The popular MMO Aion has been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons since day one. It all started with some lengthy queues for players who pre-ordered the game, before moving into the humorless phase that most MMO gamers are more than familiar with.

Now, NCSoft have gone one step further by banning 16,000 accounts across American and European servers. Read on to find out what Community Manager Andrew Beegle had to say on the issue.

Posting on the Aion forums, Beegle created this friendly thread:

“Good morning Daevas!

As you probably noticed, we’ve completed a server wide reboot without much notice on a day that we typically don’t perform maintenance. It’s only fair that we keep you in the loop and make sure you know what’s going on. Over the last week we’ve been working on a list, we’ve been checking it twice, and today we found out who was naughty or nice. Ban Hammer Claus just came to town. When the servers come back online, nearly 16,000 accounts will have been removed from the game. If your account was banned, please read the following FAQ.”

Beegle lists several different reasons why players may find themselves booted, but reiterates that they “are taking a very hard stance on this issue and do have sophisticated processes and procedures in place that help [them] keep unwarranted banning to a minimum.”

Source: Aion Forums via Kotaku Australia

As October starts coming to a close, one thing tends to be on every one’s mind, Halloween. This spooky holiday also seems to have NCsoft captivated . The developer/producer is planning Halloween themed events across all six of its active Western titles.

The world of Guild Wars will see the return of the Mad King Thorn. Lineage II players are going to have to deal with Scarecrow Jack. Gamers who are still playing the first Lineage will be treated to a costume party. The City of Heroes is going to have to unite against a Halloween Apocalypse. The Mechnaughts of Exteel are getting a spooky orange and purple paint scheme. In NCsoft’s newest title Aion, the Asmodians will host a Wild hunt, where as the Elyos have to stave off a zombie invasion.

To get a more detaiedl description of each event, hit the jump.

Aion – Harvest Revel

During the Fall harvest, the people of Atreia have always celebrated the bounty of the land. Years ago, the joy of the annual revels was troubled by an eclipse-a peculiar and magical eclipse that brought darkness to Asmodae and Elysea. Ever since, for days during Harvest Revel, the sky goes dark and the people of Atreia join in the hunt.

Asmodians celebrate the bounty through the Wild Hunt, racing after the Wild Kurthanir hunt leader and cooking special dishes made from the meat. On the other side of Atreia, the Elyos encounter undead creatures pulled back into a semblance of life by the power of the eclipse. Elyos must join roving Dark Night bands to hunt and destroy the undead before they invade Elyos villages.

Each day during Harvest Revel players will be rewarded for their investment with new lore and tasty treats including a Halloween Hat and candy that will transform players into in game creatures!

· Starts: Sunday, October 25, 2009

· Ends: Saturday, October 31, 2009

Visit www.aiononline.com for more Aion-specific information.

Guild Wars – The Return of Mad King Thorn

It’s Halloween in Tyria, and that means one thing: the return of Mad King Thorn ! Similar to years past, the maniacal monarch has come to play, and he’s got a bag full of tricks and treats to delight and dismay. But non-tricksters fear not, there are plenty of ways to celebrate Halloween – participate in several special events (a new series of quests and a costume PvP brawl) or explore the decorated cities/towns adorned with Halloween décor.

· Starts: Friday, October 23, 2009

· Ends: Monday, November 2, 2009

Visit www.guildwars.com for more Guild Wars information.

City of Heroes – Triumph over the New Deadly Halloween Apocalypse

Players brace themselves for a new apocalypse as City of Heroes’ annual Halloween Event returns with legions of Zombies, Werewolves, Jack-o-Lanterns, and other foul denizens descend upon Paragon City and the Rogue Isles. This year they’re bringing even more powerful allies! The new apocalypse is deadlier than ever as mysterious monstrosities join forces with the Eidolons, Shivans, and others. Paragon City and the Rogue Isles are in terrible peril, and only the greatest Heroes and Villains can turn back the tide. The greater the challenge, the greater the reward!

· Starts: Tuesday, October 20, 2009

· Ends: Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Visit www.cityofheroes.com for more City of Heroes information.

