Soaring through the sky with the wings of an angel. Adorned in immaculately detailed clothing from another time - another world. Surrounding you are trees of every color, sounds of every kind and creatures out of imagination. This is no dream and you are not in heaven. This is AION.
The Story:
The storyline of Aion begins with a tale of the not two but three factions. Yes, there is a third, but it’s not quite that simple. In the beginning there were the people of Atreia. The world was happy and at peace for many years. Eventually the protectors of those people, the Balaur, decided to stop defending Atreia and take it as their own. A group of ascended humans, the Daevas, rose to defend against the Balaur and in the process shattered the tower holding the world together, thus splitting Atreia in two.
Half of the inhabitants were bathed in the glorious light of the sun thus, becoming the angelic-looking Elyos. The other half of the people were cast in shadows. Being in the dark makes you not so happy and so they became angry and bitter. They named themselves Asmodians. Sort of like living on the gloomy east coast as opposed to the sunny west coast. Am I right!!?! 
These are the two playable factions, with the Balaur mixed in as a common enemy – along with all the miscellaneous creatures you’ll kill along the way.
Yea … pretty cool huh? You’re immortal and you get wings. Pretty sweet! Ok, let’s delve into what you will like.
What you will like:
Flying; Very few MMO’s allow you the ability to fly without having to buy a ridiculously expensive in game pet. NCSoft has broken this trend previously with City of Heroes and now with Aion. Having the freedom to jump off a cliff and hit a button to soar yards away is one of the best parts of this game. Once you are higher level, and in certain areas, you can also take off from the ground.
Graphics; Lush sceneries, intense colors, epic detail is what you will discover in the land of Atreia. While playing through this world I have discovered VERY few graphical bugs. From the detail in handrails at the main cities to the tree trunks out in questing areas, Aion’s graphics keep you wanting to discover that next new area for the sheer sake of becoming even more in awe of its graphical magnificence.
Sound; While the themes in Aion are no Halo Suite or as contagious as something like the Super Mario Bros. theme, they are haunting and appropriate for the story. Many of the themes throughout the game are much different than your average MMO and I found that they helped to drive the gameplay along.
Titles; One of the fun additions for this MMO is the use of character titles. For certain challenges and quests, your character is given the opportunity to add a title to the front of your name. These titles are not just for show but also come along with some nice bonus’s. For example, if you complete all the campaign quests in the town of Poeta you receive the “Poeta’s Protector” label with Maximum HP +20, Physical Defense +5.
Customization; For me the BEST part of the game is the character customization. The sheer beauty of your character choices had me creating and recreating my character for hours. Below, you will find a short video of some of the character customization options.
Pretty, aren’t they? Ok, now on to the things you may not like. Remember, this review is obviously subjective so, please take that into consideration when checking out the game. Everyone has a unique experience in MMO’s.
What you may not like:
Computer Capability; A lot of complaints that I hear about Aion sound like this “Oh yea! I saw that but my computer can’t handle playing it”. The Crytek engine was used to render this fantasy world so you are getting Farcry graphic quality. This takes a great deal of juice to render the graphics and lock in the games full potential.
The Grind; As this is an early review, I am currently playing at a level 20 character level. I have already gotten to a point in the game where I feel that the grind is starting to set in a bit. Some of the quest giver AI have return quests that go up to 100 times. This is 100 times you are killing snails or lions before you can give in all of the quest. For collector personality gamers (such as myself) this can not only become tedious but also frustrating.
Unbalanced Characters; In trying out the game, I created a Mage first and then a Scout. Upon trying out my scout I IMMEDIATELY noticed that the amount of power my mage had was FAR superior to that of the scout. My fellow GEN mates (Lillith and Perzephone) who were playing with me, also had noticed this and all ended up creating a mage at some point. For those who don’t like the mage class, this can be a difficult discovery. While I have not ventured into the PvP arena yet, I can only imagine what lies in store for the opponents of my deadly mage.
Quest Difficulty; Some of the quests that I have not just come upon are ungodly difficult to complete, even though they are of my level or lower. We are currently on a level 19 quest (again, I’m level 20) and there were 4 of us that could not even get through the horde of monsters to get to the quest area. To me, this seems unbalanced. It also hurts to have to lose those experience points!
Experience Points; Since I’m at it, this is one other item that is frustrating. I understand the reasoning behind wanting to make it a bit more challenging but, MAN does it hurt to see that bar go down. Every time your character dies, you lose a certain number of experience points. You can get these points back at anytime by visiting a Spirit Healer in any city - however - this will cost a pretty penny to get done.
Aktrez, Lilith and Perzephone
Recommendation:
If you are a lover of MMO style gameplay, have a fast enough system to run the intense graphics and have a thirst for a new adventure in a GORGEOUS world then Aion is for you. The plethora of questing abilities, exploration possibilities and story line all make this a game worthy of immersing yourself in.
Come join me on the Vaizel server. You can find me under Lauranathalas. Feel free to leave your character names and servers in the comments.
Let’s all work together to save Atreia!
