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Aion MMO Looks To Conquer Europe And USA
By Dave Taylor | August 21, 2009
This September MMO stalwart NCsoft is set to launch its latest MMO in the West, for which read the USA and Europe. Aion has already enjoyed a successful launch in its native Korea and China. It is a high fantasy MMO, and therefore
In short, Aion is never going to be as large as World of Warcraft, but NCsoft isn’t expecting it to be, nor does it need to be in order to be considered a success. It needs to generate a reasonable following prepared to stick with it, thus generating a reasonable playing and social environment that’s essential for an MMO, and essential for the revenue to sustain it. And the good news is that Aion has enough gameplay and new ideas to generate that critical mass.
Aion may be high fantasy, and so it will draw comparisons with World of Warcraft, but its setting draws on mythology from around the world, although most heavily from Korea. This makes it very different in feel from World of Warcraft, and the visuals that go along with it are different too.
Graphics and environment alone though are not enough to set a game apart, and Aion knows this. The principle addition in gameplay terms is that of flight. When you reach level 10, after a brief in-game ceremony, you are given a set of wings and the action starts to occur on more than just the ground. Quests may require you to fly around and even combat can start to use the third dimension. There’s something entertaining about hovering our of reach while you blast a target. Flight is limited of course, otherwise you would become invincible. So you can only fly for a period before landing in the main game area, although PvP has this limitation removed. Flight does add to the fun of Aion, but it’s not the only new idea.
Aion may at first glance look like it doesn’t offer many classes, with only Mage, Fighter, Priest and Scout to choose from, but don’t be fooled. At level 10, so when you’ve had time to experience enough of the game to develop a playing style, you get to choose a path, or sub-class, so you can specialise. The Priest, for example, can choose between being a healer and a buffer.
Customising your character class doesn’t stop there. At level 20 another gameplay extra comes in, Stigma Stones. These give you the ability to slightly change your characters abilities. So, a Cloth Armour wearing class may decide that it likes to get stuck into the melee, and so the ability to wear metal armour would be very useful. Your class may prevent it, but you can overcome this with a Stigma Stone. This is quite change from other MMOs, as your character in Aion can have different abilities from other characters who are the same class.
Aion has little touches as well as big new ideas, so you do feel this is a well-rounded MMO: there’s the Locate feature that helps you find quest targets, the semi-transparent map that allows easier navigation and the Private Store that allows you to set up and sell to other players anywhere in-game.
If there were to be a complaint about Aion, it’s that despite the extensive localisation, some people may still find the graphics non-conventional. The Talking Weasels might put some people off. It’s also a shame that NCsoft weren’t prepared to open the UI up to third party customisation and plug-ins, which is one of the big USPs for World of Warcraft. But these are minor points in what is looking like a well crafted and polished MMO.
Aion is due to be released in September 2009 and is a PC only MMO. It will be a monthly-subscription based MMO.
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