Lineage II – “Scarecrow Jack” and Halloween Adena Art Contest

Halloween is just around the corner and players can win in-game prizes by showing off their creative holiday spirit. Players are encouraged to create and share their Halloween and/or autumn themed adena art (visual art created by dropping adena on the ground in-game to create an image seen from above.) For those just looking to have fun this Halloween, players can don a “Scarecrow Jack” illusion featuring two animated emotes. Along with the illusion, players will receive 5 revita pops to refill their vitality bars while in game.

· Starts: Wednesday, October 28, 2009

· Ends: Thursday, November 19, 2009

· Deadline for art submissions is Saturday, October 31, 2009 at 11:59pm CDT

Visit www.lineage2.com for more Lineage II information.

Lineage – ” Cavern of Chaos” Costume Party

The Lineage team is hosting the in-game party of all parties this Halloween – costumes not required, but highly encouraged! In addition to free polymorph “costumes,” most monsters will drop pumpkin seed, which is redeemable for prizes like a Pinewand to spawn monsters of choice, accessories, and Stat t-shirts from NPCs. No tricks about it, as an added bonus, players will be treated to increased item drops from Bosses. See you at the “Cavern of Chaos!”

· Starts: Wednesday, October 28, 2009

· Ends: Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Visit www.lineage.com for more Lineage information.

Exteel – Halloween Event

Smashing pumpkins and bag snatching is easy! Try picking on a Mechanaught your own size, even if it is painted Orange and Purple! Exteel players are encouraged to celebrate this Halloween colorfully with free Orange and Purple paint. But that’s not all! Players will receive +50% bonus credits during the week-long Exteel Halloween celebration!

· Starts: Wednesday, October 28, 2009

· Ends: Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Visit www.exteel.com for more Exteel information.”

Alt Source: Kotaku.com

Reviewing an MMO is like taking a ride in a supercar. It’s fun at first. Everything is all shiny and new. Promotional material is glossy, promising to provide you with everything you need for an amazing experience. You step in, boot things up and take a ride. It is fun. It does seem to meet its promises. You walk away feeling a little bit giddy and hopeful.

But then reality sinks in. After a few experiences you start to realise that it’s not everything you thought it would be. It performs, but not in the ways that you want it to. Little issues creep up, you pretend to ignore them because, god, it just looks so gorgeous and it handles so well. But there is something missing, an element, a factor that was apparent in the others you tried and ended up enjoying. It’s not bad by any means of the word, but it’s different.

It’s lucky them, if World of Warcraft is the Bugatti Veyron, Aion is the Ferrari Enzo of MMOs.

If you are reading this review, you are possibly one of two gamer sub-types. The first; the veteran. The seasoned MMO player, (ex or current), curious from the hype, deliriously bored of playing the same raids or simply filling time during maintenance. You want raw data. The second; the casual. You like a new experience and the screenshots looked pretty cool. In any case, both parties have most likely have indulged in “the grind”, thus, we’ll skip the introductory appetizer and go straight to the main course.

Aion is not a World of Warcraft killer. It’s not designed to be, it doesn’t try to be and, most importantly, it doesn’t need to be. It’s already established itself as a successful franchise throughout most of developed Asia for the past year or so, and the product that’s hit our western shores is simply a localised version of that finished product. As a result, most of the cultural aspects that tend to exclude western players have been modified or toned down, although it’s essentially just an overall polish.

Aion is set within a world that has been literally torn in half, spawning two separate races, forced to evolve in order to survive on the ragged environments that have befallen them. Civilisation’s split has formed a nasty civil war, but the introduction of a common enemy has forced the foes to unite in order to save what’s left of their chaotic existence. It’s an interesting setting, pushed forward by a genuinely compelling story told through quest dialogue, cutscenes and the odd interactive instance.

The player chooses a side, a class, and becomes set on a path to greatness. As tends to be the trend in modern MMO’s, the character creation element is vastly superior to World of Warcraft’s. The ability to customise every element, from height and build, to hair and eye colour genuinely allows your avatar to break free from common conventions, along with the ability to die and customise gear to suit. It’s possible to recognise your friends just from appearance, which is a nice change from the identical clones that tend to populate most games in the genre.

