Aion ftw?

[Slayde]

I think Aion is a decent mmo, but not one that makes it stand out as one I'd personally play long term. Here are a few things I liked and didn't like about it based on playing the beta.

Pros:

• Fairly polished
• Nice graphics and textures
• character models are nice and detailed
• Character Creation is very flexible
• Cool lore for the game world and races
• Solid graphics engine (good performance on highest settings)
• good pvp mechanic with the abyss and artifacts to control for those who prefer pvp
• most appealing asian mmo to be released in the western world yet
• nice game for those looking for something new to last them a few weeks
• decent quest system
• nice clean UI (minus the limited camera control options)

Cons:

• only 2 races to choose from with only 1 starting zone each
• questing and level progression seems very linear and limited
• very small quest zones (looks bigger than what they are)
• boring gathering system (hate having to wait to see if I randomly succeed or fail)
• very tedious crafting system (huge money sink just to randomly have a chance to gain a skill pt)
• annoying voices and sound effects while fighting. (most of the special attack sounds are lame)
• flying is a gimic outside of the abyss (worthless for travel and very limited use)
• limited character progression (almost no choice to customize your class as you level outside of stigmas)
• very little replay value (can't imagine leveling more than 1 char per faction after beta testing several)
• doubtful pve will be a strong suit in this game since pvp is the main focus

All in all, it is a decent game, and is the first asian mmo I've actually been interested in. I think they are still missing the mark in a lot of areas when it comes to keeping western gamers subscribed long term. Hopefully, they will listen to the fan base and improve the game overtime based on feedback and requests.

Hope you guys enjoy the game and get some good playing time and fun out of it.