Story
In the beginning there was a god named Aion who ruled over a world called Atreia. Aion created the Draken, a powerful race sent to protect the humans of Atreia. After some time passed the Draken disobeyed Aion's wishes and rebelled against their creator. The god Aion then created the 12 Empyrean Lords. The Empyrean Lords in turn created a barrier which prevented the Draken (now calling themselves Balaur) from attacking the humans charged under their protection. Within this barrier all things were safe. The Balaur ravaged and destroyed many of the living things residing outside of the barrier.
Some humans, living within the safety of the barrier, learned how to harness some of the same energy as the Empyrean Lords, known as aether. Such humans were called Daeva and, like the Empyrean Lords, had wings. With time, enough Daevas were born to form an army. Ten of the Empyrean Lords led these Daevas into battle against the Balaur, while the remaining two were the guardians of the Tower of Eternity, the embodiment of the god Aion. The war with the Balaur lasted for hundreds of years until one of the guardians of the tower announced that they should find a way to make peace with the Balaur. Five of the Empyrean Lords vehemently disagreed. However, the second guardian of the tower was swayed to peace. The Balaur were invited into the tower for peace talks. It is unclear what happened at that point. One of the Balaur lords lay wounded on the floor and the rest proceeded to attack the tower. The two Guardians attempted to raise the shield by going to opposite ends of the tower. However, they were unsuccessful and the tower, along with the world, shattered in two. As their final act, the two guardians sacrificed their lives in order to protect a part of Atreia. With Atreia severed, the survivors banded together to face their new world. Of the original twelve, ten of the Empyrean Lords survived. Five who had opposed peace and claimed that the weakness of the rest of the lords had allowed the Balaur to attack them reigned over the dark part of the world, becoming known as the Shedim Lords. The other five reigned over the light-covered bottom part of Atreia and claim that it was the Shedim Lord's actions that caused the breaking of the tower. They are known as the Seraphim Lords.
The new shape of the world also reshaped its inhabitants. Those that lived in the light part of the world saw little change except for an increase in their beauty. These followers of the Seraphim Lords called themselves Elyos and created the city of Sanctum. The inhabitants of the upper part of the world saw many changes. Having to walk on ground strewn with fragments of the tower, their feet became talons. Having to fight against beasts, their hands became claw-like. Furthermore, the darkness made their complexion change and their eyes grew red adapting to the absence of light. They call themselves Asmodians and live in the city of Pandemonium under the rule of the Shedim Lords.
Classes
When you create your character you are given the option of four primary classes. At level ten, however, you are given the option to choose a subclass. Each of the four primary classes has two subclasses. Also each of the two playable factions will have slightly different skills for each of the classes.
1. Warrior – Close combat
* Gladiator – Specialize in DPS
* Templar – Specialize in Tanking
2. Scout – Swift and agile
* Ranger – Ranged DPS and Traps
* Assassin – Stealth DPS
3. Mage – Poor physical combat, Powerful magic attacks
* Sorcerer – Long range damage spells
* Spiritmaster – Pet Summoner with ranged DPS
4. Priest – Healing and self-protection
* Chanter – Primary buffs, some healing and damage spells.
* Cleric – Primary healing, able to raise dead.
Professions
There are six crafting professions and two gathering professions. Players automatically learn the two gathering professions. They must pay trainers to learn the crafting professions. You are able to learn all of the crafting professions up to 399, but only are allowed to train one up to the max of 450.
Professions Include:
* Weaponsmithing
* Armorsmithing
* Sewing
* Handiwork
* Alchemy
* Cooking
Aion has a unique way of crafting, instead of creating a bunch of useless items that no one wants to increase your skill you can take on “work orders” in which some of the materials are supplied to you and you learn a temporary item to craft. After completing the work order, you turn in the quest for a reward, which is usually a scroll to learn how to create new items or rewarded with a small amount of common materials.
Combat
The combat system is similar to most MMO’s in that you have a bar of skills and you press the button to initiate that skill. Some skills require certain conditions such as having a certain weapon in hand or can only be used as a counter-attack.
The most unique thing about combat in Aion is that you have the ability to fly! You can fly and perform aerial attacks against opponents. You however must be careful as you have a limited amount of flight time and you do take falling damage from falling from significant heights.
PvP System
End game for Aion is known as PvPvE content. End game mostly focuses around battles in the Abyss. Players fight for control of castles. Once a legion is in control of a castle, they are entitled to funding from taxes and players within the faction and get special deals from NPC’s. The game currently does not allow legions to fight against their own race.
About the Company
NCSoft is a popular South Korean based online computer game company. They have released many MMO’s including Lineage, Guild Wars, and Lineage II.
About Aion
Price: $49.99 (Collector Edition $59.99)
Hype Level: 8.37 – mmorpg.com
Monthly Cost: Unknown (but estimated to be $14.99 per month with discounted for paying multiple months)
Official NA Site: http://www.aiononline.com/en/
Release Date: September 22, 2009
Graphics Engine: Heavily Modified CryEngine (Developed by Crytek, now owned by Ubisoft)
Aion was originally released in South Korea on November 28, 2008. At the end of 2008, Aion was awarded “Best Korean Game of the Year” for “epic scale, immersive story, and stunning graphics and sound design.” Aion later was released in China on April 16, 2009 and now will be released in North America on September 22, 2009; followed by European release on September 25, 2009.
System Requirements
Requirements retrieved from http://www.aionglobal.com/system-requirements.html
References
Most of my information used for this write up comes from Wikipedia.
Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aion_(computer_game)#Cost_to_Play
The rest comes from my experiences from the beta play.
My Thoughts
I think that this game is going to be a hit. There are already five servers in the beta and they are constantly being filled up. The collector edition boxes are sold out but they are still selling digital downloads.
Although the graphics are extremely beautiful the system requirements are very low. In Age of Conan I get about 60-70 fps and in Aion I get about 150-175 on the high settings. I would almost compare the requirements to that of Guild Wars.
I have not been able to participate in PvP as I need more TAW players to run with to feel comfortable about entering. It sounds like it will be a lot like Age of Conan but the rewards will be a lot higher and holding on to a castle will be challenging.
I know that every game says this when it comes out, but I think it may actually challenge World of Warcraft. They have already taken a lot of the features from World of Warcraft including the way the broker(auctioneer) works and being able to set up private stores. Their main selling point is having much more adult looking graphics and still being able to have a wide audience as their system requirements are still extremely low. Their maps are similar to World of Warcraft as you have to only load new maps when you switch continents.
I look forward to seeing TAW hopefully pick up this game, and seeing it prosper as one of the most active divisions.
Captain Aon