Choosing a class, unfortunately, isn’t really that interesting. You have your bog standard tank, dps (ranged/melee), and healer. The class you choose will be expanded (or restricted) to a second sub class at level 10. Just like most MMO’s, you need to be careful what you choose. Most classes play almost identically as they would in any other title, with the exception of Clerics (Healers) being able to eventually wear chainmail. Thus, making Mages the physically weakest class. This is made up via some decent spells, along with other strengths and weaknesses for class balance.

Gameplay strings back to the conventional MMO playbook. Aion doesn’t decide to break the chain or develop a complex method for combat or player interaction. The game was developed to be simple to learn, and difficult to master. You visit NPCs to get quests, you kill things for experience, loot and quest items. But at the same time, there are a few tweaks to add some new tactics to play.

The first is Ascension. At level 10, your character ascends to a new plane of existance, becoming superhuman. As a result, you are given wings and the ability to fly. With limitations. First of all, you can only fly in certain areas, and for a certain amount of time. The time limit can be extended with items and buffs, but essentially (in open areas) it’s a bit of a gimmick. The general purpose of the wings are for end game, where there are no time limits and raid tactics require them, thus your leveling simply pushes you to get used to using them.

Ascension also allows you to choose a sub-class. All I can say is, choose carefully. Your subclass determines your place in battle for the rest of the game, and while your choices are clearly laid out for you, it’s disappointing that there is no ability to reset later in the game. Once of the few pleasures in WoW is resetting your talent tree, giving providing you with a different avenue of play. In any case, all of the usual advanced classes are there, so those of you who love having pets or aoe spamming abilities will not be left unsatisfied.

Generally, the improvements to the stalwarts of MMO play are a culmination of intense study of game elements that have worked previously well in other titles, along with amalgamations of successful mods and UI improvements. Quests contain hyperlinks that provide extra information on points, or quick locations on the map of directives. Additionally, tasks are automatically logged and categorised, making it easy to keep track. The minimap shows NPC and mob locations along with threat radiuses.

Auction houses are still around, and work the same way. Some improvements to the search and catagorisation of items are needed, although this could be simply due to the sheer amount of junk items that have been added in early play. What Aion provides as a nice alternative to the AH in the form of a private store. At the drop of a hat, any player can setup public shop, anywhere (safe) and sell their wares. What seems like a nice touch quickly becomes irritating, due to the sheer amount of store spam that plagues any starting/spawning area. NCSoft have solved this with a 30minute limit, but whether this is a reasonable solution is yet to be known.

Combat leaves nothing to the imagination, although it is very crisp, stunning to watch and fun to play. Skills are originally setup on the standard keypad numerical system, but the addition of “chains” allows things to be mixed up somewhat. In this system, spells/skills can be linked together, one after the other, in a quick combo succession, allowing fluid and ridiculously fast battles. The only problem is that it’s almost completely dependant on a low ping, high framerate situation; a situation many mmo regulars can agree doesn’t always find itself happening.

As a result, the real-time basis of battle (there are few cooldowns between actions) can backfire since enemies can attack in similarily swifty succession. There were times where a small “stab” of latency knocked me flat on my dead back within seconds. Which leads me to death. Death isn’t cheap in Aion, along with travel, items and pretty much everything else. You need to buy experience back that was lost on death, you need to pay for teleports, flight paths and so on. It can be frustrating to find the money you gained on a tough quest quickly wittled down paying for the items and travel you used to complete it.

The other issue that plagues combat, and gameplay in general, is the grind. The lovely grind. From around level 15 on, you’ll notice that quests alone aren’t going to hit the spot, nor cover the rising costs of battle, thus the epic mining of mobs will become your world. I found, in comparison to other MMOs, that the grind in Aion was relatively comparative. While slightly excessive in some areas, playing with friends made the experience less horrific and the fast pace of combat, and along with the relatively high exp gain from most mobs, quicker than in other games which discourage the practise.

