too much past that yet. So far I've been running around turning in chain quests which require no fighting as of yet.
I found this thing while running around the city, and yes, you can play it by jumping on the keys. I have no idea why it's there, but it was a little something fun. It's hard to compose a song on though.
Mana Stones:
As far as I understand it mana stones work like enchanting does in WoW except anyone can apply them to their armor (granted their armor has an available mana stone pocket, and I think all armor has at least one). Mana stones can increase things such as HP, MP, critical hit chance, and evasiveness.
Warehouses:
Warehouses are kinda like your WoW banks, EXCEPT they give you an account warehouse which allows you to share items with your other characters instead of sending them through the mail like in WoW.
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So, all in all so far I am enjoying it, but I don't think I have really experienced the game yet. It's not worth having both this and WoW, except on maintenance days since Aion's is on Wednesdays, but that really doesn't make forking over the cash worth it unless you have money to burn. :P
Right now these are my current characters:
1. Elona (Cleric) 2. Noelene (Templar) 3. Jujube (Warrior going on Gladiator)
4. Mythos (Priest going on Chanter) 5. Revol (Scout going on something or other)
I'm not sure if I'll be keeping Revol, but I want to hold onto her name at least. Putting them all side by side made me realize how much most of them look alike. >_>
While I was looking at the male face templates for the Elyos I came across this one:
My first thought was "Oh, hello there, Arthas. What are you doing here?" I'm not sure how much he really looks like him (because maybe it's just me?), but he does remind me of him. Made me laugh. :D
Summery
Pros:
Cons:
Aion gives you the choice of two races (Elyos and Asmodians) and only one race per server. At first this might seem disappointing, but it doesn't really matter since it's basically the same on either side. (Maybe it's to prevent people who liken themselves to spies or something, idk.) There is a third race, but they are an AI race who attack both the Elyos and Asmodians. (My brother said it was to balance the power a bit.) You can only create 8 characters across all servers. This was a bit of a disappointment, but given how much fun it is to create characters it's really probably for the best.
Customization
Aion's customization of characters is way more fun than it should be because one can spend at least an hour easily messing around with it. They give you basic options for those less inclined to spend hours, as well as advanced options (pictured below). Under the basic options you can pick a face template to start with, tattoo decorations, scars, freckles, hair style (which there are many of), and colouring for skin, lips, eyes, and hair. Your skin colour pallet will depend on which race you choose to play (Elyos' skin is more human with the exception of deep and dark red, while the Asmodians have cooler colours such as purple, blue, green, and a yellowish green).
The body customization allows you to change the height of your character (from giantly tall to really tiny) and body type. Basically you can make your character overweight or really thin, you can change the length of their limbs which can lead to some interesting body shapes, and you can also play around with the proportion like one player pictured below did:
You also have the choice between 4 types of voices for each gender. I highly recommend not using the female youthful voice. It can get really annoying fast when you're fighting and I am very much regretting giving it to two of my current characters. >_<
These are all characters I have made, but they no longer exist. I'm basically sharing them to give some idea of what one can do, even though they're not grossly exaggerated. I made them with the intention of keeping them.
I don't know how high leveled you have to be, but you will be able to change the colour of your armor. This is wonderful because you will not have to worry about your character being stuck in a "clown suite". I'm hoping you can change your armor to any colour on a colour pallet because that would be awesome.
Classes:
You will get to choose from 4 classes, all of which branch off into two choices:
- Priests: Chanters and Clerics
- Warriors: Templars and Gladiators
- Scouts: Assassins and Rangers
- Mages: Spiritmasters and Sorcerers
Environment (starting area)
One of the fun things about Aion is that your character seems more aware of their environment, for example whether or not they are standing on land or in the water. When they are stationary in the water long enough they will start to play with it a little. In the Elyos starting area you will experience the weather changing. If you have the background music turned off you will start to hear the rumbling of thunder and when you look up you'll notice that dark clouds are gathering overhead just before it rains.
When your character is stationary they react to the rain and pull a giant lily pad out of their butt. (I'm not sure if something similar happens with the Asmodians since it doesn't rain in their starting area.)
I love how the guys hold theirs, as if they're trying to be all cool and tough.
And sometimes it's also a good to take a bath. ;P
Actually Revol here is sitting because your character is able to gain back health and mana faster when they're sitting instead of standing. This is great for saving up on your health and mana elixirs for when you really need them.
