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Publisher: NCSoft
Developer: NCSoft
System requirements: Windows XP SP2 or Vista, 2.8 GHz CPU; ATI x700 or NVIDIA 5900 Ultra graphics card with 128MB RAM or higher; 1 GB RAM; 15 GB hard-drive space.
Genre: MMO
Release date: Available now
When I first learned that I was going to be reviewing Aion, I was a little worried. Writing about an MMO is a difficult task, because even small ones are always too enormous to fully experience; it’s just too easy to leave out something important. I was also trying to figure out how to avoid comparing Aion to World of Warcraft. Finally, I decided not to fight the inevitable.
A world of swords and magic, Atreia is actually two separate worlds, or rather two pieces of a world that was destroyed by a cataclysm. People live on the inside of what was once a hollow planet. Since the sphere shattered, humans of both halves have evolved to be physically different. In between the opposing forces is a space called the Abyss, which is home to the world’s former masters (and now banished demons), the Balaur. The lore is too vast to relate here, but the important part is that both factions fight against each other and against the Balaur.
 Starting the game, you select a faction (the differences are cosmetic) and a class. There are four starting classes, with each splitting into two at level 10 (for example, a warrior becomes either a gladiator or a templar). As in most MMOs, you go off adventuring either by yourself or in a group. There are zones, monsters, quests, items, crafting, etc. PvP begins playing a more prominent role as you level up, but I haven’t had a chance to engage in it.
Aion feels a lot like WoW in the sense that the two games’ interfaces and mechanics are pretty much identical. But Aion offers a whole slew of minor improvements. For example, if you command your mage to cast a spell on a creature while out of range, he’ll run towards it and stop exactly at the maximum distance. There is a built-in encyclopedia, which is very useful in keeping you up to date on lore as well as locations of things you need to find. The video tutorial is also a nice touch. Another impressive item is the in-game survey system, which is used by developers to gather your input on existing features and recent changes. Also, at some point you will ascend to become a Daeva, a being with divine powers. One such power is the ability to fly for a period of time. Not every zone in the game allows flight, but some require it. Be careful, though; your time in the air is limited, and before long you’ll have to land and rest or risk falling to your death. The good news is that your ascension happens very early in the game, at around the same time when you leave the newbie area and progress from your initial class to a more specialized one.
 Aion is very pretty. It looks a little bit like Guild Wars, which is not surprising since it was created by the same company. Personally I prefer the art direction in WoW, but plenty of people would disagree. Certainly in terms of polygon counts, texture resolutions and visual effects, Aion is leaps and bounds above its competitors. Controls are identical to WoW, and although I’m not a big fan of how the ability cooldowns are implemented, I concede that this too is a matter of personal preference. One issue, however, I feel is a genuine problem: The inability to opt out of PvP means that if an enemy is near, nothing can prevent them from attacking you.
Assigning a grade to an MMO is an excruciatingly painful task. I’ve spent hours trying to come to some sort of a reasonable conclusion. As far as I’m concerned, World of Warcraft is a 4-star game, and since I like it a bit better than Aion, I’m inclined to give the latter a 3. On the other hand, I’ve played WoW for years and am too used to it to remain objective. Just because I happen to prefer something else doesn’t mean Aion is bad; in fact, it’s better in many aspects. I can see how someone could give it a 4 or even a 5. This is a matter of personal taste, plain and simple. The only thing I can definitely suggest is to give Aion a try and judge for yourself.
Our Score: 
Our Recommendation: 
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Looks really cool. I think was good idea, that controls are identical to so popular game like World of Warcraft. Maybe Aion will be alternative for World of Warcraft. I read that is best game of 2009. Some guy of the Aion Fanlisting fame used some great programming skills to help the Aion community. Presenting a unique plug-in for those of you using Firefox to browse the internet – Aionfox
I have played this game for three months, and I agree with the review. However the reviewer did not touch base enough about the one thing this game is based on. NCSoft has advertised this game as PvPvE. Meaning blending PvP and PvE together. I have experienced everything there is to experience in this game, and can say that the PvP element is not present. Yes, you cannot opt to change the status of being flaged for PvP ever, which has been regretably frustrating for those being under attack by Packs of enemy players. The term I’m using for this is Ganking. It happens way too often in this game and many people have complained and left for this reason. It is but only one flaw in a sea of many in my opinion for this game. There are many many complaints from players for many different reasons. As you level up to the mid and higher levels things only get worse I’m afraid. It makes the PvE part increasingly frustrating to deal with ganking. There are no Battlegrounds as in World of Warcraft. No Arenas either. It’s all open PvP and you can be ganked anytime. While resting, or fighting another NPC. Usually they wait and attack at these moments. Its never a fair fight, and almost never the same level Player as yourself. It’s almost always a higher level Player or a Pack of higher level players attacking you while you try to level up your character. I can honestly say I did not enjoy this game after reaching level 25, and quite just before i hit level 30. As I said there were other reasons aswell for me leaving the game, but this was one of them. I invite anyone to read the forums at Aion’s main site and see for yourself. It’s full of people complaining and stating that they are frustrated and leaving for whatever reason. I realize this may all sound negative, but honestly, Aion is very pretty on the outside, and very ugly on the inside. Now, some may not feel this way, but from what I’ve experienced and what many others have experienced, I’ve come to that conclusion. More have dropped and left this game than picked up and still love this game. It is Observation, and I have no stats to show the decline since release, however the voices from the players complaints are very evident, and too hard to ignore when there are so many of them.
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