To help ease the monotony of the grind, players are allowed to engage in world pvp at level 20 with the “rift” system. Every so often, an entry and exit portal for the enemy faction’s mirrored area will open, allowing raid groups to either invade enemy territory, or stay back and defend their city. Rift pvp is simply a blast: as soon as a portal opens, there are hundreds of frenzied players shouting in chat “where’s the portal?!?!?” Players are extremely friendly during this time, encouraging people to create huge parties to take down enemy forces: as an added bonus, you also gain experience, and acquire a number of rift quests!

Aion has a level cap of 50, but the beginning of “End Game” content begins at 25 where players are invited to enter “The Abyss”, the epic battleground where the 3 sides battle for glory and, well, Abyss points. These points acrue to provide Legions (guilds) with status and ranking, along with special items, ranks and so forth. Unfortunately, the sheer time required to level prevented me from reaching this point by the time of publishing, but we will be providing an detailed insight to this portion of the game within the next month.

But I can’t conclude this review until I mention the breathtaking aesthetics. Basically, the game is absolutely gorgeous. Built on a heavy modified version of the CryEngine, what has been produced is a scaleable, fluid and completely sexy plethora of colour, detail and awe. Everything looks amazing. Armour, weapons, magic effects, wild boars, hell, even a slimy swamp monster looks enthralling. Those of you with medium based PC’s need not worry, the game runs well on nearly every system we tested it on.

Aion may not the new messiah, but it’s certainly an alternative for those who haven’t been all that satisfied with other titles in the genre. It’s a polished, complete, interesting, graphically breathtaking example  that proves other companies can develop intuitive and playable MMOs. It doesn’t re-write the rulebook nor introduce generational change, but it does make other failed contenders (Warhammer Online, Age of Conan) look like mauled, decaying animals in comparison. If you’re looking for something new to suck up all of your spare time, then you could do a lot worse then Aion.

Every so often, an addictive game comes along and swallows us whole. For some, it’s Call of Duty: World at War’s zombie mode. For others, it’s Wii Sports Resort, and for the few, the proud, and the nerdy, its a little ol’ genre known as MMOs.

These games come and go by the droves. They range from sci-fi to fantasy; from free to play to $15 a month; from casual to hardcore; and from a full $50 entry cost to browser based affairs. But all of them have one thing in common: they’re timesinks. For the socially sane, MMOs are squeezed in after work, and before dinner with the kids, or after the wife goes to sleep (cough, cough). Should you choose to take the road less traveled and let an MMO dominate your life, say goodbye to your significant other, your social life, and your job.

So who is the new kid in town? What devilish fiend is attempting to lure you into his van with candy, and take you on a vacation that never ends? This month, its NCSoft’s Aion.

What is Aion?

Aion: The Tower of Eternity is a new fantasy based massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMO), made with the CryEngine (Far Cry), and published by NCSoft, who has managed a myriad of hit or miss games, ranging from the heralded City of Heroes to the dead and buried Tabula Rasa.

NCSoft is currently charging $50 for the game, and $14.99 per month to play, with discounts offered if you commit to three, six, or twelve months.

What are your choices for your personal avatar?

Well, unlike typical role playing games, you’re not going to get a whole lot of choices when it comes to your race. You can either be the angelic Elyos, or the demonic Asmodians. So basically, you can pick the flamboyant pansies (win), or the complete and total badass death bringing devils. Whenever you meet an opposing faction member, you will always be able to kill them, and every enemy level shows up as a “??” on your HUD.

Where Aion fails in racial diversity, it succeeds in customization. Want to make Barack Obama? You can! Want to make yourself? Provided you have the self confidence, you can do that too! If you happen to be me, you can live out your fantasy of looking like a J-Rocker.

Just like Bethesda’s Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, every cosmetic facet is fully customizable, from your chin size, to whether or not your ears are elf-worthy. For once, I actually think I succeeded in making four completely different looking characters.

Class-wise, Aion has just about everything you could want, sans hybrids. You can play your typical damage soaking tank, damage dealing warrior, arrow shooting ranger, elusive assassin, nuke heavy sorceror, pet-based spiritmaster, the always popular healer, or the black sheep of the pack: the Chanter (the supportive bard).

How does the game look, and how impressive is the overall design?