Fighting/Playing the Game
Leveling so far hasn't been difficult (from 1-10) and your skills are gained by purchasing skill books from your profession trainer. What is awesome about this is that you can purchase these at any time (provided that you have enough slots to keep them in and the money), so, if you are about to level up, but have to go travel a ways to do some quests you can buy the ones you need, do your quests and level up, and then you can learn the skills for that level without running or spending money to travel all the way back to the trainer.
When your character dies there is no running back to your dead body. Either you get resurrected within 30 mins by someone or you have to start from the last obelisk you last binded to (any major posts/villages/towns have them). You also lose a very small amount of XP every time you die. I haven't really noticed it, so, I really don't think it's enough to worry about. There is grinding from level 1-10. Grinding is something I'm used to in WoW and I didn't find it much different in Aion.
After any kill the player who has done the biggest damage is the one who will get the XP. Apparently this can be helpful for power leveling with someone who has a higher leveled character helping you out, but this also seems to make some people XP greedy. I tried helping out someone who I thought needed help (as I do in WoW from time to time) and they told me to go away and come back when they're done in the area. -_- Of course I stayed and continued on with my quest instead of leaving the area and just ignored them. But ever since the only time I've helped someone is when I'm on my priest/cleric or after I've checked to see how close to death they are. This kind of etiquette can suck because if you're in a pinch people aren't likely to help you out. :/ (Or at least it's been my experience thus far. I have had some nice people help me though.)
With your attacks you get to perform chain attacks as well (when you get a little higher than level 1 that is). I'm not sure how much this matters compared to if it was a separate action, but my brother seems to think it's awesome. I think though that one of my chain actions for my warriors allows them to perform two things at one time, but I'm not entirely sure about that. If it is true then there is something really awesome about chain attacks.
At level 10 you get your wings that will be used to help aid you in traveling, although in the beginning you can't fly very far with them. Having the wings defeats the purpose of needing a mount to travel on. You also leave the starting area and travel to the major city. I haven't ventured too much past that yet. So far I've been running around turning in chain quests which require no fighting as of yet.
I found this thing while running around the city, and yes, you can play it by jumping on the keys. I have no idea why it's there, but it was a little something fun. It's hard to compose a song on though.
Mana Stones:
As far as I understand it mana stones work like enchanting does in WoW except anyone can apply them to their armor (granted their armor has an available mana stone pocket, and I think all armor has at least one). Mana stones can increase things such as HP, MP, critical hit chance, and evasiveness.
Warehouses:
Warehouses are kinda like your WoW banks, EXCEPT they give you an account warehouse which allows you to share items with your other characters instead of sending them through the mail like in WoW.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So, all in all so far I am enjoying it, but I don't think I have really experienced the game yet. It's not worth having both this and WoW, except on maintenance days since Aion's is on Wednesdays, but that really doesn't make forking over the cash worth it unless you have money to burn. :P
Right now these are my current characters:
1. Elona (Cleric) 2. Noelene (Templar) 3. Jujube (Warrior going on Gladiator)
4. Mythos (Priest going on Chanter) 5. Revol (Scout going on something or other)
I'm not sure if I'll be keeping Revol, but I want to hold onto her name at least. Putting them all side by side made me realize how much most of them look alike. >_>
While I was looking at the male face templates for the Elyos I came across this one:
My first thought was "Oh, hello there, Arthas. What are you doing here?" I'm not sure how much he really looks like him (because maybe it's just me?), but he does remind me of him. Made me laugh. :D
Summery
Pros:
- Pretty graphics.
- Physical and armor customization options.
- Mana stones that act as enchanting that anyone can add.
- Account warehouses for transferring objects between characters.
- Characters appear to have some slight awareness of their environment.
- Wings for flying starting at level 10.
- Four basic classes that split off into two more classes each at around the end of level 9.
- A couple dollars cheaper then WoW a month (although this only makes a big difference over time).
- XP system allows for faster and better power leveling than WoW.
Cons:
- Can only create 8 characters across all servers. (vs. 8 per server in WoW)
- Story doesn't have quite as much depth as WoW's (but WoW has been going for a long time).
- There is grinding, especially in the beginning from levels 1-10, but honestly WoW isn't much different. You do eventually get to go into instances.
- XP system seems to make some people XP greedy (but I haven't had anyone try and steal XP from me).
- You can only choose one race per server.