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This MMORPG might look like a World of Warcraft copycat, but there's more going on here than
meets the glazed-over eye of a cynic. It's got PvPvE which kicks your old school
PvP/PvE in the butt, incredibly flexible character customization, and instead of
some lousy mount at level 20, you get freaking wings at level 10.
"What the hell is PvPvE?" you ask. It's exactly what it sounds like: you're a
player fighting a player fighting an environment. The crux of Aion lore is that
the world has been split in two and there are three factions warring for
control. The Eylos are the "light" guys (bright colors, sparkling costumes,
angel wings) and the Asmodians are the "dark" guys (bruise-colored skin,
glow-in-the-dark costumes, shaggy wings). These are the two factions you can
choose from in the game and the third faction, the Balaur, is entirely
AI-controlled. So while you're Eylos fighting Asmodian, you're also fighting the
Balaur and so are the Asmodians.
The classes are the same for the Eylos and the Asmodians; you start out with
your basic Mage, Priest, Scout, and Warrior. This means that there's no
learning curve if you want to change sides. Eventually, the classes branch off
into two sub-sections that are either ranged or melee (Scout becomes Assassin or
Ranger, etc).
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When you hit level 10, the real game gets going. You go through the
"Ascension" and gain godlike powers and wings with which to fly around like a
badass. (However badass you are, though, mind your 60 second flight gauge or
you'll do a lot more falling than flying). After getting your wings, it's off to
the Abyss to experience PvPvE firsthand.
It was the wings that won me over, WoW doesn't have anything quite like them,
even if it does have battle zones that look like the Abyss what with the purple
and the lighting and stuff. I was too busy flying around (plummeting to my
death) to actually fight in the Abyss, but I did do a lot of fighting on the
ground. As with all MMOs (don't even pretend otherwise), the early levels are
all about fetch quests and map exploration. I stabbed flowers, collected rat
butts, and shanked grave robbers for a good twenty minutes before it dawned on
me that while the combat system might look prettier than some, it's the same
damn select-attack-hot-key-spell-wait-for-cool-down-attack pattern I've seen
since EverQuest II.
You know what they say, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
The other thing that stood out for me was the character customization. I'm
used to dragging sliders back and forth and seeing barely any change in my
character (unless it's a boob slider, those changes are always visible); so I
was shocked when I dragged the height slider down and my character actually got
smaller. Then I bumped up her hips, legs and torso sliders and she actually got
fatter instead of a bigger version of skinny! I picked a random face model and
suddenly had the option to open up a face modification window; wherein I made
her look like the bastard child of Katherine Hepburn and Tinkerbell if such a
thing were possible. The customization is so detailed that other journalists
were making David Bowies. A few of the customization features were MIA (most
notably tattoos), but it looks like NCsoft was serious when they said that there
was no way that any two avatars would ever look exactly alike.
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