Without reservation, I consider Aion to be the best looking MMO I’ve ever seen. The set pieces are absolutely gorgeous, and every area has a unique feel to it.

The CryEngine really does wonders for the MMO genre. Rather than talk about how amazing it looks, I’d rather just serve you up some screenshots, fresh off the burner.

Get to the point, man! What’s the gimmick?

Sadly, all MMOs released in the shadow of World of Warcraft need some sort of marketing gimmick: something unique to differentiate themselves from the pack. Well, Aion has flight, and ladies and gentlemen, Howard Hughes would be proud.

I’ve heard complaints from outside audiences that the flight system doesn’t look authentic. Here’s a video I made that I believe will speak for itself.

To be frank, I’ve never had as much fun in an MMO as Aion, and a large part of that is due to the flight system. Sometimes I’ll find myself on a gigantic hill, with my objective some five hundred feet below. In a standard MMO, I’d have to hoof it, but in Aion its no problem, as you can glide indefinitely! Instead of lazily taking the elevator, I always opt to take flight (it’s there, why not use it!).

Small note: the initial starting areas are light on areas where you can engage in full flight, and right when you earn your wings, you can fly for a limited time of sixty seconds, which is off putting. Through upgrades, which are essentially “mount” purchases, you can upgrade your flight time, and later areas offer more flight opportunities, but Abyss pvp always offers full flight.

Is it fun: or better yet, is the combat system involved?

Simply put, combat in Aion is much more involved than your standard MMO. To use World of Warcraft as an example, I would use two, maybe three abilities to level from 1-70 (forgive me, I quit before Wrath of the Lich King’s 80 cap).

Aion is a bit more robust, as I already had eight viable abilities very early on in the game playing a spiritmaster, partially because the game requires you to to make pet commands manually rather than put them on an auto-cast system. Plus, every character gets a limit break ability that can be used every so often, just to mix things up a bit.

Aion also benefits from a “combo system”, that encourages you to use lower abilities to “activate” stronger, more useful abilities. For instance, if I were to use the first ability-based sword attack as a warrior, I’d have the option to use a more ferocious strike for a few seconds, while the opponent is reeling.

Combat can take place either in flight or on the ground, but either way, its a blast. At its heart, its still an MMO, which means you’re going to be standing in place a lot, but if you have simplicity reservations, expect to push a lot of different buttons.

Is it grindy? Also known as “is it fun to level?”

Is it fun to actually level up? Well, yes, but I say this hesitantly, because at times, it can get monotonous. I was extremely pleased to find out that Aion was very much grind-free until level 22 or so, but I’ll get to that in a second.

From level 1-10, all of your time will be spent becoming accustomed to the fantastic world of Atreia, and earning your wings. There are an abundance of quests, and not just “kill 10 boars” (Southpark anyone?) and other such derivatives. In fact, you may find that when it comes time to ascend (earn your wings, and subsequently become a true citizen of Aion) that you have a ton of extra quests left over.

Aion also benefits from the “story quest system”: a trait that it shares with fellow competitor Lord of the Rings Online. Unique to very few MMOs, Aion actually makes an attempt to weave a cohesive story, and it simply works. You’ll learn the inner workings of rebellious organizations, and become connected to the plot at large. As time goes on, harder quests that require balanced groups will arise, and you’ll need to (gasp!) cooperate with other human players to move on.

So what’s the problem with later levels? Once you hit level 22, the game stops holding your hand. Quest hubs become more obscure, and only a few story quests are available until level 25. Once you hit the glorious two-five, however, Abyss-Arena PVP, dungeon instances, and a whole heap of other options open up to you. To make up for it, you get experience for gathering materials, and for PVP, which is always a plus.

Bottom line: you have been warned! While I was able to get my third character from 1-10 in two hours, level 22-23 stole 8 hours of my life that I cannot take back!

Is there end-game content?

Here’s the meat and potatoes question! Frankly, this is all I look for in a serious MMO. I didn’t really start playingWorld of Warcraft until The Burning Crusade was out, and end-game raid content was a top priority. Just likeVanilla World of Warcraft, Aion is a bit light on the end-game content side, with only a few raid-size dungeons to offer, which may turn off some.

