I did the first closed beta and have already pre-ordered the game. It uses the Cry engine so the graphics are beautiful, tons of quests, grinding isn't too boring but I only have a couple of characters at level 10 in the closed beta. If any of you are looking for a new MMO to play I recommend giving it a look. It goes live next month. ***See last post for Open Beta information***
looks interesting, I may give it a shot when it comes out. I'm getting tired if waiting for diablo II 1.13. The only thing I hate, is the pay to play. Yes, I know it cost money to run servers, but I really hate the idea of spending 50-60 dollars on a game, then another 15 a month to play it. I wouldn't mind so much if the game were closer to 20.
That has never made sense to me, especially if you're much of a gamer. If you play an MMO seriously you're basically only playing that, so if you were the kind of guy to buy a game once a month, or even once every 4 months, you actually end up saving money or breaking even. That said, an MMORPG using a high-end engine is financial suicide imo. Alienating a huge potential customer base is not a good way to kick-start your game.
I'm really looking forward to this even though I have ZERO time to devote to an MMO in my life. *sigh*
I've been playing it since CB#1, and looking forward to #6 coming out soon. I recently jumped onto the China servers and have been playing over there until the actual launch here in the US (which is 9/22 I believe). The game looks great, even with lackluster machines.
Reading all the positive reviews, I took a chance and ordered the Aion Collector's Edition pre-order from Steam. Downloading the client now, CB6 started tonight, I can't wait to get in. My machines a beast, so I can't wait to tear this game apart @ 1920x1200. Very exciting.
Meh, it's ok.. I know I'm a low level, so I'll reserve my judgment for later, but so far it's kinda "meh". We'll see.
Keep us posted. I'm really curious, but haven't heard much about this one. So far this has been the only bad thing I've heard.
I got a refund through Steam but for some reason my account is still active and playable. Probably because the beta key they send you is the key once the game goes live, and they get their key distribution through NCSoft.. Maybe I'll have a full version of the game for free once it comes out Playing some more tonight, my character is starting to open up a bit more now.
Depending on the class you play the first 10-15 levels can be almost unbearable. Scouts and Mages both level quickly, Priests and Warriors seem to take ages. Once you hit level 9 make sure you do the new quest it pops up ASAP (quest name is 'Ascension' I believe), it gives you a free level, then you can choose your specialization. I now have a lvl 11 Gladiator, lvl 13 Assassin, lvl 10 Sorcerer and am currently leveling another warrior to be a Templar which is what I"ll most likely be when servers go live. Gladiator kicks some ass though and is my favorite so far. Up to lvl 9 it's slow and if you haven't picked up some good green gear you're probably going to be resting alot if you fight same level or +1 level mobs. But once you choose Gladiator and get your Polearm or 2-handed Sword you'll rape face against equal level mobs. The shear amount of damage an auto-attack can do with a 3 attack Broadsword is amazing (600+ damage on crits, 300+ on normal hits). And that's at lvl 10, where at level 9 you were lucky to get 100 damage crits. *edit* Just a note, once you've chosen your specialization there's no going back. Kind of sucks, but you only have to level a character to 9 to choose so it's just a few hours of waste if you want to try something different.
***Double Post I know, but wanted to add some more info on the game*** All attacks and skills in this game are animation based. What that means is until the animation it's playing is finished you cannot use another ability. Doesn't seem too important but if you're a melee class you have to realize that your auto-attacks do NOT continue while you're using skills. If you use fast weapons this isn't really an issue, but if you use 2 handed weapons you really need to time your skills to start right after an auto-attack happens, so you can get the most damage possible. Professions, from what I've heard, are hard as hell to level because of the shear amount of Kinah (money) and time it takes. Most people never reach Master in their professions because of the time sink. What this means is that if you are patient and work hard you can master a profession and be unique. Some of the professions can make you some good money, others only really benefit yourself (Alchemy for yourself, Handicrafting makes decent money or so I've heard). Like many games you can't really judge Aion until you've at least seen what a specialized class can do. The grind to level 10 isn't long which lets you really get to see what each of the specializations are like.
Did you play WAR Chris? Just tell me it's more open than the WAR world. WAR somehow gave me the feeling that I couldn't go "everywhere". Just 3 territories where war was taking place.
I don't know, I mean it's tough to say at this point because I'm still in the starting zone(s). The WoW starting zones were just as linear. I didn't play WAR unfortunately.
WAR was kinda bad in that sense. I was in the third Area and I hadn't even been presented with the option to go anywhere else. Imagine if you were playing WOW, and basically there wasn't a realistic map. The ONLY way to get to the next zone was to travel through the one prior to it.
If you're asking if the gameplay (leveling) is linear then yes, just like every other mmo you have to go to areas your level to level up. If you're asking if the world is linear then no, it isn't. Once you hit level 10 you can teleport between different continents and areas, so you don't have to spend a couple hours making your way from one end of a map to another, and you can always go back to older content. I don't know if there is "Open World" pvp like you can have on a PvP WoW server, but the majority of PvE content for end game stuff is in the Abyss, which is open PvP.
(For Seven) Yeah, they call this PvPvE... It's open PvP versus the other faction, and they throw in another faction to spice things up. It's like if the burning legion would pop in a WoW Alterac Valley session.
Hopefully they have something in place to prevent the massive griefing that will inevitably take place in a zone like that.
I know, just like the PVP zones in WoW which suck because you can't get anything done without some jackass killing you every 5 minutes until you log or call in a friend.
That's actually kind of the point of the zone. Sure you'll occasionally run into some people from the opposite faction that just want to do some PvE stuff, but you'll always have groups of people ganking the shit out of each other. You don't *HAVE* to go to the Abyss, but you'll be missing out on quite a bit of content.
*UPDATE* Aion open beta starts (OB) a week from Sunday (Sept 6th) and closes on the 13th of Sept, also a Sunday. If you have pre-ordered the game or made it into any beta's from unique keys given out then you should have no issues getting into the OB. Sometime soon we should get some information concerning how everybody else will make it into the OB, I'll relay information as I find it out. Aion 1.5 will be the beta version, which is 3 very large patches (3 gig total) passed the 1.0 client that was the closed beta version. Tons more localization has been done, more voice acting has been finished, more Westernization for character creation, Left mouse button can now rotate the camera (thank god), and tons more including 12 new instances, changes to XP gain while leveling, and the ability to Master 2 professions. Home | Aion™ Fantasy MMORPG has more information about the Open Beta, Preselection, and Head Start programs. AionSource.com - Aion: the Tower of Eternity Fansite has a forum that NCSoft devs post at to help confusion from rumor mills, plus their forum has some very good information about all aspects of the game, from Class guides to Profession guides. AionArmory - Aion Database is exactly like WoWhead for you WoW gamers looking for item/quest info about the game. ***UPDATE 2*** "As added extra spice, FilePlanet will--in addition to distributing the client--be giving away a load of open beta keys starting on Tuesday, September 1, 2009. Get on the starting line if you do not have an eligible Aion account already! Eligible accounts include any previous closed beta participants and those who have preordered or prepurchased Aion." If you have a FilePlanet account (probably a paid account) then you can get an open beta key.