Max level in Aion is 50, and early reports are coming in that it would take around 10 days of straight play to reach this milestone. To give you something to compare it to, in World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade (which has a maximum level of 70), I reached 70 on my third character in 6 days knowing what I was doing, and with little dilly dallying.

On the pvp side of things, rifts are a really unique addition to Aion that really help spice up gameplay. Upon receiving a message that a gateway has opened up, the entire area will go into a sudden state of panic, as your opposing faction now has access to your land.

“Rift parties”, consisting of any number of members will start forming, and all hell breaks loose. The biggest reason why I enjoy rifts is because it forces world pvp, and considering you get experience and gear points for it, its definitely worthwhile. But, if you’re the type who finds world pvp too taxing, and enjoy some good old fashioned arena based action, Aion also allows you to enter the Abyss: a giant battleground used entirely for player versus player combat.

The question you don’t want to ask after buying it: will it end up in the MMO graveyard?

From the looks of it, no. NCSoft has recently said that every year they will come out with a major update for Aion, not including forthcoming patches that add extra content and items.

NCSoft has had its ups and downs, but if reports of 3.5 million Asian subscribers are anything to go by with the earlier released Asian client, Aion is an early success.

I hope to see you in Atreia!

It seems like NCSoft was quick to act in regards to their launch day jitters, as a new patch is set to go live today that will address the main queue blockage problem: private vendors refusing to log off, and simply setting up a player-made shop to avoid being booted from the game indefinitely.

The new patch sees to it that if you leave a private shop up for more than 30 minutes, you’ll automatically be logged out of the game.

This was a big problem for users who had school, work, or other obligations, as they were torn between either logging out, or leaving their computer on overnight setting up a fake shop, which only added to the problem! It’s nice to see NCSoft committed to Aion’s US release: and why shouldn’t they be? Early reports are coming in that Aion already has 3.5 million subscribers, so they’d better stay on their toes should more issues like this arise!

I can personally confirm on my server, US East-Marchutan, that there are no queues anymore (before the patch, I had them), and considerably less private shops scattered about capital cities.

[Update 9/27/09: I just got a queue last night to the tune of 45 minutes on US East-Marchutan, and multiple Gamer Limit community memebers are reporting the same thing. While they may not be as long as the seven hour queues on launch day, there'll still there]

Aion already appears to be getting off to questionable start, not only with our previously reported epic queues, but now players are being banned for merely joking about gold sales.

Below is a copy/paste of the email banned Aion player Redmoons sent us.

I managed to log on one of the low population servers as soon as they brought it online, played for about 45 minutes, then when I hit level 5 (the level you need to use the regional chat), I joined in a conversation about the future of the game. I made a somewhat antagonizing remark to someone who said they would be buying kinah as soon as it became available, as if I was a gold farmer. I typed “YOU WANT BUY MIRRION GOLD? 1 MIRRION GOLD FIVE US DORRA” or something stupid along those lines, and got some ‘lols’ from people who clearly knew I was kidding. We talked about how full the chinese servers were of bots, and how chat was flooded 24/7 by gold sellers on asian servers. I said it would probably be a day or two before they started spamming chat and botting in US release, and then two minutes later I was booted from the game, and greeted by that message when I tried to join again.

Redmoons noticed and I confirmed,  that if you do try to call the support number listed, you are answered by a not-so nice sounding fax machine. I’m guessing they either put the wrong phone number there, or phone support is non-existent.

Abuse of power, or just over-zealous community protection?

Well, Aion is technically here, and it’s not looking good so far. The official forums are flooded with complaints over insanely large queues for an event that was supposed to allow people that pre-ordered the game to play two days early with a pre-claimed character.

While this is fairly typical of MMOs (and this isn’t even technically a true launch), it seems like NCSoft wasn’t able to meet the initial demand despite pre-order and pre-registration statistics they had far in advance. Whether this problem will carry over to launch day come this Tuesday is yet to be seen.

Is this really just a case of hyper-active MMO junkies who want their quick fix? Possibly. As a former WoW player, even I had queue issues two to three years into launch, which only really was a problem when I was booted out of a raid (!), but they were never this long .

As most of the MMO players amongst you know, the recently Westernized Aion opens its servers for pre-purchased customers on September 20 (tomorrow!) for North American, Australian and New Zealand players.

It was announced a few days ago that NCSoft had decided to listen to the large Oceanic community and create a server with a GMT+10 timezone, so AU/NZ/SP players could participate in events and endgame raid schedules! The server, Nezekan, is currently available for character selection and will be active on launch.

A couple of members from the local Aion Oceanic community have asked us to spread the word – If you’re an Aussie, choose Nezekan!

Unfortunately, the server list on launch will not list Nezekan as an Oceanic server, due to the previous retail patch being finalized before the final decision regarding the server was made. As a result, new players will see the server marked as a standard “West”, although this will be patched to the new title within 2 weeks.

Still deciding on whether to join the Aion hype? Check out our beta preview here. Need something more substantial? Watch this space for our comprehensive Aion Review, coming within the next month (we like to be thorough).

Every six months or so, hardcore World of Warcraft players anxiously await their new lord and savior: an up-and-coming MMO to deliver them from their addiction. Unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of these games, despite their unbelievable hype as the “great hope” fail miserably. As a former WoW raider, I remember Age of Conan and Warhammer’s promises of a better virtual world that were never fulfilled.

Aion, the newest MMO on the block, promises exciting gameplay and a beautiful visual style. Oh yea, and you can fly. Is it everything its cracked up to be? Read my impressions of the beta, and find out.

Click for a larger look at the backstory between the two races

Aion takes place in the magical world of Atreia. If you’re a Greek mythology enthusiast, think of Arcadian, idyllic landscapes. The story of Aion draws many parallels from Christian creation stories: some time ago, the god Aion created a servant race called the Balaur, who later rebelled against their maker.

A great war broke out, and severed the world in two.  The Elyos (angels) are creatures of beauty, and residents of the lower half of the world. The Asmodians, the inhabitants of the upper world, weren’t so lucky. Their world was cursed, and due to many years of traversing the land, their features evolved into a beast-like state.

There are four classes to choose from when you start your journey

When you create your character, you can choose between the Elyos and the Asmodians, and select one of four classes: mage, priest, scout, and warrior. All of these play out exactly how they sound, so don’t get confused! The beauty of this simple selection system is that you’re able to choose your favorite role hassle free, and branch out into a more advanced class later.

Once you hit level 10, you’re allowed to choose one of two advanced, specializations: for instance, my character started as a Mage, but became a Spiritmaster (Warlock). It was a bit too early to judge, but I could already see the incredibly Eastern, anime character design apparent in Aion. For starters, my character looks a bit like Sepiroth from Final Fantasty 7 with robes (which is totally awesome).

Magnalon triumphantly makes his debut

As with every MMO, you start off in the “noob” zone killing defenseless animals. Except this time, it looked beautiful. In World of Warcraft, the only starting area I particularly enjoyed was the woods of the Night Elf island of Teldrassil, but Aion’s Poeta brought back a lot of those fond memories.

Everything is just so detailed, and fun to look at. You won’t have any trouble navigating about anywhere, because the quest givers are clearly marked on your map as well. Overall, the first 10 minutes were some of the most enjoyable moments I’ve spent playing an MMO. You also get a trusty teleport relic that allows you to return to a location you have visited, and chosen to be “your spot”.

The mage really enjoys his literature. Your book is your weapon: it shoots fireballs!

The first town you encounter on your journey is bustling with player activity. In Aion, you can set up your own shop, Ultima Online style. I’ve noticed that players of Aion are particularly driven. No one is really stands around like in other MMOs, despite the fact that there are a ton of people on the server. I checked out other people’s goods, and found most of the prices to be fair.

Gamers will help run the economy of Aion by picking herbs and mining for ore, and selling it in the game’s towns, creating their own bazaar-like experience. It’s always a treat to find a real life traveling merchant as well if you’re low on supplies out there in the field. You’d think that with all these people running around, it would be hard to share quest space: luckily, that’s not really the case.

Get the Aion Times here! 1 gold! Click for a bigger view.

Quests are pretty easy going in Aion. To ease the pain, there’s a quest helper/locator built in to the game, which, as MMO veterans know, is a time-saver. If you ever need help with most of the quests in the game, you can click a proper name in your quest log and a purple X will mark your objective on your map. You can also choose to open a translucent map overlay on your game screen.

The quests themselves are pretty straightforward, with some non-typical fare mixed in. You have your standard “kill 10 boars”, “collect 10 plants”, and “deliver this message” quests, but you also get some pretty fun ones like “trick the lord of the forest into giving you the gift of past sight”, which allows you to revisit your past, and participate in a flashback of the great war. Aion has a lot of short cut-scenes thrown in, similar to the ones Blizzard added to Sunwell and Wrath of the Lich King.

Here’s a world-view of the lower half of Atreia. Click for a bigger view.

Aion’s title system is a pretty cool expansion on World of Warcraft’s. In these two games, you can recieve special titles, such as “Lord of Demon Slaying” for completing certain questlines and objectives.  In WoW, these titles would just make you look cooler, but in Aion, they grant you certain statistical bonuses.

I’ve never had a tougher decision in a game than choosing whether or not to use the “Tree Hugger” title just to gain a few HP! Simply put, Aion shines because of its little “extras” that it offers. The user inferface is very intitutive, and allows for full customization, including the ability to move menus around wherever you’d like.

Time to burninate this bug.

Combat is more fun than most MMOs I have ever played. Aside from Age of Conan’s active counter battle system, most MMOs are a fairly boring affair when it comes to actually fighting enemies. In Aion, there is a special chain system that alleviates some of the monotony faced when powering through those long grinding sessions. When you cast a basic fireball spell, you can chain it into a higher, similar spell for more damage. Even at an insanely low level, I was chaining together a knockback ice bolt to freeze my target, using a leech spell to damage him over time (called a “dot”), immobilizing him with a hold spell, and burning him with a chain fireball.

When starting my Warlock in World of Warcraft, I just spammed shadowbolt for the entirety of my early levels, and did just fine. Aion’s combat complexity excels even further when you start dabbling in the advanced classes: especially sorcery. Veteran Aion plays contend that sorcery is one of the most advanced classes you can choose in any MMO, combat wise. After learning the ropes, I was able to fight my way through Poeta’s questline and seal the demonic portal that was spilling creatures into the realm. I earned a new title, and was told I was ready to become accepted into the inner circles of the Elyos, and earn my wings.

The scenery is breathtaking.

Finally, I had saved Poeta, and ascended into the angelic city of Sanctum. It was time to earn my wings. At level ten, you can only just glide, and engage in flight for a short amount of time. As you level up, your flight capabilities increase, and you’re able to engage in aerial combat. After hearing everyone buzz about how fun flying was in this game, I had high expectations. I was very satisfied with my first few minutes experimenting with gliding, and I expect it to be an incredibly fun experience at later levels.

Sanctum itself was a sight: it’s one of the most jaw dropping locales I’ve ever seen (I’m also a sucker for floating landmasses).

Finally, time to earn my wings!

This was a pretty basic rundown of how Aion’s style and early level gameplay through the eyes of an Elyos. I will bring you more in-depth coverage when the next beta event is scheduled. For those who are interested, this beta isn’t open to press only:  you can reserve Aion now at Gamestop, and get into the beta yourself. The closed beta event dates are July 17th to July 19th, July 31st to August 3rd, and August 14th to August 16th. The full retail version is set to ship September 22nd, 2009. I hope to see you in the next event!

Haven’t heard that much about Obama lately, eh? Well that’s about to change.

No, Obama doesn’t play Aion, the new MMO in town, but someone is definitely a fan. In all seriousness, though, Aion looks like a pretty awesome game.

I henceforth dub this game “Wow with Wings”. With the Commander-In-Chief in charge, will WoW finally be stripped of the Championship Belt? Find out in Fall 2009, when the “Title” match is scheduled to occur (Aion’s US release date).